LANDON, MICHAEL

LANDON, MICHAEL (Eugene Maurice Orowitz; 1936–1991), U.S. actor, writer, producer, director. Born in Forest Hills, Queens, to an Irish Catholic mother and Jewish father, Eugene Orowitz grew up in Collingswood, New Jersey, and went to UCLA on a track and field scholarship. He was forced to leave school when an arm injury disqualified him from athletics. He stayed in the area and worked at odd jobs until he decided to pursue acting. After adopting the stage name Michael Landon, which he picked out of the Los Angeles telephone book, he soon landed his first big role in the film I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). However, it was as Little Joe Cartwright on the television series Bonanza (1959–72) that Landon became a household name, endearing himself to a wide range of Americans throughout the 14 years that the series ran. When Landon undertook his next television project, Little House on the Prairie (1974), another NBC western, it was not only in the role of family patriarch Charles Ingalls but also as the series' producer, writer, and director. After a successful eight-year run, Little House was pulled off the air and Landon moved onto the NBC fantasy/drama show Highwayto Heaven (1984). When Landon's co-star, Victor French, died of lung cancer in 1989, Landon pulled the plug on the show, prompting his dismissal from NBC. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer soon afterward, Landon made his last public appearance on the Johnny Carson show in 1991, discussing his disease with bravery and candor. He died a few weeks later in Malibu, California, with his children at his side. (Casey Schwartz (2nd ed.)