Retro Bio: Michael Landon: His Triumph and Tragedy
© Michelle Troutman
ISBN #: 0-8217-3651-5 (out-of-print)
August 1991
paperback
217 pages
Michael Landon: His Triumph and Tragedy conveys his victory over his obstacles as an inspiration to others.
Landon was born Eugene Orowitz, son of a former dancer and a movie theater district manager. His mother Peggy lavished attention on his older sister Evelyn, and the few times his father was home he showed little open affection toward him.
When Eugene developed a bed-wetting problem, his mother would display his soiled sheets on her clothesline for the whole neighborhood to see. Before he went to school she tied parts of the sheets to him. After he grew up and left home he had little contact with his mother; he considered her neurotic and a manic-depressive. On the day of his marriage to his first wife Dodie his mother threatened him with a knife and tried to commit him to a mental hospital.
In high school, his unexpected aptitude for the javelin helped boost his self confidence. He won local and regional championships, and later became the #1 high school javelin thrower in the U.S. The movie Samson and Delilah influenced him to model his appearance after the hero's shoulder-length hair and bulging biceps. He planned to go to the University of Southern California on a scholarship and onto the Olympics, then try acting. During his first month at USC, a group of fellow athletes tackled him and chopped his locks into a crew cut. Without the long hair he equated with his Samson-like strength, he tore his shoulder ligaments and could no longer throw the javelin.
After a friend asked him to collaborate with him in an audition for a part, he decided to pursue acting. Soon he landed small roles on TV dramas. He accepted the starring role in the low budget movie I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), not expecting it to become a hit. A few years later he played "Little Joe" on Bonanza, which would run 14 years. On Bonanza, he started writing short comedy bits for the show and did some cinematography, already trying to broaden his experience into production.
Joyce often emphasizes Landon's TV shows were a way for him to work through his painful past and influence others to overcome their problems. His need to move beyond acting, to her, was a need for control connected to his troubled childhood and unhappiness over his father's problems finding work near the end of his life.
As is often inevitable with celebrities, Landon's image was one too perfect for him to live up to. He thought success would bring him happiness; instead he turned to alcohol and amphetamines to keep himself working long hours.
He met his second wife Lynn on the Bonanza set and those
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