Age, Biography, and Wiki
Michael Landon was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz on October 31, 1936, in Queens, New York. His mother, Peggy, was Roman Catholic, and his father, Eugene Orowitz, was Jewish. He grew up in Collingswood, New Jersey, and attended Temple Beth Shalom in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Landon passed away on July 1, 1991, at the age of 54, due to pancreatic cancer.
| Occupation | Javelin Thrower |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 31 October 1936 |
| Age | 88 Years |
| Birth Place | New York City, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Scorpio |
| Country | Mali |
| Date of death | 1 July, 1991 |
| Died Place | Malibu, California, U.S. |
Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific details about his height and weight are not widely documented, Michael Landon was known for his tall, lean build, which was often showcased in his roles as a rugged outdoorsman in his television series.
In 1957, Candlelight Records released a Michael Landon single "Gimme a Little Kiss (Will "Ya" Huh)"/ "Be Patient with Me" during the height of his notoriety for his role in the film I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Some copies show the artist credited as the "Teenage Werewolf" rather than as Michael Landon. In 1962, both the A- and B-sides of the record were re-released on the Fono-Graf label that included a picture sleeve of Landon's then-current role on Bonanza as Little Joe Cartwright.
Landon sang on television, on the Dean Martin Show, Hullabaloo, and other venues, and also sang live on stage at theatrical venues (sometimes with a holster and gun strapped to his hip).
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Dating & Relationship Status
Michael Landon was married three times:
- Cindy Clerico (1983-1991): Landon married Cindy Clerico just a few months before being diagnosed with cancer. They remained together until his death.
- Lynn Noe (1963-1982): This marriage produced four children.
- Dodie Levy-Fraser (1956-1962): Landon and Dodie had two children together.
His parents were Kathleen "Peggy" (née O'Neill; a dancer and comedian) and Eli Maurice Orowitz. His father was Jewish, and his mother was Roman Catholic. Eugene was the Orowitz family's second child; their daughter, Evelyn, had been born three years earlier in 1933.
In 1941, when Eugene was four, he and his family moved to the borough of Collingswood, New Jersey. He celebrated his bar mitzvah at Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill. His family recalls that Landon "went through a lot of hassle studying for the big event, which included bicycling to a nearby town every day in order to learn how to read Hebrew and recite prayers." Years later he told an interviewer that he never went on a date when he was in high school "because no Christian father in the town would allow his daughter to go out with a Jew."
During his childhood, Landon worried constantly about his mother attempting suicide. He later reported that on a family beach vacation, his mother tried to drown herself, but Landon rescued her. Shortly after the attempt, his mother acted as if nothing happened, and a few minutes later, he vomited. He said that it was the worst experience of his life. Stress overload from his mother's suicide attempts caused Landon to battle the childhood problem of bedwetting, which was reported in the unauthorized biography Michael Landon: His Triumph and Tragedy. His mother put his wet sheets on display outside his window for all to see. He ran home every day and tried to remove them before his classmates could see. Some of these experiences were incorporated into his semi-autobiographical television movie, The Loneliest Runner, which he wrote, produced, and directed. Landon attended Collingswood High School and was an excellent javelin thrower, with his 193 ft toss in 1954 being the longest throw by a high schooler in the United States that year. This earned him an athletic scholarship to the University of Southern California, but he subsequently tore his shoulder ligaments, putting an end to his days as a college athlete and as a student.
The year after Bonanza was canceled, Landon went on to star as Charles Ingalls in the pilot of what became another successful television series, Little House on the Prairie, again for NBC. The show was taken from a 1935 book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose character in the show was played by 9-year-old actress Melissa Gilbert. In addition to Gilbert, two other unknown actresses also starred on the show: Melissa Sue Anderson, who appeared as Mary Ingalls, the oldest daughter in the Ingalls family, and Karen Grassle as Charles' wife, Caroline. Landon served as executive producer, writer, and director of Little House. The show was nominated for several Emmy and Golden Globe awards. After eight seasons, Little House was retooled by NBC in 1982 as Little House: A New Beginning, which focused on the Wilder family and the Walnut Grove community. Though Landon remained the show's executive producer, director, and writer, A New Beginning did not feature Charles and Caroline Ingalls. A New Beginning was actually the final chapter of Little House, as the series ended in 1983. The following year, three made-for-television movies aired.
After producing both "Little House" and later the Father Murphy TV series, Landon starred in another successful program. In Highway to Heaven, he played a probationary angel (who named himself Jonathan Smith) whose job was to help people in order to earn his wings. His co-star on the show was Victor French (who had previously co-starred on Landon's Little House on the Prairie) as ex-cop Mark Gordon. On Highway, Landon served as executive producer, writer, and director. Highway to Heaven was the only show throughout his long career in television that he owned outright.
Through the run of Highway to Heaven, all of Landon's television programs were broadcast on NBC, a relationship which lasted 30 consecutive years with the network. After the cancellation of Highway and due to a fallout with those within NBC's upper management, he moved to CBS and in 1991 starred in a two-hour pilot called Us. Us was meant to be another series for Landon, but with his diagnosis on April 5 of pancreatic cancer, the show never aired beyond the pilot. Also during the 1990–91 season, Landon appeared as host of the CBS special America's Missing Children, which explored actual cases of missing children that were under investigation. This special was also being considered as the pilot for a new series. He appeared as a celebrity panelist on the premiere week of Match Game on CBS.
He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to speak about the cancer and condemn the tabloid press for its sensational headlines and inaccurate stories, including the claim that his wife and he were trying to conceive another child. During his appearance, Landon pledged to fight the disease and asked his fans to pray for him. Twelve days after his appearance on the show, he underwent successful surgery for a life-threatening blood clot in his left leg. In June, he appeared on the cover of LIFE after granting the periodical an exclusive private interview about his life, his family, and his struggle to live.
Landon died at the age of 54 in Malibu, California, at 1:20 pm on July 1, 1991, with his wife at his bedside. Landon was interred in a private family mausoleum at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, in Culver City, California. Landon's headstone reads, "He seized life with joy. He gave to life generously. He leaves a legacy of love and laughter." His adopted son Mark, who died in May 2009, is also interred there.
A made-for-TV movie, Michael Landon, the Father I Knew, co-written and directed by his son Michael Jr., aired on CBS in May 1999. John Schneider starred in the title role as Michael Landon, with Cheryl Ladd as Lynn Noe and Joel Berti as Michael Landon Jr. The biopic detailed, from Michael Jr.'s point of view, the personal emotional trauma he endured during his parents' divorce and his father's premature death. The movie spanned a timeline from the 1960s through the early 1990s.
In 2021, Karen Grassle, Landon's co-star on Little House, published her memoir, Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love by House's Ma. In the book, Grassle detailed the troubled relationship she had with Landon, citing derogatory remarks he made about her while on the set of Little House, often with other members of the cast and crew present. Grassle subsequently "mended fences" with Landon prior to his death.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Dodie Levy-Fraser (m. 1956-1962) Marjorie Lynn Noe (m. 1963-1982) Cindy Clerico (m. 1983) |
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Net Worth and Salary
Michael Landon's net worth at the time of his death in 1991 was approximately $40 million in today's dollars. He was known for his successful career in television, both as an actor and a producer. Landon arranged his estate to leave each of his nine children between $8 million and $10 million.
Career, Business, and Investments
Michael Landon had a prolific career spanning multiple iconic TV series:
- Bonanza (1959-1973): He played the role of Joseph "Little Joe" Cartwright.
- Little House on the Prairie (1974-1983): Landon portrayed Charles Ingalls.
- Highway to Heaven (1984-1989): He starred as Jonathan Smith.
Now in Los Angeles, Landon considered going into show business, and worked as an attendant at a service station across from the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California. He was eventually noticed by Bob Raison, a local talent agent. Following his advice, Landon changed his Jewish-sounding name, selecting his new name from a telephone book.
In a 2015 interview, Gilbert said of Landon, "He gave me so much advice...the overall idea that he pounded into me, from a little girl, into my brain was that nothing's more important than 'Home & Family'; no success, no career, no achievements, no accomplishments, nothing's more important than loving the people you love and contributing to a community. Though we were working, really, really hard, we were 'Not Saving the World', one episode of television at a time, we're just entertaining people and there are more important things to do... and have fun; no matter what."
Social Network
Although Michael Landon passed away in 1991, his legacy lives on through his family and fans. His children, including Michael Landon Jr., continue to work in the entertainment industry. Michael Landon Jr. is an actor, director, producer, and writer with a net worth of $8 million.
Receiving more fan mail than any other cast member, Landon negotiated with executive producer David Dortort and NBC to write and direct some episodes. In 1962, Landon wrote his first script. In 1968, Landon directed his first episode. In 1993, TV Guide listed Little Joe's September 1972 two-hour wedding episode ("Forever") as one of TV's most memorable specials. Landon's script recalled Little Joe's brother, Hoss, who was initially the story's groom, before Dan Blocker's death. During the final season, the ratings declined, and NBC canceled Bonanza in November 1972. The last episode aired on January 16, 1973. Along with Lorne Greene and Victor Sen Yung, Landon appeared in all 14 seasons of the series. Landon was loyal to many of his Bonanza associates, including producer Kent McCray, director William F. Claxton, and composer David Rose, who remained with him throughout Bonanza, as well as Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven.
In 1973, Landon was an episode director and writer for the short-lived NBC romantic anthology series Love Story. In 1982, he co-produced an NBC "true story" television movie, Love Is Forever, starring Laura Gemser (who was credited as Moira Chen) and himself, about Australian photojournalist John Everingham's successful attempt to scuba dive under the Mekong to rescue his lover from communist-ruled Laos in 1977. The real Everingham was cast as an extra in the film, which also marked the acting debut of Priscilla Presley.
A 1985 profile in People described him as a conservative who was close to Ronald Reagan. In a 1991 interview, he criticized political polarization and political correctness in America. In 1990, he supported a proenvironmentalist proposition in California.
Education
Details about Michael Landon's formal education after high school are not widely documented. However, he began his acting career at a young age, eventually leading to his successful television roles.
Landon's first starring appearance was on the television series Telephone Time, in the episode "The Mystery of Casper Hauser" (1956) as the title character. Other parts came, including movie roles in I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), Maracaibo (1958), High School Confidential (1958), God's Little Acre (1958), and The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959), as well as many roles on television, such as Crossroads (three episodes), The Restless Gun (pilot episode aired on Schlitz Playhouse of Stars), Sheriff of Cochise (in "Human Bomb"), U.S. Marshal (as Don Sayers in "The Champ"), Crusader, Frontier Doctor, The Rifleman (in "End of a Young Gun", 1958), The Adventures of Jim Bowie, Johnny Staccato, Wire Service, General Electric Theater, The Court of Last Resort, State Trooper (two episodes), Tales of Wells Fargo (three episodes), The Texan (in the 1958 episode "The Hemp Tree"), The Tall Man, Tombstone Territory (in the episodes "The Man From Brewster", with John Carradine and "Rose of the Rio Bravo", with Kathleen Nolan), Trackdown (two 1958 episodes), and Wanted Dead or Alive, starring Steve McQueen (in episodes "The Martin Poster", 1958, and "The Legend", 1959). Landon also appeared in at least two episodes of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater including "Gift from a Gunman" in 1957 and "Living is a Lonely Thing" in 1959. Landon can be seen in two uncredited speaking roles as a cavalry trooper in a 1956 episode of the ABC/Warner Bros. television series Cheyenne, an episode titled "Decision". Two years later, Landon returned to that same series as White Hawk in "The White Warrior".
In 1973, his eldest daughter, Cheryl, and three others were involved in a serious car collision just outside Tucson, Arizona, while Cheryl was a student at the University of Arizona. She was the sole survivor. She was hospitalized with serious injuries and remained in a coma for days.