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Little House on the Prairie star Jack Lilley has died at the age of 91.
The actor’s granddaughter, Savanah Dawn Lilley, announced the news on Instagram on Thursday, March 20.
“The man who started it all. Figuratively and literally,” she wrote. “The card shark, the horse trader, the wrangler, the man with a story for everything, he always knew someone who could help if he couldn’t, known to many as friend, storyteller, joker, and a heck of a horseman, and his favorite, PAPA.”
Melissa Gilbert, who starred as Laura Ingalls Wilder on the popular Little House series, also paid tribute to her former costar in a heartfelt message on social media.
“The little house family has lost one of our own,” Gilbert, 60, wrote on Instagram on Friday, March 21, revealing her late friend “also happened to be one of my favorite people on the planet.”
According to Gilbert, her former costar taught her how to ride a horse when she was a little girl. “He was so patient with me. He never said no when I would bound up to him squealing, ‘Can we go ride? Please, please, please?'”
She also noted Lilley was a versatile actor who “was featured prominently in many different roles on Little House” during his time on the show, and he previously showcased “his absolute brilliance in the film Blazing Saddles” when it debuted in 1974.
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