In Memoriam: Through The Years With Michael Landon

Michael Landon was born in Queens, New York on October 31st, 1936 in New York. When he was just 5 years old, he moved to Collingswood, New Jersey with his family. He was also an athlete who played several sports while in high school!

However, Landon's promising career in the sports world was unexpectedly cut short after he severely injured his arm. That's when the actor— who was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz— ended up pursuing a very different career, changing his name after having enrolled in acting school.

After a variety of guest appearances in various television series, Michael Landon had his first starring role in a major motion picture. He played "Tony Rivers" in 1957's I Was a Teenage Werewolf. This was followed by a busy couple of years, before Landon landed his first series regular role...

Michael Landon made it big playing "Joseph 'Little Joe' Cartwright" in the Western television show Bonanza! This role made him a household name, and the show lasted for 14 seasons. To this day, "Little Joe" is one of the characters Landon is most known for.

On top of building his career, Landon was building his family! By the time of Bonanza, he was married to Lynn Noe after having separated from wife Dody Levy-Fraser. He also had six children: Mark (born 1948), Cheryl Ann (born 1953), Josh (born 1960), Leslie (born 1962), Michael Landon, Jr (born 1964), and Shawna (born 1971).

In 1974, Michael Landon began playing the role of "Charles Ingalls" in Little House on the Prairie. Based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's books of the same name, the show lasted for 9 seasons and led to several television movies. 

Little House on the Prairie was nominated for several awards while it was on the air. In 1979, Landon himself even earned a Golden Globes nomination for Best Actor in a Drama for his role on the show! 

Not only did Michael Landon star in Little House on the Prairie— he also directed many of the show's episodes! This wasn't the only show that Landon had creative control over, since his next television show also saw him take the reigns.

In 1984, Michael Landon played "Jonathan Smith" in Highway to Heaven. The original series saw him as an angel who ends up partnering with a cop. Landon wrote and directed many episodes throughout the show's five-season run. Sadly, this was the actor's last television series, since he passed away two years after it wrapped.

Michael Landon's last two projects were the television movies Where Pigeons Go to Die and Us. The actor was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April of 1991, passing away just three months later. He left behind wife Cindy Landon and a total of nine children, adding Christopher (born 1975), Jennifer (born 1983), and Sean Matthew (born 1986) to the family. While the actor's sudden death was tragic, his legacy certainly lives on!