Retro Bio: Michael Landon: His Triumph and Tragedy
would be happy and productive years for him. NBC cancelled Bonanza in 1972, however, soon after he signed with the network to create the Little House on the Prairie TV series based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. Besides acting he directed, wrote scripts, and produced the series.
Toward the end of the series, he fell in love with one of the show's make-up artists, Cindy Clerico. He divorced his second wife to marry Cindy in 1981, and hurt NBC's image of him as a family man. Kodak dropped him as their spokesman.
Landon's need for control is a recurring issue throughout the book. He mocked anyone who prevented him from gaining control over a project, such as the 1983 TV movie Love is Forever. He was given an executive producer credit on it but he was just acting, and his attempts to wrest control from the director and producers grated on them. He began acting childishly on the set, disrupting cast and crew with dirty jokes. As the author notes, the movie is notable only for Landon's off-screen antics.
In his next series Highway to Heaven, he played an angel sent to earth to help troubled people. Again, it was popular, and lasted five years.
In the spring of 1991, Landon started suffering severe stomach pains. Then in his early 50s, he was tanned and muscular, seemingly unlikely to get cancer. Starting in April 1991, Joyce movingly details his struggle fighting pancreatic and liver cancers, until his final hours on July 1st. At the time few pancreatic cancer patients lived more than five years -- if it had been diagnosed earlier he might have had a better chance of survival. After his friend and co-star Victor French's death from lung cancer in 1989, Landon had an examination to check for the disease.
Author Aileen Joyce quoted from Landon's past interviews and she quotes co-stars Merlin Olson (Father Murphy, Jonathan Garvey on Little House), Alison Arngrim (Nellie), Victor French (Mr. Edwards), crew members and close friends, who revealed anecdotes about his practical jokes and his use of sarcasm as defense against detractors on the set. The Landon family apparently wasn't involved with the book.
Joyce's book is a balanced and cogent account of Landon's life, more a tribute to his enormous ability to rise above difficult circumstances.
Aileen Joyce's other books include Jerry Springer, Julia: The Untold Story of America's Pretty Woman, Arsenio: The Prince of Late Night: An Unauthorized Biography, and The Unofficial L.A. Law Book.
This book is out-of-print.
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