Paul Gilbert was an American film and television actor. Born in New York City as Ed MacMahon, Gilbert played various roles and appeared as himself from The Spike Jones Show in 1954 through Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In is an American sketch comedy television program which ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to May 14, 1973. It was hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin and was broadcast over NBC...

 in 1973. Gilbert also appeared in other early television shows such as The NBC Comedy Hour

The NBC Comedy Hour

The NBC Comedy Hour was a comedy show that ran on NBC in the first half of 1956, intended to be a replacement for The Colgate Comedy Hour....

, The Colgate Comedy Hour

The Colgate Comedy Hour

The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show stars many notable comedians and entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou...

, Lux Video Theatre

Lux Video Theatre

Lux Video Theatre, is a weekly television anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays....

, Perry Mason

Perry Mason (TV series)

Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...

, and The Dick Van Dyke Show

The Dick Van Dyke Show

The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....

.

Gilbert and his fourth wife Barbara Crane adopted Melissa Gilbert

Melissa Gilbert

Melissa Ellen Gilbert is an American actress, writer, and producer, primarily in movies and television. Gilbert is best known as a child actress who co-starred as Charles Ingalls's second daughter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, on the dramatic television series Little House on the Prairie...

 who played Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family...

 and Jonathan Gilbert

Jonathan Gilbert

Jonathan J. Gilbert is an American former film and television actor.-Life and career:Gilbert is best known for his performance as Willie Oleson on the NBC TV series, Little House on the Prairie, from 1974 to 1983...

 who played Willie Oleson on the NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 TV series Little House on the Prairie

Little House on the Prairie (TV series)

Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...

. When Melissa was 8, they divorced. His ex-wife and children remained in San Fernando. He moved to nearby Encino but stayed an active father to Melissa and Jonathan, joining the family for holidays.

Gilbert died suddenly of a stroke on February 13, 1975. He was 56 years old.

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