When it comes to thinking about famous television fathers, surprisingly enough the first one to come to mind isn’t necessarily the one you might think would be the top choice. More often than not Ben Cartwright played by Lorne Greene on the classic television show Bonanza, comes to the forefront of many people’s minds. Although there may have well been other candidates for the part of Ben Cartwright, being perfectly honest, there was simply no other actor could have done justice to the role like Lorne Greene did. Can you really imagine anyone else in the role of Pa?

Ben Cartwright’s character was that of a man who had a dream and he fought and scrambled to make that dream come true. That was to be able to settle in the west and build something grand that would stand the test of time; the Ponderosa. While Lorne Greene played the character to perfection he also gave Ben the human side that made you cheer for the Cartwrights every week.

Although Ben achieved his dream there was never the air that he would step over anyone in his way to achieve his goal. Quite the opposite actually, Ben worked very hard and won his goal through his intelligence and hard work, and heaven help anyone who tried to take what he had worked so hard for away. There again Ben always played fair, rather than stooping to any means necessary to hold onto what he had, he worked within fair and just methods to achieve his point. Aside from the business side of Ben there was also the caring father side that everyone looked forward to seeing. Although he expected the same hard work from his sons that he himself gave, he also demonstrated his love and concern for his sons.