Wow thats interesting Lonelyguy!
I found this information to:
MICHAEL LANDON (1936-1991) (Charles Ingalls)
Landon was the only actor who had three consecutive hit television series that ran more than five years. After a short-lived career in javelin throwing, he turned to acting, starring in a B-movie flick called "I Was A Teenage Werewolf". But it was the TV series "Bonanza" that was Landon's true calling, playing the part of Little Joe for nearly the entire series run. After "Little House" ended in 1984, he starred with his acting buddy Victor French in "Highway To Heaven", which ran for five years. Landon had just finished the pilot for a new TV series called "US" when he was diagnosed with cancer in 1991 and subsequently died from that disease. Michael Landon was the "father figure" for all of family television, and his legacy lives on in reruns.
KAREN GRASSLE (Caroline Ingalls)
Born in Berkeley, CA, Karen Grassle was trained at the London Academy Of Music and Dramatic Art. Aside from her acting career, she is also a long-standing advocate for women's rights. "Little House" is her best-known work. For many years, Grassle was a spokesperson for Time-Life Video's release of the series. She has recently done work on the stage. In 2002, she appeared on a "TV Moms" edition of the NBC game show "The Weakestlink". She is currently married to J. Alan Radford and has an adopted daughter.
Victor French (December 4th, 1934 - June 15th, 1989)
The son of a movie stunt man, Victor French made his screen entree in westerns, where his unkempt beard and scowling countenance made him a perfect heavy. He carried over his robbin' and rustlin' activities into television, making multiple appearances on such series as Gunsmoke and Bonanza. It was former Bonanza star Michael Landon, a great friend of French's, who "humanized" the veteran screen villain with the role of farmer Isiah Edwards in the weekly TV drama Little House on the Prairie. French temporarily left Little House in 1977 to star in his own sitcom, Carter Country, in which he played an affable Southern sheriff who tried his best to accommodate the ever-changing racial relationships of the 1970s. In 1984, Landon cast French as ex-cop Michael Gordon, whose bitterness at the world was softened by the presence of a guardian angel (Landon), in the popular TV series Highway to Heaven. French directed every third episode of this series, extending his directorial activities to the Los Angeles theatre scene, where he won a Critics Circle award for his staging of 12 Angry Men. In contrast to his earlier bad-guy roles, French went out of his way in the 1980s to avoid parts that required him to exhibit cruelty or inhumanity. Victor French died in 1989, shortly after completing work on the final season of Highway to Heaven
