How Ricky Nelson Saved His Twin Sons Before the Plane Accident That Took His Life

For millions of Americans, Ricky Nelson was once the familiar teenager who seemed to grow up in their living rooms.

Long before musicians could build enormous audiences through social media, Nelson had something remarkably powerful working in his favor: television.

He was already part of one of America’s best-known entertainment families before he became a recording star.

Then music changed everything.

But nearly three decades after his rise to fame, Nelson’s story ended aboard a Douglas DC-3 on New Year’s Eve in 1985.

Seven people died.

Two pilots survived.

And two people who had originally expected to be traveling with Nelson were not aboard at all.

They were his twin sons, Matthew and Gunnar.

The reason they were absent would become one of the most poignant details of Nelson’s final days.

Growing Up in Front of America

Eric Hilliard Nelson, better known professionally as Ricky Nelson and later Rick Nelson, was born on May 8, 1940.

His parents were bandleader Ozzie Nelson and singer and actress Harriet Hilliard Nelson.

Entertainment was therefore part of his life almost from the beginning.

In 1944, Ozzie and Harriet launched The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet as a radio comedy.

David and Ricky were initially represented by professional actors, but the real Nelson brothers eventually joined the radio program in 1949, when Ricky was eight and David was 12.

The transition would prove important.

When the family program moved to television in 1952, viewers were no longer simply listening to fictionalized versions of the Nelson family.

They were watching Ozzie, Harriet, David and Ricky play versions of themselves.