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.
Michael Landon (Charles Ingalls) – Now
Just like his LHOTP character, Landon was a proud father. He had nine children, three of whom were adopted. After the series ended, Landon created, wrote, produced, directed, and played the part of Jonathan Smith — an angel sent to Earth to help people in need — in Highway to Heaven.
Sadly, Michael Landon passed away in 1991, aged just 54. Melissa Gilbert was very close with Landon, saying, “He was very much like a second father to me. My own father passed away when I was 11.”
Karen Grassle (Caroline Ingalls) – Then
Little House on the Prairie would be nothing without its matriarch, Caroline Ingalls. In real life, Caroline was a schoolteacher and devoted mother to the 19th-century American Midwest Ingalls family. On-screen, her role fell to actress Karen Grassle.
Born in 1942 in Berkeley, California, Karen Grassle began her acting career on stage before transitioning to television and eventually winning her role in Little House after auditioning. Karen went on to appear in shows like The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote, and alongside Kevin Coster in 1994’s Wyatt Earp.
Karen Grassle (Caroline Ingalls) – Now
The Ingall family was known for being squeaky clean, but many of the show’s stars, including Melissa Gilbert, Michael Landon, and Karen Grassle, struggled with dependencies… with what cowboys probably would have called moonshine.
Now in her 80s, Karen recently came clean in her 2021 memoir — Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love by House’s Ma. Grassle lives with her son, Zach Radford, in the San Francisco Bay Area. She last graced our screens in the 2021 film Not to Forget.
Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary Ingalls) – Then
Melissa Sue Anderson played Little House’s eldest daughter, Mary Ingalls. Winning the part at age 11, she played the character as a gentle, clever, and good-looking girl and soon became a fan favorite with the many young boys who tuned in to watch her every week.
In the series, Mary contracted scarlet fever and went blind. Melissa won an Emmy for her role. Years later, Anderson wrote a book, The Way I See It: A Look Back at My Life on Little House.
Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary Ingalls) – Now
After LHOTP, Melissa continued to act in various TV shows and movies — such as The Equalizer, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, CHiPs, Murder, She Wrote, and she voiced superhero Snowbird in the animated X-Men show. More recently, she appeared in the Veronica Mars film.
On The Equalizer, she met writer and producer Michael Sloan, and the two married in 1990. They have two children together, daughter Piper and son Griffin, and became Canadian citizens in 2007. They now live in Canada, presumably on the prairies!
