Melissa Gilbert Walked Away From Hollywood For A Startling Reason

Gilbert was an inspiration to many. This was all thanks to her role as Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House on the Prairie, alongside the legendary Michael Landon, who played Laura’s father Charles. The historical Western drama, set on a 19th-century farm in Minnesota, lasted from 1974 to 1983 with a total of 204 episodes. And Gilbert stayed for the show’s entire run.

But although she’s mostly associated with being Laura, Gilbert had quite the prolific career as a child actor, one that ran in tandem with her role in the legendary show. The exposure the part gave her opened the door to many other gigs, including television films, TV shows, and other endeavors. At age 20, when the show was over, the actress was already on her way to further success.

Still, Gilbert’s career began early, even before Little House on the Prairie. And it’s fair to say her personal life was in some ways as full of drama as her acting career. Born in 1963 to a couple who gave her up for adoption, the future star was taken in by her new family one day after her birth. As fate would have it her adoptive parents, Barbara Crane and Paul Gilbert, were both actors.

So although not born into a family of actors, she was rapidly adopted into one. And this turn of events meant Gilbert started on her acting journey very early on in life. Even before the famous TV drama show, she had a few minor appearances. This included the comedy film The Reluctant Astronaut, and TV shows such as Gunsmoke, Tenafly, and others.

What’s more, Gilbert wasn’t the only youngling in the family to take the same path. Her adoptive parents also got custody of Jonathan J. Gilbert, who then also pursued an acting career. And the step-sister from her mother’s side, and Barbara’s biological daughter, is Sara Gilbert, who’s also a successful actress, as well as a producer.

You might think that an adoptive daughter of famous actors would need only to rely on nepotism. This, though, couldn’t be further from the truth. Gilbert was just another girl in the audition process for Little House on the Prairie. In fact, it’s widely reported that NBC had around 500 young girls at the audition. And she was the one chosen for the role. 

If this doesn’t persuade you that nepotism wasn’t behind getting the gig, just look at how well-received her character and acting were by the show’s viewers. Everyone seemed to love little Laura in the show. And it was all Gilbert’s charm and charisma, backed by her talent, that helped her capture the viewer’s hearts. Ultimately, the role opened up the doors and helped her build a career.

But despite the fact that she was only ten years old when the filming started, this wasn’t just another role for a child actress. Little House on the Prairie is based on novels written by the real person Laura Ingalls Wilder. She observed in a chat with Smashing Interviews magazine, “Many people just dismiss Little House on the Prairie… as being soft and overly saccharine and too sweet.” But the actress pointed out that the show itself dealt with serious social issues still relevant in the 1970s, including racism, drug addiction, abuse and alcoholism.

By the time the show ended, Gilbert was 20 years old. And while the TV show was still running, she had acted in a few TV films, as well as appearing as a guest star in other shows. She also did voice-over acting for 1979’s stop-motion animated film Nutcracker Fantasy. And Gilbert was capable of taking on serious roles, too: not least, playing the title character in the 1980 TV film The Diary of Anne Frank.

After Little House on the Prairie was over, Gilbert went on to star in numerous TV films. Between 1983 when the show ended, and the end of the decade she acted in a total of 11 films. Of course, there were also three additional TV film specials as the continuation of the Little House on the Prairie story. And going onward into the 1990s Gilbert continued her acting career, mostly a mixture of TV film roles with occasional voice acting and other appearances thrown in.

All things considered, it might feel a bit odd that Gilbert only went on to work on TV films. Sure, she won major recognition in this regard, including earning a golden star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1985. And she had a prolific career with appearances countless TV films running all the way to 2018. But was that all there was to her story?

Just like every celebrity with a major breakthrough, Gilbert’s private life was always of interest to the public. And not unnaturally she dated a few of her famous colleagues, including Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe. But she also became famous for her three marriages. The first one was to actor Bo Brinkman, and it lasted from 1988 to 1992. They had married only seven weeks after her breakup with Lowe, and she gave birth to their only child, son Dakota Paul Brinkman, in 1989. 

And only weeks after her divorce was finalized, she got involved with Bruce Boxleitner. Weirdly enough, it was Bruce’s ex-wife who set them up. The couple married in 1995 and enjoyed what’s considered a pretty long run by Hollywood standards, staying together all the way to 2011. Together, they had one son, Michael Garrett Boxleitner. Finally in 2013 she married actor Timothy Busfield: more on that later.

Remember how we mentioned that becoming famous early on could be a double-edged sword? Well, this was certainly true in Gilbert’s case. Dealing with fame isn’t always as enticing as it may appear, and life in the public gaze can take its toll. Despite being raised in a family of actors, there’s no denying that, from the very start, the young star’s life was far from simple.

As previously mentioned, Gilbert was given up for adoption right after her birth — and that fact can bring its own trauma, even though she knew from a young age that she was adopted. And tragedy struck early on, with her adoptive father Paul Gilbert dying when she was only 12 years old. From then on Little House on the Prairie actor and director Landon served as a role model and a mentor. Unfortunately, that relationship became a strained one, and they ended up not talking for a very long time.

A lavish Hollywood celebrity life on the outside with traumatic experiences behind the scenes quite often leads down a well-trodden path — addiction. Unfortunately, that was also the case for Gilbert, who struggled with dependencies to alcohol and drugs. Of course, she kept it all under the radar as much as she could. But she officially opened up on these issues in her autobiography, released in 2009.

Gilbert even publicly talked about one instance where she fell asleep in a dog’s bed while her friend was staying over at her place. Luckily, she looked for and received help. On the other hand, alcohol wasn’t the only way for her to drown her sorrow. There was also, as she explained, co-dependence on men. Additionally, she also became known for having cosmetic surgeries.

These procedures became increasingly evident, to such an extent that the habit could be classified as a kind of addiction in itself. After years of public speculation, she finally opened up about it in an interview with People magazine, saying that she “quit doing Botox and all that stuff.” In an official blog post in 2015 she revealed that she had got rid of her breast implants as well.

Aside from her Hollywood life and all its pros and cons, Gilbert got into arguably the worst drug of them all — politics. Joking aside, she did run for the US House of Representatives in 2016 for Michigan’s 8th congressional district. For better or for worse, she dropped out of the race in May 2016 citing health issues.

But the perfect getaway finally came in 2018. Gilbert and her husband, actor Timothy Busfield — whom she married in 2013 — purchased a house in the Catskill Mountains in the state of New York. Yes, it seems part of the couple’s plan to shore up and support their stable marriage was to acquire a cottage in a quiet and private place somewhere in the mountains.

By now, we’re all aware that 2020 was a year that changed everyone’s lives. That’s equally true for actors and any other kinds of celebrities. In Gilbert’s case, it was a true turning-point. She and Busfield had harbored a dream of moving away from the big-city noise to a more modest and quieter place. And what better moment to get away from it all than during a worldwide pandemic and lockdown?

The couple’s final “official” decision to adopt their new lifestyle permanently came in May 2022. Looking back at it, we could say that it was expected. But when the news broke, some people were surprised by the choice. A big star leaving the allure of a seemingly ideal Hollywood lifestyle to live in secluded mountains somewhere in the wilderness of upstate New York?

So we get to the main question: exactly why did Gilbert run away from it all? The simplest answer is because she wanted to and because she could. As odd as it may sound to some, celebrity life isn’t always really that appealing. At least not in the long run: it can drain you. The actress simply wanted to escape.

Considering everything listed above, it’s clear that Gilbert’s life wasn’t ever simple. And the craziest part is that we haven’t even covered it all. But that’s what brings us to the conclusion that the decision to leave it all behind is a culmination of various reasons. The rough beginnings, the adoption, the passing of her adoptive father, failed relationships, struggles with addiction, and various other issues all add up. Ultimately, they were enough for Gilbert to give up on Hollywood: she was just tired of it all.

Fortunately, at this point, this appears to be a story with a happy ending. Or, to be even more optimistic, the beginning of a new and inspiring story. Glance at her Instagram account and you’ll see that Gilbert is living a happy life with her husband in the Catskill Mountains. And by the looks of it, she’s not missing out on anything.

Perhaps Gilbert can be an inspiration to us all. But not every part of Gilbert's life has come together so full circle. The star also revealed that she hadn't spoken to her brother Jonathan, the actor who played Willie Oleson, in years. So what exactly happened between them?

Melissa and Jonathan weren’t actually blood relatives. They had been adopted by Paul Gilbert, an actor, and his partner Barbara Crane. You would have thought that growing up on the same TV show would’ve made them closer, especially as adults, but unfortunately it never did.

In 2009 Melissa released a book, titled Prairie Tale, about her experiences growing up as a child actor. It went into a lot of detail about her life, her adoption, and her thoughts towards her family. Not all of it is positive, but the memoir is a fascinating look behind the scenes of the beloved show.

“I became a big sister when I was almost four years old,” Melissa recalled in the autobiography. “Jonathan arrived to great fanfare. And to my even greater annoyance. I had no idea how my parents got him, where they got him, or, more important[ly], why they got him.”

The young girl wasn’t at all happy with this sudden change. Melissa wrote in the book, “As far as I was concerned, he was an interloper relegating me, the headliner, to opening-act status… I think one can safely wager I was jealous of Jonathan and wanted to get rid of him.”

Sibling rivalry’s a long-established phenomenon, of course, which gets even more complicated when there’s a TV show in the mix. And Little House on the Prairie became a big, big hit. It made Melissa Gilbert the youngest ever actress to be given a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

Jonathan’s role on the show was smaller, and Melissa soon found kids of her own age to befriend during filming. One of them was Alison Arngrim, who ironically played a girl who bullied Laura on the show. “It was great to have a friend on the set,” Melissa explained. “We celebrated birthdays together, had sleepovers, and got into adventures on the lot.”

And Melissa also got on better with her next sibling, a little girl named Sara. “With Jonathan’s arrival, I’d felt intruded upon,” she wrote in the memoir. “Sara was different. She was my little baby doll.” Melissa also added, in stark contrast to what she’d written about Jonathan, “Not only was she my mother’s miracle, as far as I was concerned, [but] she was mine, too. She still is.”

You may recognize the name Sara Gilbert. She’s a TV star in her own right who’s been on Roseanne, The Conners, and The Talk among other series. When Sara departed The Talk in 2019, Melissa wrote on Twitter, “I love my baby sister so much. I am so incredibly proud of her.”

Unfortunately, there was enough heartbreak in the family to strain any sibling relationship. When Melissa and Jonathan were still children, their adoptive father, Paul, passed away suddenly. This happened in 1976, the same year that the Gilbert parents had separated, so it was two huge life events one after the other. Melissa was, of course, devastated.

Melissa recalled in the memoir, “He was actually dead. My brother was already crying when I let out a wail that sounded like the air was screaming out of me. I collapsed into uncontrollable, wrecking sobs. My daddy was gone.” But Melissa and Jonathan hadn’t been informed about the true circumstances of his death.

While Melissa and her brother were told that their father died of a stroke, he’d actually taken his own life. Melissa explained to Oprah Winfrey in 2014, “We were told — my brother and I — that he had a second stroke in his sleep and passed away. Actually, everyone was told that. There were only a couple of people who knew the truth: that my father had, in fact, committed suicide.”

Melissa then told Oprah what’d actually been going on in her father’s life at the time. “Basically, what happened was he was under the care of the VA. He was a World War Two veteran, and he was in uncontrolled, excruciating pain and had been threatening suicide. So, he shot himself,” she said.

Obviously, finding out the truth had been incredibly hard on Melissa. She said during the Oprah interview, her anguish evident for all to see, “I still sometimes wonder why I wasn’t enough to stick around for. But he was in unbearable pain. I understand his decision, and I honor that decision.”

Melissa also told Oprah, “You’re the first person I’ve spoken to about it publicly. I ended up on anti-depressants for a while, too... [for] about six months. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep. It was grief all over again.” This isn’t the only painful experience Melissa has shared with the world, either.

In Prairie Tale Melissa explained what happened when she eventually met her biological dad, David Darlington, for the first time. But the encounter was laced with tragedy before it even took place. Melissa’s birth mother, Kathy, a woman whom the actress hadn’t even known by name, had already passed away.

Melissa remembered in her memoir, “It turned out Kathy had died in 1980 after years of nagging injuries stemming from a serious motorcycle accident she and David were in shortly after my birth. Later that night, I ate dinner at David’s house, where his daughter Bonne shed more light on the family’s history, which included an unsettling amount of alcoholism and cancer.”

The reunion wasn’t really what Melissa had dreamed of. “Sadly, it was not the warm, loving, we’ve-been-waiting-for-you-to-show-up fantasy I had entertained ever since initiating the search for my birth parents,” she admitted. “There wasn’t any meaningful discussion about my origins, my first 24 hours in this world, or whether, despite giving me up for adoption, either one of my parents had ever wanted me.”

Melissa continued, “Reality was a tough pill to swallow after believing for 28 years that my birth parents were quite different from what I encountered. Not only was that bubble unceremoniously burst, but David by the end of the evening [also] insisted I had been born in 1963, not ’64 as my birth certificate said, which made me a year older!”

So, unfortunately, despite living the charmed life of a child star on the surface of things, Melissa’s youth and adult life were both full of problems, tragedies, and secrets. And Melissa’s brother, Jonathan, wasn’t there for many of the big moments. Melissa explained in the memoir what had happened.

“My brother, Jonathan, completely cut himself off from the family,” Melissa stated bluntly. “He turned 18 and simply disappeared. Though he would turn up a couple of times over several years, I have only seen him three times in the last two decades. Surprisingly, I am at peace with it.”

We don’t know exactly what happened between the brother and sister, and we most probably never will unless one of them decides to go into more detail about it. But we do know what became of Jonathan. He quit the acting world, got a finance MBA, and eventually became a stockbroker.

Alison Arngrim, Melissa’s friend who played Nellie, spoke about Jonathan when she appeared on the podcast From the Desk in 2018. “He really didn’t want to be in the show, it’s true,” she revealed. “He’s our Where’s Waldo? [and] has fallen off the face of the Earth. He’s doing his own thing.”

Alison also recalled how Jonathan had earned the role in the first place. She explained, “Melissa gets the part of Laura, and he’s with them at the audition, like they weren’t going to leave him in the car. And then they were like, ‘Well, who are you? Oh my God, he’s adorable. Wait, he could be Willie.’ He’ll be hanging around anyways — too young to go to school… So he was just hired.”

And, Alison said, Jonathan hated the intrusion that came with being famous. “We would go to parties, and Melissa and I would be off to some red carpet thing, NBC affiliate this, and blah blah blah that,” she recalled. “He’d be back at the house playing pinball. We’d be all dressed up, we’d be picking her up, going somewhere together. We’d be like, ‘Aren’t you coming?’ He’d be like, ‘No.’”

“He did no publicity — he completely didn’t care,” Alison added. “And as soon as he was done, he packed his things and went, ‘See ya,’ and moved out of her house. He was never into the idea of showbiz, publicity, interviews, anything. So, when people go, ‘Is he coming to reunions?’ Like, he didn’t go to personal appearances and events when he was on the show!”

You can find more information on Jonathan if you really look for it, though. According to the internet, he’s married to a woman named Keren Gilbert, and she’s making waves in the diet and health food business. She spoke a little about her husband and family during a 2015 interview with the website InnovateLI.

Keren and Jonathan were now parents to three children, she told the website, and all were boys. She also has an NYU master’s degree in nutrition and food studies, and her startup, Decision Nutrition, was doing really well. Jonathan was present at the interview, too, and said that he’d always believed in her because “Keren is just too talented.”

Jonathan and Keren seemed poised to make a lot of money from the billion-dollar diet industry. He proudly told the website, “Talk to me again in a year, and Keren will be twice as popular.” Keren herself added, “Seven years ago, I was really down. But I had a really supportive partner.” It’s a shame Melissa hasn’t also had Jonathan’s support over the years.

Writing in her book about how she ended up estranged from her brother, Melissa said she was at peace with the situation. But she added, “My heart does ache for my mother: I would learn later on what it means to let go of a son.” Unfortunately, there was more family strife to come for Melissa, and this time it involved her own children.

Melissa wed Bo Brinkman — a man she’d been seeing for a mere six weeks — in 1988 and had a son with him named Dakota. Unfortunately, the relationship soon deteriorated. Melissa wrote in her book that it had been “fueled by alcohol, insecurity, and the unfamiliarity of two people who barely knew each other trying to merge their lives and work.”

The marriage fell apart, and it wasn’t an amicable separation. Then, a few years later, Brinkman relocated and Dakota asked if he could go too — leaving his mother behind. Melissa was horrified and began to doubt her relationship with her son as well as whether she’d been a good parent to him.

Melissa revealed, “Until then, I had no doubt that I was a good mother. My life wasn’t perfect or traditional, but motherhood was my top priority… But then something happened that put a major crack in my self-confidence. Bo called to tell me that he was moving back to Texas, and then he said the words that hit me like a sledgehammer: Dakota wanted to go with him.”

Knowing that her son wanted to move away from her was devastating for Melissa. She ended up going to her shrink for help and said she entered their office “weeping, wanting to know what was wrong with [her] that my kid wanted to move to Texas.” The shrink replied, “It’s not what’s wrong with you. It’s what’s wrong with his father that your kid feels he has to go to Texas to take care of him.”

“Did I want him hating me for the rest of his life because I said no?” Melissa mused. “Or did I want him hating me for a smaller part of his life because I said yes?” She also discussed the issue with her second husband, actor Bruce Boxleitner. She’d married him in 1995, and they had a son together, too.

Thankfully, Bruce was able to help. “I talked it over with Bruce, who pointed out Dakota would be back for long weekends, holidays, and the summer,” Melissa wrote. “So it was just a different way of dividing up the visitation schedule we had already worked out.” She tried to “come to terms” with the situation but found it very hard.

“I was fine as I took him to the airport and put him on a plane,” Melissa added. “I got about two miles up the freeway before I fell apart. Agonizingly sad, primal screams came out of me, and I pulled off to the side of the road and just wailed. As far as I was concerned, I was no better than my birth mother. I had just given my kid away.” But it wouldn’t always be this hard.

Dakota is now an adult with an acting career of his own. He’s seemingly very close to his mother, too, and in 2021 he and his wife, Marissa, made her a grandmother. Their daughter, Ripley Lou Brinkman, was born in June of that year, and Melissa was of course absolutely thrilled.

In fact, Melissa now has lots of children she’s close to. Her second biological son is the one she had with Bruce Boxleitner, Michael, who’s named after her Little House on the Prairie co-star Michael Landon. And though the couple split in 2011, she’s also maintained relationships with Bruce’s sons Sam and Lee. Then, in 2013, she wed actor Timothy Busfield and became stepmother to his children, too.

There’s no doubt that Melissa’s experienced a lot of pain in her life — her father’s death and brother’s estrangement, to name just a few — but now things seem to be better for her. In 2019 she paid tribute to her new husband Timothy on Instagram, writing, “I have never been more content, more cherished, or happier. Every day, even the difficult ones, is filled with a joy I never could have imagined.” But what about the rest of the cast? Did things turn out well for them in the end, too?

Equally beloved was Charles’s wife Caroline. Though unlike Brandon, Karen Grassle – who took the role – was not well known before Little House on the Prairie. Yet that would all change later. Grassle’s much-admired performance scored her a spot in the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1998.

Grassle never quite hit the heights again and instead enjoyed smaller parts in various shows. But she remains a popular actress in theater, where she’s enjoyed a lot of success. These days she largely keeps busy on stages closer to home in the San Francisco Bay area. And it clearly agrees with her, as you can see.

Bumptious Carrie Ingalls was played by not one but two actors – twins Lindsay Greenbush and sister Sidney. Famously, the character takes a tumble in the opening credits. Though it turns out that the fall was totally unscripted. Lindsay explained to People Weekly magazine in 2001, “[Sidney] Robyn actually fell because she had her shoes on the wrong feet.”

The twins’ taste of fame proved to be just about enough for them. They appeared together in a few ads, but soon they had quit the acting world for college. Lindsay lives quietly in California while Sidney went down the opposite route – becoming a pro rodeo rider. She’s pretty good at it too; in fact, the latter is a champion at barrel racing. We hear that she avoids tumbles, though.

Only 12 when cast as Mary Ingalls, Melissa Sue Anderson was already something of a star. In fact, she’d had roles in The Brady Bunch and Bewitched. And her talent was plain to see. Anderson gained an Emmy nomination in 1978 for her portrayal of the reserved Mary, who loses her sight during the series.

The Emmys knocked at Anderson’s door again a couple of years later, when she took out a Daytime award for her part in an ABC children’s program. This was the highlight of a successful career after Little House for the fresh-faced star. She’s also proved a dab hand at writing, and in 2010 Anderson produced an autobiography focusing on the show that truly made her name.

Little House is, of course, chockfull of heartwarming characters. But the fans among you will know that Harriet Oleson is not one of them. Portrayed by Katherine MacGregor, Harriet is a downright nasty sort – gripped with avarice, full of herself and always willing to share a piece of gossip. But MacGregor avoided making Harriet one-dimensional.

As MacGregor told the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper in 1981, “I look for the humor of Mrs. Oleson. She was originally painted as just black-and-white mean. Anyone that mean has to be a fool. So I began mixing farce into it. I think the audience counts on seeing Mrs. Oleson fall on her fanny and get her comeuppance.” MacGregor passed away in 2018 aged 93 at California’s Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills.

Character actor Richard Bull loved his time on Little House on the Prairie, where he played Nels Oleson. He told The Wisconsin State Journal newspaper in 1975, “This series is especially nice. It is about as steady a job as one could get as an actor, and the company is a joy to work with.”

Having enjoyed many roles in Hollywood, Bull eventually went back to his native Midwest. And he lived in Chicago for many years with his wife Barbara Collentine – also an actor. Unusually for the world of acting, perhaps, Bull and Collentine had a long-lasting marriage of more than 65 years. Though the former sadly passed away in 2014.

Although renowned for his friendliness, town doctor Hiram Baker was not particularly lucky in love. When Kate – a relative of Harriet Oleson – joined him as he did his rounds, he thought maybe he could have a shot at romance. Yet despite attempting to woo her some, he had to conclude that she might prefer a younger man.

Actor Kevin Hagen was much more successful with the ladies in real life, though. In fact, he managed to marry four of them! Hagen was also a success in the acting profession. After Little House, he showed up often on TV and then moved base to Grants Pass, Oregon. Even deep in the country, the star couldn’t quit acting – writing his own Doc Baker one-man show. Sadly, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2004 and died a year later.

Nellie Oleson is the character we all love to hate. Mean and spoilt, she’d constantly cross swords with Laura. And sometimes there were disastrous consequences. But you wouldn’t think it to look at her: Alison Arngrim’s sweet-as-pie face cloaked the sneaky character within.

Given Nellie’s sharp tongue, it can’t be too much of a surprise that the woman who played her should end up making her corn as a standup comic. On top of that, Arngrim wrote a hilarious memoir of the show called Confessions of a Prairie Bitch. More seriously, she has also made a name for herself as an activist in HIV/AIDS.

Albert Quinn Ingalls is the adopted brother of Laura in the show, and he’s something of a tearaway – going on the run from the Ingalls home five times. Coincidentally, Matthew Labyorteaux was himself adopted and also had some early troubles. According to Biography.com, medical professionals had claimed that the future actor might always struggle with life.

Though acting seemed to have brought out the best in Labyorteaux. Interestingly given that he didn’t say a word before the age of five years old, the star actually specializes as a voice actor. Yes, he’s often heard in animated series, advertisements, and video games.

Dabbs Greer had one of those faces: you’d see it all over the place. Actually, you really would see it everywhere, since Greer had a very full CV as a jobbing actor. The Missouri native found a home on the Prairie as Reverend Robert Alden. And it was by no means the only time that he featured as a man of religion.

In fact, Greer had the distinction of performing the marriage ceremony for two sets of beloved characters in the 1960s. He said the words for Rob and Laura Petrie when he took the role of a military chaplain in The Dick Van Dyke Show and then wed Mike and Carol Brady of The Brady Bunch. Greer had moved to the Californian city of Pasadena in 1943, and it’s here that he sadly passed away in 2007.

When dreamboat Dean Butler wandered into Little House on the Prairie, you just knew Laura’s temperature was going to rise. And it sure did; the two became the show’s central love story. “Manly” and “Beth” would eventually become Mr. and Mrs. Wilder, with Butler capturing the hearts of viewers and Laura alike as the smoldering Almanzo.

As well as Laura, Butler clearly fell deeply in love with the show. He contributed hours of narration and extras for DVDs of the series. In the meantime, he also carved out a successful career on the stage, where he could be seen starring in shows such as West Side Story and Into the Woods.

Ohio native Ruth Foster had caught the eye as a dancer long before starring as Walnut Grove’s postwoman Melinda Foster. She’d won a contest at the age of 12 and had found her calling. Soon couthe performer could be seen dancing across stages all over, as Foster featured in traveling troupes as well as the Latin Quarter Show.

It turns out that Foster still loved to dance years after her stint at the post office in Little House. Yes, she wowed audiences with the Palm Springs and Branson Follies even when most of us would have handed in our dancing shoes. She kept it up until hitting 85 years old, when she finally retired. Foster passed away in 2012 in Del Mar, California.

Grace Ingalls was actually played by a set of twins. Brenda and Wendi Turnbaugh had a lot of fun with the role as the latter told The Turnbaugh Twins Fansite in 2004. She said that they enjoyed “jumping over cow pies, playing in our dressing room, and being very quiet when we were told.”

Mind you, the experience wasn’t enough to lure them into the world of Hollywood. The two would only be seen in one ad after the show. So keen on anonymity were they that they went by their stepdad’s name Schlecht for some time, according to the Zunshine website. Still, they are good friends – living close to one another – so who needs fame?

Now if you were to look at Victor French, you’d reckon him a bruiser. And that’s what he made his name playing: villains. Though despite his large frame and scowl, Isaiah Edwards was not quite the bad guy. Sure, he seemed rough, but the tough exterior shielded a heart of gold, and he was always there for the Ingalls family.

French was not just a stereotypical tough guy either. Multitalented, he actually directed 18 of the 50 episodes of Little House on the Prairie, and he starred in sitcom Carter Country after leaving. Yet French was a heavy smoker and sadly passed away as a result in 1989. But he never lost his comedic streak and left friends with a plane that trailed a humorous message at his funeral.

You might know the name Merlin Olsen from another world entirely. Yes, he was actually a world-leading football star. He spent more than a decade in the defensive line for the Los Angeles Rams before appearing as farmer Jonathan Garvey on Little House.

But Olsen’s time in the world of TV had an outcome that he could never have foreseen – or so he would claim. In 2009 Olsen was diagnosed with a form of cancer known as mesothelioma. And he took the TV studios to court claiming that it was through them that he had been exposed to asbestos, which is a leading cause of the condition.

When Charlotte Stewart – school teacher Eva Beadle-Simms in the show – found herself widowed in 2012, she likely didn’t expect to remarry any time soon. After all, she was in her 70s. But that’s exactly what she did! She’d known new husband Michael for 30 years without romance ever quite sparking. How? Well, her sister is his brother’s wife.

Stewart had been quite the loveable character in Little House, so it’s no surprise that she remained a good catch. After the end of the beloved Western show, she found further fame working with David Lynch on acclaimed movie Eraserhead and creepy classic Twin Peaks before retiring to Napa, California.

Like brother Matthew, Patrick Labyorteaux is an adoptee, and he’s undoubtedly glad for it. When first adopted, the latter had not been well nourished, which had left him with a host of mental issues. His social workers considered him “unadoptable,” but the Labyorteaux weren’t put off. Amazingly, his mom later explained that the future star’s symptoms disappeared after a couple of years living with his loving family.

After Patrick’s appearance as Andy Garvey, he’d go on to a mass of varying TV and film roles. Perhaps his highest point came when he starred in naval lawyer drama JAG for a decade. And he showed his gratitude for his being rescued by adoption by giving back to his community. Yes, the charity that he founded has raised millions to help runaway youths.

Karl Swenson played ill-fated Walnut Grove elder Lars Hanson. In his final episode, Hanson is taken ill, and the viewer learns from Laura that he has in fact perished. But this was not the original plan for the episode at all.

Swenson had apparently pulled Michael Landon to one side and asked to be written out, according to the website Do You Remember? He’d reportedly had enough of acting. But a bit more than a week before the episode appeared on TV, Swenson passed away in real life.