Veteran television character actor Kevin Hagen, who left behind a string of Western bad guy roles to become the kindly Dr. Hiram Baker in "Little House on the Prairie," has died. He was 77.

Hagen died at his home here on Saturday a year after being diagnosed with esophageal cancer, his wife, Jan Hagen, said Monday.

Born in Chicago, the son of professional ballroom dancers, Hagen did not start acting until he was 27, by which time he had worked for the U.S. State Department in Germany, earned a degree in international relations from the University of Southern California, and served in the Navy following World War II, his wife said.

After a year of law school at UCLA, Hagen decided to drop out, and try his hand at acting. "I just found it absolutely became part of me," Hagen said of acting in a 2004 interview with the Grants Pass Daily Courier. "It was something I couldn't walk away from. Do it or die."

--Um, did you know there is an entire Doc Baker website? Wow.

Posted by Lawren at July 12, 2005 07:07 AM | Trackbacks (0)

You Said