{"id":4741,"date":"2023-11-10T14:54:16","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T13:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/?p=4741"},"modified":"2023-11-10T14:54:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T13:54:16","slug":"little-house-on-the-prairie-star-melissa-sue-anderson-reveals-why-she-left-hollywood-for-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/?p=4741","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Little House on the Prairie\u2019 star Melissa Sue Anderson reveals why she left Hollywood for Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

A whole generation of TV viewers fondly remembers Little House on the Prairie, the classic drama series about the adventures of the Ingalls family throughout the end of the 19th century.<\/p>\n

With a big cast of memorable characters and performances, it\u2019s a show that often leaves people wondering \u201cwhere are they now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Melissa Sue Anderson, who played Mary Ingalls on the show, was one of the actors who left showbiz behind: she recently revealed why she moved away from Hollywood and left the spotlight.Melissa Sue Anderson was born on September 26, 1962, in Berkeley, California. Growing up, she was a shy girl who preferred reading books rather than climbing trees.<\/p>\n

But early on, people saw that the young girl with the marble-clear blue eyes had a talent for performing on stage. One of her dance teachers advised the girl\u2019s parents to contact an agent.<\/p>\n

Anderson, who was a straight A-student, began her career as a child actress, appearing in guests roles on sitcoms like Bewitched and The Brady Bunch, where she played Millicent, the girl who gave Bobby his first kiss.<\/p>\n

But she got her big break, and defining role, after getting cast on Little House as Mary Ingalls, one of the central characters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She starred in the first seven seasons and made guest appearances in the final eight season. Anderson also received a nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m lucky that there even was a character to play, because in the book, there isn\u2019t much of one,\u201d she tells me from her home in Montreal. \u201cLaura [Ingalls, author of the Little House novels upon which the series was based and the story was centered] was a quite older woman when she wrote the books. She was remembering the best of her life. The characters of Ma and Mary didn\u2019t factor in a lot. There was a lot of Laura and Pa and Laura and Jack the dog and Laura and Mr. Edwards, but there wasn\u2019t a lot of Mary. I\u2019m fortunate that they discovered that I could act,\u201d Anderson told Pop Entertainment in 2010.<\/p>\n

For the young actress, who studied at high school at the time, it wasn\u2019t easy to become one of the most famous faces in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201dA lot of kids at school are curious and ask inappropriate questions, like, \u2019How much do you make?\u2019 That\u2019s embarrassing. I\u2019ll just give them a look that lets them know what I think of the question or tell them it\u2019s none of their business,\u201d she told Iowa City Press-Citizen in 1977.<\/p>\n

Over the course of her career in Hollywood, Anderson earned around $1.5 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. But during her spell at Little House, the child actress\u2019s salary wasn\u2019t that high.<\/p>\n

\u201dEverybody thinks actors make a lot of money. But we don\u2019t. At least, not by the time we pay certain costs. Twenty-five of my pay goes into a trust fund. 10 percent to my agent and I spend a lot \u2013 too much \u2013 on my fan club which has 1,500 members. The initial cost people pay for belonging to the club is one thing, but we spend extra to send out letters, bulletins, Christmas cards. It\u2019s publicity and everything, but it\u2019s costing a lot. Plus, I pay my mom for coming to the set every day, because I\u2019d hire someone to take me here and home anyway,\u201d she said in 1977.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A big reason for its success and longevity is its cast of beloved characters, and the actors who played them, all of whom had breakout success thanks to the show. The show made stars out of young actors like Melissa Gilbert Sue and gave veteran actor Michael Landon perhaps his defining role as the family\u2019s \u201cPa,\u201d Charles Ingalls.<\/p>\n

The cast had such great chemistry that you\u2019d think they were a real family, and off-screen the co-stars were a big part of each other\u2019s lives for many years. But things weren\u2019t always smooth between the actors.<\/p>\n

Melissa Gilbert once spoke about what she really felt about her co-star who portrayed Mary Ingalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is hateful, horrid, mean, terrible, difficult. She hated me. She knocked me off the wagon when I was nine,\u201d Gilbert explained.<\/p>\n

After Prairie ended, Anderson\u2019s biggest roles came in television films like Which Mother is Mine? and Survival of Dana.<\/p>\n

She continued working, but like most child and teen stars, she never found such a high-profile role as she had on Little House.<\/p>\n

Melissa Sue Anderson today
\nIn the 80s, Melissa Sue Anderson dated Frank Sinatra Jr. for a little while. The two met when Melissa, 17 at the time, guest-starred on The Love Boat. Frank Sinatra Jr. was 19 years her senior when they met.<\/p>\n

\u201dFrank Jr. stood right next to the camera and cheered me on,\u201d Melissa said.<\/p>\n

\u201dHe was a great help.\u201d<\/p>\n

But according to Melissa, the alleged romance was blown out of proportion.<\/p>\n

\u201dHe is just a very good friend,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In 1990, Melissa married television producer Michael Sloan. They have a daughter named Piper (born 1991) and a son named Griffin (born 1996).<\/p>\n

Family life led to her making a huge life decision: becoming a Canadian citizen. The family moved to Montreal in 2002 and became naturalized citizens in 2007.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole family is Canadian exactly now, and my husband and I had to take the test, and we studied and studied and studied,\u201d she said in an interview with E-Talk.<\/p>\n

She also revealed she wanted to step away from show business as her kids were growing up, not just to spend time with them but to avoid pressuring them into becoming child stars themselves.\u201cI really stepped away for a long time,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was really for the kids so they would have their own sense of who they were as opposed to being with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that her kids now have no interest in acting, but she has stepped back into the spotlight, appearing in small TV and movie roles.<\/p>\n

Melissa, now 60, also wrote a memoir of her experiences on Little House on the Prairie, titled The Way I See It: A Look Back at My Life on Little House.<\/p>\n

Melissa \u2013 you still look young, and your beauty will never leave you, and most importantly, you\u2019re a good soul!<\/p>\n

She\u2019s down-to-earth, modest, and realistic. She\u2019s a real person! Not plastic\/Hollywoodish and I appreciate that in actors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always fascinating to hear what the stars of our old favorite shows are up to. Glad Melissa Sue Anderson is still doing well!<\/p>\n

Share this story with all the Little House on the Prairie fans in your life!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A whole generation of TV viewers fondly remembers Little House on the Prairie, the classic drama series about the adventures of the Ingalls family throughout the end of the 19th century. With a big cast of memorable characters and performances, it\u2019s a show that often leaves people wondering \u201cwhere are they now?\u201d Melissa Sue Anderson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4746,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4741\/revisions\/4746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}