Today I'm going to share some behind the scenes about Ralph Waite who played our
father John Walton. I loved Ralph and I thought he just
embodied the type of father that everybody would
like to have. We used to - we used to hear people say,
"Well if John Walton ran for president he'd win" - and I can
understand why people said that because he was just such an upstanding character.
Now Ralph himself went through a number of things during the course of
The Waltons. When he first had the audition for The Waltons
he said he really wasn't that interested in doing a tv series. He was
a theater actor and and that was really what he wanted to do and his agent said,
"Well, go do the audition. You know if you get
cast, you do it for a little bit and it'll help finance your theater career."
Because it can be difficult to make a living as a theater actor.
So Ralph went and of course he was marvelous and he did the screen test
with Michael Learned and Richard Thomas and obviously there
was such amazing chemistry between Michael and Ralph
and between Richard and Ralph and Michael that
there is absolutely no doubt about why they cast him.
And I think he was a brilliant choice. Early on in the show
Ralph was an alcoholic during that first season.
And he later said that he quite often was intoxicated during the filming.
He told me and Mary and Kami at a dinner years later that
he one day was filming and he looked at all the kids sitting around
that kitchen table and looking at him and recognizing that he was representing
this wonderful father figure and he felt like
a complete fraud. And that was a turning point for him - he
went to AA and he was sober for the rest of his
life. So in many ways The Waltons really did
change his life for the better. I always loved watching him and Michael
do scenes together. The love that they generated on camera
was just magic and there was really something very special
about John and Olivia on camera. John Walton was a character that had a
real strong moral compass and he was fair.
He was tough. He was understanding. He got frustrated. He cared tremendously -
and those qualities were all very much a part of
Ralph. But in his own unique way he believed in causes and
when something was important to him he would
really go the extra mile. There were times where
he stood up for things that were happening around the set or with crew
members or things like that and I really admired that about him.
After the series he chose to run for Congress
in his area and although he never won I thought he would have made actually a
very wonderful Congressman.
Ralph was actually a minister in real life
and he officiated a couple of the Walton cast
weddings in real life so that was kind of special. I believe
Jon Wamsley when he was married and also I think -
I think Michael's wedding he also officiated that. So that was pretty
special. I was doing a play out in Palm Desert at
one point, and Ralph was living out there, and there was an awards ceremony for the
local theater and some of the cast from the show that
I was doing had been asked to attend this.
and I knew Ralph was going to be there. And I said to
one of the other cast mates that I went to this
awards show with, I said, "When Ralph sees me he's going to look at me
like like he doesn't recognize who I am, and then it'll dawn on him." And sure
enough that's exactly what happened. I said, "Hi Ralph." And he kind of looked at
me blankly and then he went, "Oh! Oh Judy!"
Just one of those little personality quirks, you know, about Ralph.
And he had a terrific sense of humor around the kitchen table when he would
tell off-colored jokes to the children. Or he would sing out of tune. And he
would always get us laughing and that was terrific. I loved doing scenes
with Ralph. He had such simplicity to his work
but he was always so real that it was very easy to work with him.
Michael always said that she felt that her scenes were better because
all she had to do was listen. Ralph was the only member of the adult
cast - grandma, grandpa, mama, daddy and John Boy -
that didn't win an Emmy. And I think that was simply because he fell between
categories. Richard Thomas was always nominated as Best Actor.
Will Geer was nominated as Best Supporting Actor.
So where do you put Ralph? Was he Best Actor? Was he Supporting Actor?
So he was never nominated and I think that is a tragedy. I think he was
so underrated as an actor. Of course Ralph went on to have an
extensive career beyond The Waltons as well -
on a lot of different shows. You catch him on episodes. Or in his
last years when he was on NCIS as Mark Harmon's dad. I thought he was
terrific.
The last time a lot of us were together with Ralph
was a party at Michael Learned's house. And I remember specifically,
us sitting around Michael's living room and Ralph
going around the room and asking each one of us what was happening in our
lives? What we were doing? Were we happy? And it was very profound.
Michael said later she thought perhaps Ralph -
knowing he was ill - wanted that last opportunity to really connect with each
of us. It was a very special evening and
something I will always remember. And it was not
too much after that that we got word about his
passing. And it was losing a family member.
I will miss him always. Thank you for embracing him in your life as John
Walton. He was a very important part of my life
and I'm so glad that he became an important part of
yours as well. I'll be back with more behind the scenes
about The Waltons.