Michael Landon net worth is $40 million. Also know about Michael Landon bio, salary, height, age weight, relationship and more …

Michael Landon Wiki Biography

Eugene Maurice Orowitz was born on 31 October 1936, in Queens, New York City, USA of Jewish descent, and as Michael Landon was a director, producer, writer and actor, probably best known for being a part of the TV series “Bonanza” in which he played the role of Little Joe Cartwright. He was active in the industry from 1956 until his passing in 1991. All of his efforts helped put his net worth to where it is today.

How rich is Michael Landon? As of early-2018, sources inform us of a net worth that is at $40 million, mostly earned through a successful career on television. He was frequently featured on the cover of “TV Guide”, second only to Lucille Ball. All of his achievements ensured the position of his wealth.

At a young age, Michael’s family moved to Collingswood, New Jersey where he would later attend Collingswood High School. In school, he was a star javelin thrower and made the longest throw by a high schooler in the US that year. Eventually, he got a scholarship to the University of Southern California, but a tear in his shoulder ligaments ended his javelin throwing career.

Landon found his stage name with the help of a ‘phone book, and one of his first starring appearances was in the television series “Telephone Time” in 1956. The following year, he secured numerous film roles which increased his net worth; he was a part of “I Was a Teenage Werewolf”, “High School Confidential”, and “The Legend of Tom Dooley”, and also had roles on television including in “The Restless Gun”, “US Marshal”, “The Adventures of Jim Bowie”, and “Tales of Well Fargo” – he also had an uncredited speaking role in the television series “Cheyenne”. In 1957, he released a single entitled “Gimme a Little Kiss (Will “Ya” Huh)” which was often credited as the “Teenage Werewolf” due to the popularity of his role in the film.

In 1959, Michael then got his first starring television role in “Bonanza”, which was one of the first series to be broadcast in color. During the sixth season, the show would top the Nielsen ratings, retaining a top spot for the next three years. In 1962, he then forayed into writing his first script, and would make his first directorial work in the show six years later; during their final season, the ratings declined and the show eventually ended. He then joined the cast of “Little House on the Prairie” as Charles Ingalls, and that show would become highly successful as well.

His net worth increased even further, as it became Michael’s second longest running series. The show was nominated several times throughout its run before it eventually ended in 1983.

Landon then became a part of another successful program entitled “Highway to Heaven”, in which he played the angel Jonathan Smith, trying to earn his wings – he owned the show as he was the executive producer, writer and director. However, during the fourth season, the show dropped in ratings and would make a final fifth season run. After the end of the show, he moved to CBS and was the director of “Where Pigeons Go to Die” teleplay, and also worked on a pilot in 1991 called “Us” however, it never came to fruition due to his health.

For his personal life, it is known that Michael married Dodie Levy-Fraser in 1956 and they adopted a child together, but divorced in 1962. The following year, he married Marjorie Lynn and they had five children together including one from Lynn’s previous marriage, but they divorced in 1982.

The following year he married makeup artist Cindy Clerico and they had two children together. Michael was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1991 which was determined as terminal. He passed away four months after his diagnosis.

IMDB Wikipedia $40 million 1936 1936-10-31 1991 40000000 Actor American California Cheryl Ann Pontrelli Christopher B. Landon Cindy Landon (m. 1983–1991) Collingswood High School Director Dodie Levy-Fraser (m. 1956–1962) Eli Maurice Orowitz Evelyn Landon Forest Hills Jennifer Landon Josh Fraser Landon July 1 Leslie Landon Lynn Noe (m. 1963–1982) Malibu Mark Landon Michael Landon Michael Landon Jr. New York New York City October 31 Peggy O’Neill producer Sean Matthew Landon Shawna Landon United States University of Southern California Writer

Michael Landon Quick Info

Michael Landon Trademarks

1. Always known for his jokes.
2. Thick curly bouncy brown hair.
3. Gravelly raspy voice
4. Often played friendly roles that depend upon family values

Michael Landon Quotes

• I came home and found my 12-year-old daughter devouring the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Then I discovered that my wife had devoured them too when she was a girl, and was reading them again. So I went to NBC and told them Little House was it.
• [on his messy divorce from his second wife] The relationship lasted nineteen years. I don’t consider that a failed marriage. I don’t think it was a disaster. We produced some terrific kids. We just didn’t grow in the same direction. We became different people. We both changed. To stay with someone when you no longer have anything in common is the cruelest thing to do to a child. It’s much better to divorce and have two parents happy. I don’t know if Charles Ingalls would have stayed married to Caroline as long as he did, except that it was a long way to the next house in those days. I was not an aging lecher looking for a fresh young thing. You don’t dissolve a relationship to go to bed with someone twenty years younger. You have to have major differences to stop a relationship, after as many years as I was married. With a wife and seven children, there’s always a problem. Lynn and I fought a lot, about jealousy, about my being tied up with my work. I’d go into depressed moods, and then I’d go around screaming at people at home and in the studio – and at everyone in sight. Banging down phones, swearing and yelling. But I figure if you don’t have these kind of problems, life would just come up with some other unpleasantries for you. Nobody’s perfect. Not Charles Ingalls. Not Michael Landon.
• [on blaming one’s boss]: When a man knows he’s being wronged and that he should yell right back at his boss, but is afraid to because he fears being fired, then he had just convinced himself that he’s a coward and that is one of the worst things you can do to a person. I don’t blame a man for keeping his mouth shut in circumstances like that, but he will blame himself, and that is horrible.
• [In 1976]: The very worst thing you can do to a man is to make him think he is a coward. If a guy needs his job in order to feed and clothe his kids, he’ll put up with a lot of abuse before he fights back. I have seen many men mentally shattered by some big-mouth who screamed and yelled in order to get his way. Most of those men did not deserve the abuse but they had to have their jobs, so they kept their mouths shut – and that made them feel like cowards.
• I feel sorry for people who have problems which are beyond their control, but most of life’s problems are our own fault – and sympathy under those conditions doesn’t do a bit of good.
• [When he began his directorial debut on Bonanza (1959)]: When I direct, I try to work with a minimum number of set-ups [individual scenes] possible so we have time to do certain shots you usually don’t have a chance to do. In the first day of this show, for example, instead of having 15 set-ups, as is normal, we had only three in the can by noon. But they were intricate shots, and this technique pays off in the long run.
• [In 1979]: People would do themselves a great favor if they would take the blame for things that go wrong, and say to themselves, “I’ve got to do something about this.” But you can’t do anything if you always blame your problems on someone else. You have to say, “It’s my fault, and I’d better do something about this.”.
• [Who said in 1980 of Pernell Roberts’s departure on Bonanza (1959)]: Pernell didn’t like the show and would let you know it, but he rarely cared to do much about improving it. To say a show stinks doesn’t make it better. After he left, we took one leaf out of the dining room table and we all made more money because we split the take three ways instead of four.
• [Who differentiated between his Charles Ingalls character and himself]: Ingalls had a beard in real-life, but I don’t. The problem is that I can’t grow a beard – it just looks like stubble. I wasn’t going to play the part for six months with a beard glued to my face so I decided to play him clean-shaven.
• We each have our own miracles. I’m still hoping to beat it.
• [Who wrote the majority of the Little House on the Prairie (1974) episodes, where he had a voice in matters of the series’ policy]: We’re trying to stick close to the true story. The problem is the books were short and over four years – I think we can run four years – we’ll need more than 100 stories. So, we have to invite some.
• I never felt I was going to make it as an actor because to me actors were tall and handsome and had great voices.
• [In 1991]: If I’m gonna die, death’s gonna have to do a lot of fighting to get me.
• [In 1974]: Yes I am perfect. It’s a problem I’ve had all my life.
• [on the cancellation of Little House on the Prairie (1974)]: I wanted to destroy the entire town, which I did. Everybody needed the catharsis on that show. We were together for nine years, and that’s why we blew it up. That, plus the fact, I didn’t want anybody making a trashy movie at Walnut Grove, because I like that town.
• [on his physical technique]: I didn’t have the right look. Back then actors were big, muscular, terrific! And I was still 125 pounds and the five foot eleven I’d always be.
• [During his last days]: I don’t mind dying if I have to, but I’m damned if I want to pay for the guarantee. I’m sorry.
• [on being so popular on television]: Boy, you gotta be real sick to get this much attention.
• [on his illness]: Well, the news shocked the hell out of me. Nothing was further from my mind, since I’m only 54 and, with rare exceptions, I’d been healthy my whole life. Not that I don’t deserve to have a cancer. I’m a good athlete and I work out hard – before this happened I could bench press 300, 350 pounds, no sweat – but I’ve abused my body over the years. I don’t want people to think that everybody is a likely candidate for cancer of this type. I think I have it because for most of my life, though I was never a drunk, I drank too much. I also smoked too many cigarettes and ate a lot of wrong things. And if you do that, even if you think you’re too strong to get anything, somehow you’re going to pay.
• I want people to laugh and cry, not just sit and stare at the television. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I think viewers are hungry for shows in which people say something meaningful.
• I felt my father’s presence with me, enlightening my memories, helping me to commit to paper the feelings I had. I really heard my father speaking to me from the other dimension, filling my mind with just the right words. The story came so fast and was so right. In three days, the script was complete.
• I was grown before I realized that other mothers didn’t put their heads in the oven.
• Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows.

Michael Landon Important Facts

• His favorite drink was vodka.
• He began smoking four packs of cigarettes a day in 1961.
• Despite being one of the biggest names in television history, he never came close to being nominated for an Emmy Award, in any category.
• Had hired five of the real-life siblings on the set of Little House on the Prairie (1974), especially children of his own.
• He never practiced any religion as an adult.
• In the “Little House on the Prairie” books, Charles Ingalls wore a beard, but by the time this was turned into a series, Landon’s character never wore a beard.
• He wore four-inch lifts in Bonanza (1959) and Little House on the Prairie (1974).
• He was always known to keep his friendship with Johnny Carson and his marriage to Cindy Landon private.
• He attended and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at Temple Beth Sholom, a Conservative synagogue, then located in Haddon Heights, an area that did not allow Jews until after World War II, now in Cherry Hill. His family recalls that Landon “went through a lot of hassle studying for the big event, which included bicycling to a nearby town every day to learn how to read Hebrew and do the chanting”.
• His private life was always bothered by tabloid headlines.
• His ex-Little House on the Prairie (1974) co-star, Melissa Gilbert said in an interview that when she lost her father, Landon became like a surrogate father to her.
• He was one of the four celebrities behind Bob Hope, Johnny Carson and Lucille Ball to appear on the front cover of TV Guide, 15 times.
• On an episode of Highway to Heaven (1984), he directed the episode in which young kids were being diagnosed with cancer, while attending summer camp. In real life, he had also faced the same disease he succumbed to, six years later.
• Was the very first guest on the revised version of Match Game 73 (1973).
• His future Little House on the Prairie (1974) co-star, Karen Grassle was a huge fan of Bonanza (1959), who in turn was handpicked to play his wife, Caroline Ingalls, on the series.
• Immediately jumped to Little House on the Prairie (1974) for the lead role of Charles Ingalls, primarily because of his popularity on Bonanza (1959).
• A plaque and small playground referred to as the “Little Treehouse on the Prairie” was erected in Knights Park, a central park in Landon’s hometown of Collingswood. In 2011, the plaque was removed from the park by the borough and was later given to a local newspaper by an unnamed person. According to the Collingswood, New Jersey website, the plaque was removed during a fall cleanup with plans to return that to a safer location. The plaque was reinstated next to a bench in a safer location the following summer.
• Michael Landon passed away on July 1, 1991. Just two months before his death, he made his final guest appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962).
• He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 North Vine Street in Hollywood, California on August 15, 1984.
• He met Marjorie Lynn Noe on the set of Bonanza (1959). They were married for 19 years until their 1982 divorce.
• Was a commercial spokesperson for Kodak Camera in the 1970s and 1980s.
• Depression ran in his family.
• Before he was a successful actor and director, he was also a singer.
• When he married Dodie Levy-Fraser, his parents did not attend the wedding.
• Began directing at age 32.
• Longtime friends with Victor French.
• In 1993, TV Guide listed the Bonanza (1959) two-hour wedding episode, “Forever”, as one of television’s most memorable specials. Landon’s script fondly recalled brother Hoss, who was initially the story’s groom, before Dan Blocker’s untimely death.
• Acting mentor was Lorne Greene.
• Acting mentor and friends with Melissa Gilbert.
• Had lived in the same area as Dick Van Dyke, Pernell Roberts and Larry Hagman.
• During childhood, he always worried about his mother’s suicide attempts.
• His widow Cindy Landon is a vegetarian.
• Used to play tennis with Robert Fuller.
• Was associated with NBC from 1956 through 1990.
• Was hired to direct several episodes of Black Sheep Squadron (1976) that starred Robert Conrad. He was unavailable to do so, due to his contractual obligations working on Little House on the Prairie (1974), at the same network that Black Sheep Squadron, was on, which was NBC.
• Beat out two other actors Robert Blake and Robert Fuller for a co-starring role as Little Joe Cartwright on Bonanza (1959). This was because David Dortort had mixed feelings about the new, unfamiliar actor auditioning for the role, thinking Landon was way too young to play the role. With the encouragement of David’s wife, who picked up a publicity still of Landon, her husband changed his mind, and bestowed Landon the role.
• Began his career as a contract player for Warner Bros. Pictures in 1956.
• Was diagnosed with cancer, at the very same time actor Bill Bixby was. Coincidentally, both Bixby and Landon were at the same hospital [April 5, 1991].
• When Michael and Dodie’s marriage was floundering, they thought adopting another baby might help, they called him Jason. But they both realized before the final adoption papers had been signed, that it was not the answer. They gave the infant back to the agency and went ahead with a divorce. Michael moved out and got his own apartment (he was allowed visitation w/Mark and Josh). He saw Lynn Noe (second wife) on the Bonanza set and married her in 1963.
• Michael and his first wife Dodie were adopting a son named Jason in 1961. Shortly before or after their divorce in 1962, Dodie gave the child up for adoption to another couple.
• Was a commercial spokesperson for the public service message, Pharmacists Against Drug Abuse, in the early 1980s.
• Was raised near the same city as Bill Cosby.
• Almost got the lead role on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959), which went to Dwayne Hickman.
• Encouraged by his wife, Landon quit smoking in summer 1989 following his friend Victor French’s death.
• On May 21, 1991, he had a near fatal blood clot in his left leg that was successfully treated at Cedars-Sinai Hospital.
• Left an estate worth $100 million.
• Publicly supported Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election, and campaigned for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections.
• Attended Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration as Governor of California on January 3, 1971, and his first inauguration as President of the United States on January 20, 1981.
• His final series Highway to Heaven (1984) was canceled at the end of the fifth season, because of low ratings.
• His adoptive son, Mark Landon, died in May 2009 at age 60.
• After his second divorce and the cancellation of Little House on the Prairie (1974), Melissa Gilbert did not keep Landon in touch at all, until she reluctantly called him, when watching her television father on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962). After the call, she went to the Landon home, where Gilbert was his caregiver until his death.
• He once invited Shirley Jones to an art exhibit.
• Had a great deal of hobbies during the prime of his life: fishing, karate, golfing, swimming, spending family time, painting, cooking, playing bridge, playing with disabled people and weightlifting.
• According to Little House on the Prairie (1974), co-star, Karen Grassle, she once said in an interview that he had a very lonely childhood as a result of his parents fighting.
• Landon had appeared in almost every episode of Little House on the Prairie (1974), from 1974 to 1982, with the exception of the final year. He appeared in 177 of the 204 episodes of the series.
• He encouraged his children, not to make the same mistake Landon had made, when he was a teenager. As a result, his children were told to study, without watching television, except only that was Little House on the Prairie (1974).
• His daughter Leslie Landon attended the same middle school as his future Little House on the Prairie (1974), co-star, Melissa Gilbert. Leslie heard Gilbert in the school cafeteria say that she was going to play Laura Ingalls.
• Was very good friends with: Shirley Jones, Karen Grassle, Robert Fuller, James Drury, Doug McClure, Larry Hagman, Bill Bixby, Michele Lee, Brian Keith, Wink Martindale, Buddy Ebsen, James Arness, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Don Knotts, Dick Van Dyke, Chuck Connors, Dabbs Greer, Dan Blocker, Robert Conrad, Ronald Reagan, Johnny Carson, Kent McCray, William F. Claxton, Mariette Hartley, Connie Stevens, Abby Dalton, Ruta Lee, Lorne Greene, Victor Sen Yung, Richard Mulligan, Moses Gunn, Bob Eubanks, Lew Ayres, Ernest Borgnine, Charlotte Stewart, Bonnie Bartlett, Merlin Olsen, Victor French, Mickey Rooney, William Schallert and Richard Bull.
• Brian Keith and Ernest Borgnine attended his funeral.
• Best remembered by the public for his role as Little Joe Cartwright on Bonanza (1959) and for his starring role as Charles Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie (1974).
• He was buried at the same cemetery as his television father, Lorne Greene (Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, Culver City, California).
• Attended and graduated third from the bottom of his class at Collingswood High School in Collingswood New Jersey (1954). Had an I.Q. of 159.
• Michael Landon passed away on July 1, 1991, almost four months away from what would have been his 55th birthday on October 31.
• Like his Bonanza (1959) co-star Lorne Greene, Landon was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party.
• Wore lifts on Bonanza (1959) so he would not be dwarfed by considerably taller co-stars Dan Blocker and Lorne Greene.
• Despite only being given a 3-5 per cent chance of survival, Landon announced he was going to beat his pancreatic cancer. However, by the time of the diagnosis, the cancer had already spread to his liver and stomach.
• He was left-handed, and his awkward handwriting (he often hand-wrote scripts) sometimes made that difficult for his secretary to read what he had written).
• His stepdaughter, Cheryl, recalled in his biography “I Promised My Dad” that once Landon was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he realized that all the years of smoking, drinking and eating an unhealthy diet had taken their toll. Later, despite going on a regimen that included a naturalistic approach to the cancer (coffee enemas and a healthy diet), Landon was devastated to learn that the cancer had tripled in size.
• He smoked four packs of unfiltered Menthol cigarettes a day during his lifetime, which probably contributed to the pancreatic cancer that killed him.
• 12 years after his death, his eldest sister, Evelyn, died on New Years’ Day, 2003.
• By most accounts, he was exactly like the kind, gentle, heroic characters he portrayed onscreen, and in fact, several people complained about working with him, something rare in Hollywood.
• Wrote and directed two movies that were semi-autobiographical: The Loneliest Runner (1976) and Sam’s Son (1984).
• In 1954, he was the national high school record holder in the javelin throw.
• When he filed for divorce from Lynn, that cost him $26 million. Though he gave her his $3.5-million, 35-room Beverly Hills mansion, this bitter divorce was a devastating blow for Lynn, who stated on television that her ex-husband had become her angel (April 16, 1981).
• His second wife, Marjorie Lynn Noe, was one of the few people who refused to attend his funeral, because she told her children that the divorce had already been like a death to her.
• Had starred with Victor French on two of his successful television series: Little House on the Prairie (1974) and Highway to Heaven (1984).
• Before he became a successful actor, he worked in a warehouse and at a gas station.
• Studied karate under Chuck Norris, as did the children of his Bonanza (1959) co-star Dan Blocker.
• Charles Ingalls, Landon’s character on Little House on the Prairie (1974), was ranked #4 in TV Guide’s list of the “50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time” [June 20, 2004 issue].
• Grew up in the southern town of Collingswood, New Jersey.
• His last wife was former make-up artist Cindy Clerico, whom he met near the end of the “Little House” run in 1981, and married two years later.
• He was attending USC on an athletic scholarship but tore his shoulder ligaments, which would prevent him from throwing the javelin again.
• Before his death, he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) to talk about his brave battle against cancer and his life and this was the highest-rated show of all time.
• Comedian and ex-talk show host, Johnny Carson was a longtime friend of his and had (in private) always confided in Landon and shared his own issues with him.
• Won the freshman javelin toss at the University of Southern California-Los Angeles.
• Never legally adopted his stepdaughter, Cheryl, because of her birth father’s objections.
• His father was from a Jewish family and his mother was of Irish Catholic background.
• His father, Eli Maurice Orowitz, was a studio publicist and theater manager, his mother, Peggy Kathleen O’Neill Orowitz, was a popular comedienne and dancer.
• Always claimed to have chosen his professional name by picking the name Michael Landon out of the Los Angeles telephone directory.
• Inducted (as a cast member of Little House on the Prairie (1974)) into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1998.
• U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy Reagan, attended Landon’s memorial service the day after his death.
• His birthplace, Forest Hills, is a neighborhood area in Queens, New York.
• Actress Melissa Gilbert’s son Michael (born 1995) was named after him.
• Following his death, he was interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.
• Children: Mark Fraser Landon (adopted-born October 1, 1958); aka Mark Landon) and Josh Fraser Landon (adopted as newborn in 1960-born February 11, 1960) with Dodie Levy-Fraser. Leslie Ann Landon (born 11 October 1963; aka Leslie Landon), Michael Graham Landon (born June 20, 1965; aka Michael Landon Jr.), Shawna Leigh Landon (born December 4, 1971; aka Shawna Landon) and Christopher Beau Landon (born February 27, 1975; Christopher Landon) with Lynn Noe and Jennifer Rachel Landon (born August 29, 1983; aka Jennifer Landon) and Sean Matthew Landon (born June 1986) with Cindy Landon. He also had a stepdaughter, Cheryl Ann Pontrelli.

Michael Landon Filmography

Michael Landon Awards