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Why Michael Learned's farewell to The Waltons had to be filmed in advance
"There would have been too many tears."
As an actor, the characters you play come and go. But sometimes a good role can resonate with you long after you’re done playing the part. Though Michael Learned took on many new roles during her acting career, she would always and forever be known to fans as Olivia Walton.
Learned left The Waltons as a regular character after the show’s seventh season. "It would be nice to have a role without putting on an apron," said Learned during an interview with the Associated Press. "But I don't know if I'd want to go into makeup for three hours every day to look glamorous...In The Waltons, I just pull my hair back and put on a baggy old dress. I don't mean to sound flip, because I really have grown to love the character. She's a woman of courage and dignity."
While Olivia Walton had brought warmth and humility to television, the cast and crew of the series had become incredibly close behind the scenes. In a good-natured joke, Walton crew members left a funeral wreath in her dressing room during one of Learned's final days on set. "In loving memory of Michael Learned's career," it read. "May it rest in peace."
"I'll burn it before I leave," she said. "I've got one last scene, then I'll clean out my dressing room."
In fact, the actor filmed her on-screen final appearance as Olivia Walton quite early on, as she felt it would spare a few extra emotions.
"I think they felt they could never get the farewell show on film if it was my last," she said. "There would have been too many tears."
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