Michael Landon

Michael Landon was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz in the Forest Hills area of Queens, New York on October 31, 1936. An athlete as a young man, Michael was accepted to USC on a Track & Field scholarship, particularly for javelin throwing. A shoulder injury deprived him of both a sports career and his scholarship, so he quit school to work odd jobs until he decided that acting was the life for him. With a change of name (taken directly out of the phone book), he had a couple big roles in I Was a Teenage Werewolf and The Legend of Tom Dooley, but the role that made him a household name was for a new western show in 1959 called Bonanza on which he played Little Joe Cartwright. Bonanza lasted 14 seasons, with Landon moving into the directing and writing arenas on more than a few Bonanza episodes. Bonanza was canceled in 1973, but Landon did not have to wait long for his next role, Charles "Pa" Ingalls, in the new series, Little House on the Prairie. That show lasted 8 seasons and gave Landon a healthy resume for writing, directing, and acting. It didn't hurt that the show was very popular with women, particularly those who enjoyed viewing Landon frequently without a shirt and, as Alison Arngrim (who played Nellie Oleson) stated in her autobiography,  Confessions of a Prairie Bitch , his "commando" pants-wearing habits. Following Prairie, Landon jumped into Highway to Heaven in 1984, allowing him to work 5 more seasons with his Prairie co-star, Victor French. Landon only did a couple more TV movies once Highway to Heaven was canceled in 1989 before he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic and liver cancer. He passed away on July 1, 1991 in Malibu, CA, at the age of 54. For a full list of credits, visit Landon's IMDB page.

Michael Landon was know for playing tricks on the set of many of his shows and movies, especially with Victor French. They once stole a golf cart and drove it around for an hour before a producer saw them and stopped them.

Michael Landon was married 3 times, had 9 kids, 9 dogs, 3 parrots, and lots of grandkids. In his last appearance on the Tonight Show, he talked about " this 10th Child Business." A tabloid newspaper had announced that he and his wife were trying to have a tenth child so she would have something to remember him by. (This was about a month after he was diagnosed with cancer). His response was " I got 9 kids, 9 dogs, 3 grandkids, one in the oven, 3 parrots, and my wife Cindy needs something to remember me by?" He then proceeded to beg her to come back to the house. " Cindy- I know you're out there, hiding in a hotel somewhere! I want you to come back to the house! It was their idea, not mine. Please come back to the house!"