Percival Dalton is the husband of Nellie Oleson.

Born into a Jewish family and named Issac Cohen, he chose to escape his family tradition and create a life for himself, and renamed himself as Percival Dalton.

As a gift for finishing school, Harriet and Nels surprised Nellie with a restaurant, and Percival was soon hired to teach Nellie how to manage it. Nellie still had a mean disposition at first, but Percival eventually got her to change her old ways. He told her how it was going to be and she grew up and looked at Percival as a strong man as opposed to "shortcake". Nellie fell in love with Percival and tried everything to win him over; including walking with her knees bent to try to look shorter than him. Of course, he thought she was making fun.

Finally, Percival fell in love with Nellie and chose to marry her, much to the chagrin of Nellie's Christian mother and Percival's Jewish parents.

Percival and Nellie had two children; Jennifer and Benjamin Dalton. Percival's father passed after soon after, and in result, they moved to New York so that Percival could run his father's store.

Behind the scenesEdit

Steve Tracy, the actor who portrayed Percival, died in 1986 of AIDS-related causes.