Little House on the Prairie remains one of America’s most loved television shows. NBC’s popular adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novels aired between 1974 and 1983.
The series followed the lives of the Ingalls family, their daughters, and many adopted children living on a small farm near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1800s.
The show starred Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert but launched the acting careers of many more. So, join us as we discover what the cast is up to now.
Melissa Gilbert (Laura Ingalls) – Then
Actress Melissa Gilbert knows a thing or two about growing up in large families full of adopted kids. She was adopted by actor and comedian Paul Gilbert and his actress wife, Barbara Crane, when she was just a day old.
Young Melissa acted in adverts and beat over 500 child actresses to the part of spunky, adventurous Laura Ingalls, the protagonist of the real Laura Ingalls Wilder’s 1935 book. When her on-screen father, Micheal Landon, passed away in 1991, she and her then-husband, actor Bruce Boxleitner, named their son after her beloved colleague.
Melissa Gilbert (Laura Ingalls) – Now
Now approaching her 60s, Melissa has come a long way since playing a young farm girl. She was the president of the Screen Actors Guild, wrote an autobiography called Praire Tale, and even released a prairie-based cookbook! She also appeared on season 14 of Dancing With the Stars in 2012.
In 2018, she and her third husband, actor Timothy Busfield, bought a cottage in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York. The homely couple have slowly been renovating the cottage into a little house of their own.
Michael Landon (Charles Ingalls) – Then
Michael Landon was born in 1936 and found fame playing Little Joe Cartwright in another Wild West period TV show, Bonanza, between 1958 and 1973. He also appeared in many other cowboy shows like Tales of Wells Fargo, The Texan, Cheyenne, Wanted Dead or Alive, and The Rifleman.
Between 1974 and 1983, on Little House on the Prairie, he played the Ingalls family patriarch, Charles Ingalls, but fans know him best as “Pa.” Landon was just as hardworking as Pa and wrote, produced, and directed many episodes.
