It’s hard to believe that Lorne Greene, known for his role as Ben Cartwright in Bonanza (1959), would want to live anywhere but the Ponderosa Ranch.
However, according to a 1966 interview with The Ottawa Journal, Greene said that if he could live anywhere in the world, it would be in one of the more than 60 countries where Bonanza aired. He’d go wherever people wanted him.
As the head of the Cartwright family, it was important for both the character and the actor to be a people person. This led to Greene having many friends off-screen, as well as a few familiar friends and faces onscreen.
His whole life and career was based around the opinions of people, with nearly 20 million viewers watching Bonanza each week and the show achieving success in around 69 countries worldwide.
“People are nice if you let them be, if you treat them as human beings,” Greene said. “I enjoy people.”
Greene was known for drawing massive crowds wherever he went. It didn’t matter if he was in the South, West, or Midwest; people respected his character, and Greene made sure that all of his fans knew just how much he respected them in return.
According to the interview, it wasn’t just Americans who loved Bonanza and believed in the ways of the Old West.
In Jamaica, fans sat in cars outside of Greene’s hotel room for five hours just to have the chance to meet him. In Spain, Greene’s press conference set a record for public figures. In London, people waited days just to say a quick hello. It didn’t matter where he was; he loved people, especially people who loved Bonanza.
“What impresses me is that Bonanza is a truly American show which deals with part of American history that’s such a vital part of the American fabric,” Greene said. In a sense, Bonanza is not just American, it’s international. What a father says to his son in Bonanza is also what a father says to his son in Spain, France, all over the world.”
Greene said he was used to fans addressing him as “Mr. Bonanza” in different languages. Having as much fame as he had was every people person’s dream. Bonanza not only inspired Americans to believe in the American dream, but it inspired everyone who watched the series.
“It’s about family respect,” Greene said. “We show a father’s respect for his children, and the children’s respect for a parent. I don’t think any other kind of Western ever had this kind of reception. We concern ourselves with human relationships. We like people and people like to like people.”