Rock Hudson

Hudson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6104 Hollywood Blvd. His co-star on Little House, Melissa Gilbert, named her son, Michael Garrett Boxleitner (1995), after Landon. Following Hudson's death, his live-in lover Marc Christian filed a palimony lawsuit against his estate and won. They married in 1983 and had Jennifer (born in 1983) and Sean (born in 1986). Hudson remained in the closet until his sexual orientation became known toward the end of his life. 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. Hudson was reportedly very good friends with Jim Nabors of television's Gomer Pyle. Landon treated her like his own child and had four more children with Lynn.

The studio was likely using this sham marriage in order to cover Hudson's homosexuality, which would have made him box office poison at the time if it were made known. 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. The couple divorced in 1958. He adopted her son Mark and together they adopted another boy. Hudson married studio employee Phyllis Gates in 1955, and the news was made known by all the major gossip magazines. His first wife was Dodie Frasier, a legal secretary who was six years his senior. James in the popular American television series McMillan and Wife that aired on NBC. Landon was married three times.

From 1971 to 1978, Hudson starred opposite Susan St. He is buried in a Jewish cemetery. Many consider his performance as the elderly New York City banker Arthur Hamilton turned young Malibu painter Tony Wilson in the 1966 science fiction film by director John Frankenheimer,Seconds, as the finest of his career. A few weeks later, Landon passed away in Malibu, California with his family, children and colleagues by his side. The two made Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back and Send Me No Flowers together. His last public appereance was on the "Johnny Carson Show" in June. During the 1950s and 1960s, Hudson was known for several fluff comedies, largely starring with Doris Day. 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 1956 he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and two years later, Look Magazine named him Star of the Year. He then went to CBS and in 1991 starred in a two hour pilot called Us. His one line took 38 takes, because he kept forgetting it. Landon had produced all three of his series for NBC, but after ending Highway he was let go. His good looks and strapping size got him a Hollywood audition, and some capped teeth and a name change got him a small part in the forgettable 1948 film Fighter Squadron. When his friend and co-star, Victor French, died of lung cancer in 1989, Landon cancelled the series. Hudson served in the United States Navy during World War II as an airplane mechanic. 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.

His announcement, and subsequent death from the disease at the age of only 59, brought the disease and HIV into the mainstream of American consciousness. 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. Born in Winnetka, Illinois, Hudson was the first major American celebrity to admit to being afflicted with AIDS. Little House would later develop into a television series. Roy Harold Scherer Jr. (November 17, 1925 - October 2, 1985), better known as Rock Hudson, was an American actor. 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. The show ran for 14 years, from 1959 to 1973, and spanned 461 episodes.

Late in the series, Landon asked for the direct and got permission to direct a few episodes of the series. 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. He also gained exposure as Tom Dooley in the western The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959). Landon's first big part was as Tony Rivers in I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957).

He decided on the name by picking it out of a Los Angeles phone book. 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. He earned a scholarship to UCLA, but could no longer attend after tearing a ligament in his arm. In high school, Landon excelled at track, especially with the javelin.

Landon also directed the last two series. 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. In the 1960s he starred as "Little Joe" on Bonanza. Landon was best known for his starring roles in three TV series spanning three decades.

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.