A Look Back at the Tragic Death of TV Icon Michael Landon: Three Decades Later

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Entertainment legend Michael Landon found fame with three hit TV shows: Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, and Highway to Heaven. Landon was working on a fourth series before cancer cut his life tragically short on July 1, 1991.

A Closer Look

A multi-talented creative individual, Michael Landon worked for decades as an actor, producer, writer, and director. He was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz on Halloween October 31, 1936, in Queens, New York. His father, Eli Maurice Orowitz, was an actor and movie theater manager; his mother Peggy O'Neill was an actress.

The family moved to the suburb of Collingswood, New Jersey, where the young Eugene grew up.

The young Orowitz eventually enrolled in acting school and changed his name to Michael Landon, which he discovered in a phone book. A short time later, Landon was playing the lead in the television show Telephone Time.

Smaller parts followed in Westerns and drama anthologies such as Playhouse 90, while he made his big-screen debut in the 1957 horror movie, I Was a Teenage Werewolf.

Then came Bonanza (1959-73) on NBC, the same network on which he starred in Little House on the Prairie (1974-83), and Highway to Heaven (1984-89).

Landon had finished filming the pilot for a new show titled Us, but such was not meant to be. The iconic actor suddenly passed away.

Conclusion

The world of entertainment lost a strong creative force the sad day Michael Landon died.