In 1961, 25-year-old David married actress, June Blair. Their wedding ceremony was at the Forest Lawn Cemetery’s Church of the Hills. Naturally, Ricky served as his brother’s best man. Because a lot of the scenes in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet were taken from the Nelsons’ real-life, June Blair was soon written into the show and became a regular cast member.
At that point in the show, David Nelson was attending law school and him and June moved into an apartment together. The lovebirds had their first child the next year, a son whom they named Daniel Blair Nelson. They had their second son, Jamie Eric Nelson, in 1966.
Ozzie Was Still Voted a Top TV Dad
Although Ozzie's TV character was far from being a role model, TV Guide nonetheless ranked him as #21 in the “50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time” in their June 20, 2004 issue. The reason for this was that the show greatly resonated with fans in the 1950s and the early 1960s.
People across America considered the Nelsons to be a romanticized version of the 1950's nuclear family. However, Ozzie's character on screen often came up with poorly devised plans (to which his wife had to talk him out of) and was overly controlling of his children.
Box Office Success
Meanwhile, Ricky's reputation kept on growing. After launching his music career, he quickly made his way into the realm of film. The youngest Nelson performed opposite John Wayne and Dean Martin in the 1959 western movie, Rio Bravo. The trailer for the film showed Ricky playing his guitar and talking into the camera about the thrilling film.
Ricky proved himself successful in his silver screen debut and continued to star in other huge acting projects other than his family's show. He was in films "The Wackiest Ship in the Army" and "Love and Kisses" alongside Jack Lemmon and Jack Kelley, respectively. He also appeared in an episode of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries in which he sang a lot of his popular hits.
Kristin Was Already Pregnant
While David was off getting married, his younger brother Ricky began dating Kristin Harmon. Kristin was the daughter of Tom Harmon, a football-legend-turned-actor and actress Elyse Knox. There was no need for Ricky to ask for Kristin's parents' approval, as the Harmons and the Nelsons were family friends.
Prior to Kristin, Harriet had never approved of any of his girlfriends. Two years after dating, at the urging of Ozzie, the two wed on April 20, 1963. But, there was one particular reason why Ozzie was so eager for the pair to tie the knot so quickly and that's because Kristin was pregnant.
The "Shotgun Wedding"
Ozzie wanted to conceal the fact that Ricky and Kristin were getting married so quickly due to her being pregnant. Six months after their wedding, Kristin gave birth to their baby girl, Tracy Kristine Nelson. Ozzie was very adamant about his decision to announce that the baby was born premature.
He took this so far that he convinced the hospital to forge the baby's weight on the birth certificate. He even had the full-term infant photographed in an incubator. Ozzie was fully committed to his family's image and the public's perception of them.