Michael Landon

His co-star on Little House, Melissa Gilbert, named her son, Michael Garrett Boxleitner (1995), after Landon. About one year later, Lemmon, his old pal and frequent co-star, was also buried at the cemetery. They married in 1983 and had Jennifer (born in 1983) and Sean (born in 1986). Matthau died of a massive heart attack in Santa Monica, California at the age of 79, and is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California. This marriage was believed to be very happy and different from typical "Hollywood marriages", so the tabloids jumped at the affair Landon started with a make-up artist and stand-in for one of the stars he had met at the set of "Little House on the Prairie", Cindy Clerico, who was 21 years younger than he. Charles directed his father in the movie The Grass Harp (1995). Landon treated her like his own child and had four more children with Lynn. Matthau had two children, Jennifer and David, by his first wife, Grace Geraldine Johnson, and a son, Charles, by his second wife and widow, Carol Marcus.

A few years later he divorced Dodie to marry (Marjorie) Lynn Noe, a model in 1962 who had a little daughter from a previous marriage. Matthau and Lemmon became lifelong friends afterwards and in an amazing act of teamwork made a total of ten films together, including the popular 1993 hit Grumpy Old Men. He adopted her son Mark and together they adopted another boy. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His first wife was Dodie Frasier, a legal secretary who was six years his senior. In 1966, he again achieved glory as a shady lawyer opposite Jack Lemmon in The Fortune Cookie. Landon was married three times. It was also during this time that Matthau nearly died of a heart attack.

He is buried in a Jewish cemetery. He was 45 when, in 1965, Neil Simon cast him in the hit play The Odd Couple. A few weeks later, Landon passed away in Malibu, California with his family, children and colleagues by his side. The sweet smell of success came late for Matthau. His last public appereance was on the "Johnny Carson Show" in June. Although he was constantly working, it seemed that the fact that he was not handsome in the traditional sense would keep him from being a top star. This was meant to be another winning series for Landon, but he was soon diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had spread to the liver. In addition to his busy movie and stage schedule, Matthau made many television appearances in live TV plays.

He then went to CBS and in 1991 starred in a two hour pilot called Us. In 1962, Matthau won acclaim as a sympathetic sheriff in Lonely Are the Brave. Landon had produced all three of his series for NBC, but after ending Highway he was let go. Matthau also directed a low budget 1960 film called The Gangster Story. When his friend and co-star, Victor French, died of lung cancer in 1989, Landon cancelled the series. That same year he made a western called Ride A Crooked Trail with Audie Murphy. In 1984 he began his role in Highway to Heaven as Jonathan Smith, an angel who tried to save people by helping them turn their lives around. He appeared in many films after this as a villain such as the 1958 King Creole (where he is beaten up by Elvis Presley!).

He not only starred in the show as the patriarch Charles Ingalls, but served as the producer, writer, director and executive producer. He served mostly in these capacities for the series' eight years, which ended in 1982. In 1955, he made his film debut as a whip-wielding bad guy in The Kentuckian opposite Kirk Douglas. Little House would later develop into a television series. One reviewer said, "The others just looked like actors in make-up, Walter Matthau really looks like a skid row bum!" Matthau was a respected stage actor for years in such fare as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and A Shot In The Dark. Soon after the cancellation of Bonanza, Landon started a new project in 1974, a television film called Little House on the Prairie based on the popular book by Laura Ingalls Wilder. He often joked that his best early review came in a play he did where he posed as a derelict. The show ran for 14 years, from 1959 to 1973, and spanned 461 episodes. He attained the rank of Staff Sergeant and became interested in acting.

Late in the series, Landon asked for the direct and got permission to direct a few episodes of the series. Army Air Corps during World War II. That same year he started starring in the then-new TV series Bonanza as "Little Joe." The youngest brother in the Cartwright family and always a ladies man, he quickly became one of the show's most beloved characters. Matthau was born in New York City as Walter Matuschanskayasky and served with the U.S. He also gained exposure as Tom Dooley in the western The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959). Walter Matthau (October 1, 1920 - July 1, 2000) was an American comedy actor possibly best known for his role as the gruff and less tidy member of The Odd Couple. Landon's first big part was as Tony Rivers in I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.

He decided on the name by picking it out of a Los Angeles phone book. Grumpier Old Men. At this point he started taking small roles and bit parts, but decided his birth name was not appropriate for an aspiring actor and changed his name to Michael Landon. Grumpy Old Men. He earned a scholarship to UCLA, but could no longer attend after tearing a ligament in his arm. Hopscotch. In high school, Landon excelled at track, especially with the javelin. Bad News Bears.

Landon also directed the last two series. The Odd Couple. In the 1970s and into the 1980s he starred as Charles Ingalls in Little House On The Prairie and starred in Highway to Heaven as an angel, also in the 1980s. The Fortune Cookie. In the 1960s he starred as "Little Joe" on Bonanza. Charade. Landon was best known for his starring roles in three TV series spanning three decades. King Creole.

Landon considered himself Jewish. Landon's father was Jewish, his mother was not. Michael Landon (October 31, 1936 - July 1, 1991), born Eugene Maurice Horowitz, was an American actor and director.