Little House On The Prairie: Whatever Happened To Albert Actor Matthew Labyorteaux
by Joe Roberts · /FilmMatthew Labyorteaux played Albert Quinn Ingalls on "Little House on the Prairie" from 1978 to 1983, after which he appeared in one of the continuation TV movies. But the fate of his character remains somewhat of a mystery. Similarly, many fans of the show might be wondering what happened to Labyorteaux himself. Luckily, the actor has been working fairly consistently since "Little House on the Prairie" went off the air.
The series remains one of the best Western TV shows ever made, even if it is one of those hit '70s series that audiences don't quite remember today. Labyorteaux joined during the fifth season as the adopted son of Charles (Michael Landon) and Caroline Ingalls (Karen Grassle), Albert, who had a rough upbringing before he joined the Ingalls family. His youth was spent in orphanages, where he endured bullying before running away to live on his own. In season 5, episode 1, "As Long as We're Together," Charles and Caroline visited the town of Winoka and discovered the youngster stealing. Rather than turning him into the authorities, the couple took him back to Walnut Grove, and he remained with the show throughout its nine-season run. He then showed up in a continuation TV movie, "Little House on the Prairie: Look Back to Yesterday," though it wasn't the most uplifting Albert story, with the character developing Leukemia.
In an earlier season 9 episode, we learned Albert returned to Walnut Grove 20 years after the end of the series to serve as the town's doctor, though in "Look Back To Yesterday," he appeared to be on death's door. Still, he was alive right up until the final scene of the TV movie, so perhaps Albert did survive. Meanwhile, Labyorteaux himself went on to have a solid career.
Matthew Labyorteaux acted (and played competitive video games) throughout the 80s
Himself an adoptee, Matthew Labyorteaux overcame similar hardship to his "Little House on the Prairie" character, having been born with a hole in his heart and exhibiting behaviors of autism according to his adoptive father, Frankie. By the age of 5, he'd started to overcome his problems, however, and even began auditioning, eventually being cast in "Little House on the Prairie."
"Little House" was arguably one of those TV shows that should have ended sooner than it did, but it did mean Labyorteaux remained the star of a big series until 1983. After that, he continued to act, appearing in multiple shows throughout the 1980s. One of his biggest jobs came with a main role on the CBS sci-fi adventure series, "Whiz Kids," which began the same year that "Little House" ended and ran for 18 episodes until 1984, with Labyorteaux playing one of the leads, Richie Adler.
Sadly, CBS cancelled the series after one season, but Labyorteaux continued to work. Later in the decade, he showed up in two 1989 episodes of "Night Court" and appeared alongside Martin Sheen in the 1986 TV movie "Shattered Spirits." That same year, he appeared as Paul Conway in Wes Craven's sci-fi horror "Deadly Friend." Other TV movies came in the form of 1991's "The Last to Go" and 1993's "Barbarians at the Gate."
Alongside his acting career, Labyorteaux also started competing in competitive video game tournaments. At the age of 15, he became the national "Pac-Man" champion after scoring 1.2 million during a tournament in Los Angeles. He also competed in the "Centipede" playoffs in Chicago and told Softline magazine in 1982 that he'd been playing video games since "they were first introduced" and became hooked on "Missile Command" in the arcades.
Matthew Labyorteaux became a voice actor later in his career
After maintaining a decent acting career in the 1980s and early '90s, Matthew Labyorteaux turned to voice acting, lending his voice talents to multiple animated series and films. It started in 1995 when he voiced characters named Rob and Chuck in an episode of Nickelodeon's "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters," after which he went on to provide additional voices for Disney's "Mulan" in 1998 and Christopher Reeve's 2006 animated sports comedy "Everyone's Hero." From 2005 to 2008, Labyorteaux was the voice of Jaden Yuki and The Supreme King in "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX," a spin-off from the original "Yu-Gi-Oh!" series, which aired on Cartoon Network and 4KidsTV in North America. He reprised the role of Jaden Yuki in the 2011 film "Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time," but that wouldn't be the last time he returned to the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" universe.
Labyorteaux has also served as a video game voice actor, combining his love for the pastime with his profession. He provided additional voices for the ".hack" series between 2003 and 2004 and in 2012 played Gold 5 and Padawan #2 in "Kinect Star Wars." His most significant video game role was the same as his most significant voice acting role. In 2017, he voiced his characters Jaden Yuki and The Supreme King in the digital collectible card game "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links."
Labyorteux has come a long way since filming "Little House on the Prairie." His last film project was in 2018 when he was part of the additional voice cast for Netflix's animated sci-fi film "Next Gen. His last listed project was the 2022 video game "Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel, in which he reprised the role of Jaden Yuki. Today, he remains one of the few main actors still alive from "Little House on the Prairie."