Page "Michael Landon" Paragraph 17

Melissa Gilbert said of her on-and off-screen chemistry with Landon, “ He was very much like a ‘ second father ’ to me.

My own father passed away when I was 11, so, without really officially announcing it, Michael really stepped in .” Melissa also said about Michael ’ s smoking ritual, “ He would be smoking.

It was real cold there and he had these big leather gloves on, and he would put out a cigarette in his glove.

And then, just ( you know ) flick the butt away, and I just thought that I ’ d never seen anything like it.

That was the coolest, he was the toughest .” When not working on the Little House set, Gilbert spent most of the weekends visiting Landon's real-life family in 1976, she once said, “ The house was huge.

We ran like banshees through that house, and Mike would hide behind doorways and jump out and scare us .” Melissa said about Landon who took the script in a new direction, “ He put frogs in his mouth, we had a script supervisor.

He had this chair with these pouches on the sides and he would carry from the set to where we were shooting, from spot to spot to spot to wrap around the course of the day.

And there was one day where he was sneaking up and putting rocks in his pocket of the pouches, and the chair got heavier, to move the chair over, and completely clueless, but of course, everybody else knew .”