Trivia

He performed and toured in a one-man show he wrote based on the Doc Baker character called, "A Playful Dose of Prairie Wisdom." While performing that show he met his fourth wife, Jan. They were married in 1993.

Did not start acting until he was 27, by which time he had worked for the U.S. State Department in Germany, earning a degree in international relations from the University of Southern California,

He attended Oregon State University before enlisting in the U.S. Navy after World War II, serving in San Diego.

Craggy-faced, veteran Chicago-born film and television character whose initial career started off in the late 1950s and early 1960s playing western bad guys. He later put his indelible print on kindly doctor types on scores of TV programs, notably his Dr. Hiram Baker on Little House on the Prairie (1974).

One time considered being a lawyer, attending law school at UCLA before deciding to drop out and trying his luck at acting.

Has a son, Christopher Hagen.

Along with Michael Ansara, Torin Thatcher, John Crawford, Malachi Throne, Bart La Rue and Jerry Catron, he is one of only seven actors to appear in all four of Irwin Allen's science fiction series: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964), Lost in Space (1965), The Time Tunnel (1966) and Land of the Giants (1968).