Michael Landon Biography | Michael Landon Actor | Michael Landon News

Michael Landon Bio

Michael Landon (Deceased)

As Marvin Gaye sang in his hit song, Abraham, Martin and John, ‘But it seems the good die young, Yeh, I just looked around and he was gone.’ This was certainly true of the handsome young actor who wooed women as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza and set a standard of family loyalty as Charles Ingalls in ‘Little House on the Prairie.’

On October 31^st 1936 Eugene Orowitz, he would later change his name to Michael Landon, was born in the Forest Hills area of Queens, New York to Eli Orowitz, an actor and theater manager of Jewish decent and Kathleen O’Neill an Irish American Catholic who worked as a dancer and comedienne.

From the age of four Michael grew up in Collingwood New Jersey with his parents and his older sister Evelyn, and attended Collingwood High School. Landon’s home life is rumoured to have been unhappy with his parent’s feuding and his mother’s numerous attempts at suicide. Michael lost himself in sports while at Collingwood and excelled at javelin throwing and on the strength of this skill won a scholarship to the University of California. Unfortunately, not long into his course he suffered an arm injury which restricted his ability at sports and so he left university and began working as a warehouse attendant.

While attending an audition at the Warner Brothers Studios with a friend, he was spotted by the producers and instantly signed up and sent to acting school. And so began the ‘accidental’ acting career of what was to become one of the best known faces on American television during the 1950’s through 1990. Landon’s first roles were fairly minor in such films as ‘I Was a Teenage Werewolf’ and ‘The Legend of Tom Dooley’.

But Landon’s big break came when he was just 22 years old and was cast in the role of Little Joe in ‘Bonanza’, the youngest son of rancher Ben Cartwright, played by Lorne Green and brother to Hoss and Adam Cartwright, played by Dan Blocker and Pernell Roberts, respectively. As the series progressed Landon persuaded the directors to allow him to direct and from then on his talent followed the path of writing, directing and producing.

In 1973, after the 14th and final season of ‘Bonanza’, Michael moved on to produce, write, direct and star in his second longest running television series, ‘The Little House on the Prairie’ which was based on the books written by the author Laura Ingalls Wilder. The roles had completely reversed by now and he was now the ‘Pa’ of three little girls played by Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson and twin actresses, Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush who together played the one role of Caroline Ingalls.

The actor went on to surpass the television record previously set by Lucille Ball for twenty eight years of one hour shows. Michael’s next undertaking was that of ‘Highway to Heaven’ in which he starred, as an angel and wrote, produced and directed between the years of 1984 until 1989. Michael’s intention was to produce a family television series with good morals and a positive message.

A few of Michael's other productions both as an actor and director include the television movies "The Loneliest Runner", which once again saw Michael working with Melissa Sue Anderson, "Love is Forever" co-starring Priscilla Presley and in 1984, the movie "Sam's Son" with Eli Wallach.

In 1986 Landon joined Paul Newman and First Lady Nancy Reagan in what began as a nationwide campaign to encourage children from smoking. The campaign eventually crossed the Atlantic to the United Kingdom. The slogan, ‘Just Say No’ was created by Mrs Reagan during the presidency of her husband Ronald Reagan and in 1987 La Toya Jackson became spokesperson for the campaign and recorded a song entitled "Just Say No".

During his life Michael was married three times and had ten children, three of whom were adopted during his first marriage.

After all his acting life working with NBC, early in 1991 Michael began working for CBS on what would be his last television show which was called "Us". It was in April 1991 that Michael announced he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had spread to several of his vital organs. One month later, appearing on the Johnny Carson show Landon spoke of his illness and his intention to fight it, but by July 1^st 1991 his fight ended and he died in Malibu, California at the age of fifty four.

At his funeral, which was held at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City California, there were more than 500 mourners which included the former President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy.

ABB