Steve Shaw (actor)

Steve Shaw (February 19, 1965 – December 5, 1990) was an American actor best known for playing Eric Fairgate in the television drama series "Knots Landing". 
Life and career.
One of Shaw's earliest acting appearances was "Little House on the Prairie" Season 3 Episode 22, Gold Country, as Sam Delano, the son of an Italian couple mining for gold. He made another appearance on the same series in a Season 5 episode entitled "The Odyssey" in which he played a character named Dylan Whittaker who has been diagnosed with terminal leukemia and wishes to see the Pacific Ocean before he dies. He also appeared in two episodes of "The Waltons" as George Simmons. Shaw appeared regularly in "Knots Landing" from 1979 to 1987, and thereafter made occasional return appearances until 1990.
Death.
Shaw died on December 5, 1990 in a head-on traffic collision with a truck in Los Angeles. He was survived by his mother and grandparents; his father had died six months previously of a heart attack.