Melissa Gilbert is a film and television actress best known for her nearly decade-long tenure
playing the character of Lauran Ingalls on the classic Western television drama Little
House on the Prairie.
Following Melissa’s role in the seminal program, she has continued to work consistently
in the entertainment industry.
Although Melissa didn’t have any experience when she was hired onto Little House on the
Prairie when she was only a child, today she lives in a cabin with her third husband and
has become passionate about gardening and taking care of animals.
According to Melissa, it was her role on the classic series so many years ago that planted
the seeds of her new passion.
At the age of 57, Melissa looks nearly as great as ever and seems to be taking care
of herself, despite suffering some health concerns in recent years that she has thankfully
recovered from.
Join Facts Verse as we take a look at how Melissa Gilbert from Little House on the Prairie
is all grown up!
When Melissa Gilbert received the role of Laura Ingalls on the classic Western television
drama Little House on the Prairie, she was a child actress with very little acting experience.
Melissa had been ushered into the industry by her adopted parents after being born in
1964.
Her adopted parents both had ties to the entertainment industry, with her adopted father being a
notable vaudeville performer who had starred in a series on NBC, and her adopted mother
being the daughter of the creator of the sitcom, The Honeymooners.
Melissa Gilbert was only a toddler when her adopted parents first started having her appear
in commercials.
Before long, the young girl was being given roles in notable television series.
One of Melissa’s earliest appearances on a television series came in 1972 when she
appeared on the show Gunsmoke.
It was only a few years later, in 1974, that the young girl was given her iconic role on
Little House on the Prairie.
Besides Melissa, the series also featured Melissa’s adopted brother, Jonathan Gilbert,
as well as stars Michael Landon and Karen Grassle.
According to Melissa, her time on the series was a memorable and formative experience that
was mostly positive, despite one traumatic incident where she accidentally drank from
a crewmember’s spit cup because she thought it was her root beer float.
One of Melissa’s favorite aspects of performing on Little House on the Prairie was getting
to wear the series’ iconic period costumes.
According to the actress, the costume designers on the series went out of their way to make
them as authentic as possible, which made working on the show feel like playing a giant
game of dress-up for the young girl.
By the time that Little House on the Prairie came to an end, Melissa was 19 years old and
had portrayed the character of Laura Ingalls for all of the show’s nine seasons.
Following her tenure as Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, Melissa Gilbert hasn’t
had that hard of a time finding continued work in the entertainment industry.
However, her star status gradually dropped off to the point where she was taking voice-acting
roles in cartoons by the 1990s.
Some of Melissa’s most notable work immediately following Little House on the Prairie was
in made-for-television features such as Family Secrets and Choices, which were released in
1984 and 1986, respectively.
Her most prominent voice-acting role has been on 1992’s Batman: The Animated Series, where
she could be heard portraying Batgirl.
Many have often wondered if Melissa Gilbert would be game to return for a Little House
on the Prairie reboot in some capacity, though the actress has continually denied that she
has any interest in such a prospect.
According to her, the original series is in such steady syndication that there would be
no reason to reboot it.
Despite these sentiments, Melissa has notably returned to the intellectual property by portraying
the character of Ma Ingalls, her former on-screen mother, in the musical adaptation of Little
House on the Prairie.
The show began running in 2008, and Melissa gave so much of herself to the role that it
nearly killed her!
According to Melissa, she began suffering from some back pain during her tenure portraying
the character Ma Ingalls in the memorable Little House on the Prairie musical.
When this began happening, the actress’s immediate reaction was to ignore the pain
and hope that it went away.
However, the pain kept getting worse.
Melissa made a pact with herself that she would go to the hospital if the pain became
too much to bear, which it eventually did.
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When Melissa Gilbert finally decided to go to the hospital after the back pain that she
was experiencing while performing in the Little House on the Prairie musical became too much
to bear, she was confronted with a startling revelation!
Her back pain had been a good deal more serious than she had realized, and she had been performing
for a significant period of time with a broken back!
Melissa was in her 40s when she was playing the role of Ma Ingalls in the musical, and
she had been performing with a broken back for several months.
When her peers found out what the actress had been going through in silence for those
many months, they heaped praise upon her for her perseverance.
When the Little House on the Prairie musical ended its original run, Melissa Gilbert was
free to undergo surgery to fix her broken back.
The actress was able to make a full recovery thanks to a plastic implant but has claimed
that her height was affected by the incident.
Sadly, this hasn’t been Melissa Gilbert’s last struggle with her health in recent years.
Thankfully, as with her broken back, she’s been able to recover fully from all of them.
After recovering from her broken back, Melissa Gilbert decided that she wanted to compete
on Dancing with the Stars.
Melissa began appearing on the series in 2012, competing alongside a skilled Ukrainian-American
dance partner.
While Melissa and her partner performed fairly well on the series, the actress sadly had
to bow out of the competition early after suffering a minor head injury during one of
her dance numbers.
While Melissa’s previously broken back hadn’t been an issue, she ended up deciding she couldn’t
compete further after the head injury.
In addition to all of her acting work, Melissa also served as the president of the Screen
Actor’s Guild for several years starting in the early 2000s.
Melissa has even previously expressed interest in getting into politics, though doctors advised
her that her numerous health concerns around the time would prevent her from doing a good
job in office.
Besides the previously discussed health concerns that Melissa has experienced in her life,
there was also an incident where the balcony of a house she was renting collapsed on her
and caused numerous injuries, which required her to undergo further back surgery.
This incident occurred only several months after the head injury on Dancing with the
Stars.
Despite all of the health concerns that Melissa Gilbert has had to deal with in recent years,
it seems that the 57-year-old star is currently doing as good as ever!
Today, Melissa is living in a cabin in upstate New York with her third husband, and she has
apparently found a new passion in the kind of farm life that she mimicked so many years
ago on Little House on the Prairie.
According to Melissa, it was her time on that series during her coming of age that planted
the seeds that would blossom into her new passion.
Before marrying her first husband, Melissa was briefly engaged to actor Rob Lowe.
Melissa’s first husband was a man by the name of Bo Brinkman, whom she married in 1988
and divorced in 1994.
Over the course of their marriage, Melissa and Bo had a son by the name of Dakota Paul
Brinkman, who was born in 1989.
Following Melissa’s divorce from her first husband, she went on to remarry the following
year to a man by the name of Bruce Boxleitner.
Melissa and Bruce were married from 1995 until 2011.
Although Melissa didn’t have any biological kids with Bruce over the course of their nearly
two-decade-long marriage, Melissa acted as a stepmother to Bruce’s two children that
he had carried over from a previous relationship.
It was only a few years later, in 2013, that Melissa Gilbert went on to marry her third
and current husband, who is a man by the name of Timothy Busfield.
As with her previous marriage, Melissa and Timothy haven’t had any biological kids
together, but Timothy came into the marriage with several kids from a previous relationship.
Besides her two failed marriages and numerous struggles with her physical health, Melissa
has also struggled with substance abuse and depression sporadically over the course of
her life.
After all that she has been through, it seems that Melissa Gilbert is doing better than
ever nowadays.
While she can still be found working in the entertainment industry once in a while, her
true passion nowadays is planting vegetables and taking care of animals on her and her
husband's cabin in upstate New York.
Although Melissa Gilbert had no experience farming when she was first given her role
on the classic Western television drama Little House on the Prairie, the actress claimed
that she has since developed a passion for it.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Little House on the Prairie’s
Melissa Gilbert is still just as beautiful as ever at the age of 57 and that she’s
doing fairly well for herself despite a few health concerns over the past few decades?
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