By the time the magazine spread ran, Landon had already made the leap from Bonanza to Little House on the Prairie. The western had wrapped its 14-season run in January 1973, and Landon moved almost immediately into adapting Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books for television, taking on the role of Charles Ingalls while also writing and directing many of the episodes himself.
The Beverly Hills house told a different story than either show. Photographs from the feature show a stained glass window over the staircase, a marble fireplace in the living room and a dining room dressed in crystal, gilt and velvet. Landon had also built a room modeled after the Ponderosa, the Cartwright family’s fictional ranch, complete with an old wood outhouse and a chair fashioned from horseshoes.
The household itself was as layered as the decor. Landon and his wife Lynn were raising what the article called three families under one roof: his two adopted sons from his first marriage, her daughter from her first marriage and the children they’d had together, with a fourth on the way. Each set had been raised in a different faith—Jewish, Catholic and Presbyterian—and Landon told the magazine the differences didn’t bother him much.
Landon’s career kept expanding well past that 1975 profile. Little House on the Prairie ran through 1983, and he followed it with Highway to Heaven from 1984 to 1989, a series he ended after his co-star and friend Victor French died of lung cancer. Landon died of pancreatic cancer on July 1, 1991, at age 54, less than two months after his diagnosis went public.
The house outlived him by decades. It went up for sale in 2022 for $3.9 million, still holding onto original details like its stained glass windows and terra cotta flooring, nearly 50 years after the family posed for these photos.
Michael Landon’s house, as seen in the ’70s
by Muriel Davidson
Michael Landon’s “Big House in Beverly Hills” is a far cry from the “Little House on the Prairie” featured in his hit TV series. But, says the former “Bonanza” star, he and Lynn and their six lively children “really live in this house — we don’t just look at it.”
The Landons’ house of contrasts: stained-glass window over stairway (above); marble fireplace in living room (left); crystal, gilt and velvet in dining room (bottom, left); old wood privy (below) built into “Bonanza Room” (opposite).
There, John [Josh], 15, and Leslie, 12, flank Lynn; Mike and Shawna, 3, share a chair made from old horseshoes.
MORE: How millions came to love the Little House on the Prairie TV series (1974-1982)
In Michael Landon’s home, there were three families in one
There are really three families living at the Landon’s. Mike has two adopted sons by his first marriage. His wife, Lynn, has a daughter by her first marriage. Together, Mike and Lynn have three, with a fourth — “and last” — due soon.
What makes the three families even more interesting is that each represents a different religion. Mike’s two sons were raised in the Jewish faith. Lynn’s daughter was raised as a Roman Catholic. Together, their three are Presbyterian.
“It really doesn’t matter what religion they are,” Mike says. “If you stick to the letter of religion, they’re all good.”
Landon’s years on Bonanza developed him not only as an actor, but as a writer and director — and now he’s producing as well.
MORE: The backstory of TVs huge hit, Bonanza (1959-1973)
He says he is “slowly working” on a novel. He’s written many screenplays, but has not sold them.
“I think they are good,” he says, “I’ve torn up the ones I didn’t like, so I have to believe the fault is with those who don’t like them.”
Eventually, he’ll sell one. It’s not exactly a goal, because he gets enough satisfaction writing his TV shows, but it is something yet to be fulfilled. He says he really has no great ambition at this point.
“Oh, yes, I guess I have one ambition,” he says. “I’d like to play tennis better.” – Dick Kleiner, Hollywood (Syndicated)
