Patty Maloney, ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Actress, Dead at 89

Little House on the Prairie actress Patty Maloney has died.

Her brother, Dave Myrabo, told The Hollywood Reporter that the star passed away on Monday, March 31 at the age of 89, sharing of the 3-foot-11 actress, “for a little person growing up in a big world, she did everything she wanted to do.”

Maloney had suffered a number of health setbacks in recent years, and had been in hospice care in Winter Park, Florida, after suffering “several” strokes over the years, according to Myrabo. Men’s Journal reported that in 2010, the late star was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The condition results in loss of the central vision, per the National Eye Institute, and made it difficult for Maloney to read scripts.

Born in Perkinsville, New York on March 17, 1936, Maloney began her career in the entertainment industry with work in a carnival and with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. She stepped away from performing following her marriage to Chicago painter Joseph Vitek in 1961, but was urged by her friends to return to the entertainment business following his death his 1968.

Maloney went on to work as a puppeteer in 1972’s Fol-de-Po alongside the 3-foot-10 Billy Barty. The two went on to be cast in a pilot for a CBS sitcom called Don’t Call Us in 1976, and later worked alongside one another in the Wizard of Oz feature Under the Rainbow (1981), as well as episodes of Little House on the Prairie, Charlie’s Angels, The Love Boat, Trapper John, M.D., and more.

Outside of her role as Alice Bates in a 1982 episode of Little House on the Prairie, per her IMDb profile, Maloney is also remembered for her portrayal of Chewbacca’s son Lumpy in the Star Wars Holiday Special, which aired the week before Thanksgiving in 1978 on CBS, and the alien Honk on the Sid & Marty Krofft family show Far Out Space Nuts. She also appeared on shows like Charlie’s Angels, Married… with Children, and The Smurfs, and also starred as Lois Addams in the 1991 movie The Addams Family (1991). Her last acting credit was in a 2005 episode of My Name is Earl.

Maloney is survived by her brother, her nieces Jennifer and Laura, and her brother-in-law, Vic.