Back to :-    Hillside Memorial Park     -     Celebrity Graves.

The Final Resting Place of Michael Landon.

 

Michael Landon  
31st.October 1936 - 1st.July 1991.
Located outside at the rear of the Mausoleum in his own glass fronted room, his plaque is on the inside wall.
Cause of Death - Cancer.

Michael Landon  was an American actor, producer and director who starred in three popular NBC TV series that spanned three decades. He is widely known for his roles as "Little Joe" Cartwright in Bonanza (1959-1973), Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974-1982), and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven (1984-1989). He also hosted the annual long-running coverage of the "Tournament of Roses Parade" with Kelly Lange, also on NBC. Landon was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz in the New York City borough in the Queens neighborhood of Forest Hills, New York. Landon's father, Eli Maurice Orowitz, was a Jewish American actor and movie theater manager, and his mother, Peggy O’Neill, was an Irish American Catholic dancer and comedienne. Maurice was the Orowitz' second child; his sister, Evelyn, was born three years earlier. In 1941, when Orowitz was 4 years old, he and his family moved to Collingswood, New Jersey. In Collingswood High School, he was not a good student, and felt estranged from his family  By the time Orowitz was a senior in high school, he was elected class president. His IQ was 159, yet he was the third-to-last student in his graduating class in 1954. He took on a couple of odd jobs working as a gas station attendant and at a warehouse. In high school, he excelled at track and had a special talent for javelin. He held the national record for the longest throw by any high school athlete at the time. This earned him an athletic scholarship to USC. Unfortunately, he later tore a ligament in his shoulder, which made him unable to participate in further javelin throwing competitions, and he stopped competing.
He changed his name from Eugene Orowitz to Michael Landon after he decided to launch his acting career, as he did not feel that his given name was appropriate for an actor. It is believed that he chose the stage name by picking it out of a Los Angeles phone book.
Landon was married three times.

Dodie Levy-Fraser (married in December 1956/divorced in December 1962) Children - Mark (adopted), Josh in 1960 (adopted). 
(Marjorie) Lynn Noe (married: January 12, 1963-divorced1982. Children - Leslie was born: October 10, 1962, Michael, Shawna, Christopher (Landon at one point attempted to adopt Lynn's daughter, Cheryl Pontrelli, from her first marriage, but the girl's birth father wouldn't allow it.) 
Cindy Clerico (married: February 1983). Children - Jennifer Landon was born in 1983. (Jennifer is now an Emmy-winning actress starring as Gwen Norbeck Munson on the soap opera As the World Turns.),  Sean was born in 1986 

1982 Divorce
What followed was a very bitter and public divorce in 1982 which cost Landon more than US$26 million. Many fans felt betrayed by Landon, who had always played morally upstanding characters on television. Defending himself in interviews, Landon replied, "Nobody's perfect. Not Charles Ingalls. Not Michael Landon."

On April 5, 1991 he was diagnosed with Aden carcinoma, an inoperable pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver and lymph nodes. Doctors believe Landon's heavy alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking - four packs a day - contributed to this cancer. On May 9, 1991, he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to speak of his illness, promising to fight the cancer and asking fans to pray for him. However, almost 2 months later, on July 1, 1991, Landon died in Malibu, California, aged 54.
He was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. Cindy and Michael's family were joined by 500 other mourners including former President Ronald Reagan, with whom Michael had once chopped wood, and his wife Nancy. Merlin Olsen, Ernest Borgnine, Brian Keith and many of Michael's costars, such as Melissa Gilbert and Melissa Sue Anderson, were present. Although Michael's first wife, Dodie, accompanied by her two sons were present, his second wife, Lynn, was absent.
After his death, Landon was again on the covers of weekly tabloids when it was revealed that he had done some last-minute changing to his will. Rather than giving his nine children an equal inheritance, he chose to give a larger portion to his and Cindy's two children.
For his contribution to the television industry, Michael Landon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1998, he was inducted posthumously into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.