Melissa Sue Anderson

Melissa Sue Anderson
Anderson as Mary Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie, 1974
Born	(1962-09-26) September 26, 1962 Berkeley, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1972–present

Melissa Sue Anderson (born September 26, 1962) is an American-Canadian actress. She began her career as a child actress. Anderson is known for her role as Mary Ingalls on the NBC drama series Little House on the Prairie.

She is also known for her film roles; Vivian in Midnight Offerings, Ginny in the cult classic slasher Happy Birthday to Me, and Alex in the ABC Afterschool Special, Which Mother Is Mine?.

Career

Acting

Her show business career began when a dance teacher urged her parents to find an agent for her. She began doing television commercials, and soon she was in demand for television roles. Her first came in a 1972 episode of Bewitched entitled "Tabitha's First Day Of School." A memorable early role of hers was of Millicent, a girl who kissed Bobby, which caused Bobby to fear contracting mumps, and induced him to see fireworks on The Brady Bunch.

At the age of eleven, Anderson landed the role of Mary Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. She would go on to star on the show for eight seasons; beginning in 1974 and leaving after season seven, later appearing in two episodes of season eight in late 1981.

Anderson with Lance Kerwin in the 1977 television film, James at 15

In 1976, Michael Landon asked Anderson if she would appear in his autobiographical film,The Loneliest Runner. Anderson agreed to play Nancy Rizzi, the first girlfriend of John Curtis (based on Landon and played by Lance Kerwin), saying she was very thrilled to have been asked. In 1977, she once again co-starred as the love interest opposite Lance Kerwin in the television film James at 15.

She was nominated for a 1978 Primetime Emmy Award for Best Leading Actress in a Drama Series for her work on Little House on the Prairie and won the Emmy Award for her performance in Which Mother Is Mine?, which aired as an ABC Afterschool Special in 1979. Also in 1979, she played the title role of Dana Lee Gilbert, a North Dakota transfer student to Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, California in CBS's TV movie Survival of Dana.

In 1980, Anderson earned a 'TP de Oro' Award (considered to be Spain's most prestigious award for television) for 'Best Foreign Actress' for her role in Little House on the Prairie. This followed a successful visit to Spain in 1979 to appear as a guest on RTVE's program, 625 Lineas. In 1981, she earned a Young Artist Award nomination for her performance in the Canadian slasher film Happy Birthday to Me. After leaving Little House, she continued acting in television shows like The Equalizer, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1980s), and Murder, She Wrote, and was the associate producer for the next to last TV project Michael Landon made before dying: Where Pigeons Go to Die (1990). In 1998, she was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Author

In 2010 Anderson released her autobiography entitled The Way I See It - A Look Back at My Life on Little House. The book, which is primarily based on her life during her years as a child star on The Little House On The Prairie, contains behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes about the show itself, its stars, guest stars, and crew members.

Methodically, Anderson takes the reader through each of the first seven seasons of the show (the seasons in which she appeared). She also tells about her pre- and post-Little House career and her side-projects during the Little House years. She is frank and open about her feelings about the projects in which she has been involved, and also writes about her personal life and how it was affected by her career.

Personal life

Anderson was born in Berkeley, California. Anderson's first publicly known romance was with actor Lorenzo Lamas, with whom she made an appearance in the television series The Love Boat in which two friends (Lorenzo and Melissa) resist the matchmaking efforts of their parents. After this short romance, she dated Frank Sinatra, Jr. in the late 1970s, who, at the time, was more than twice her age.

With husband Michael Sloan, Anderson has two children, daughter Piper (born February 1991) and son Griffin (born June 1996). She has lived in Montreal, Quebec, Canada since 2002. She and her husband became naturalized Canadians in 2007.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1972	Bewitched	Girl	Episode: "Tabitha's First Day of School"
1973	The Brady Bunch	Millicent	Episode: "Never Too Young"
1973	Shaft	Cathy (uncredited)	Episode: "The Enforcers"
1974–81	Little House on the Prairie	Mary Ingalls	163 episodes
1976	The Loneliest Runner	Nancy Rizzi
1977	James at 15	Lacey Stevens	Episode: "Pilot"
1977	ABC Afterschool Special	Kate	Episode: "Very Good Friends"
1978	The Hanna-Barbera Happy Hour	Director of the musical	1 episode
1978–80, 1986	The Love Boat	Jennifer 'Chubs' Smith / Cindy Jerome / Cathy Cummings / Dana Colton	4 episodes
1979	Survival of Dana	Dana Lee Gilbert
1979	ABC Afterschool Special	Alexandria 'Alex' Benton	Episode: "Which Mother Is Mine?"
1979	A New Kind of Family	Lisa	Episode: "The Overcharge"
1979	Little House Years	Mary Ingalls
1979	CHiPs	Herself	Episode: "Roller Disco" (Part 2)
1980	Fantasy Island	Amy Marson	Episode: "Rogues to Riches/Stark Terror"
1980	Insight	Mary Beth	Episode: "Princess"
1981	Midnight Offerings	Vivian Sotherland
1981	Advice to the Lovelorn	Maureen Tyler
1982	An Innocent Love	Molly Rush
1982/83	Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends	Katherine 'Kitty' Pryde / Spryte (voice)	Episodes: "The Origin of Iceman", "The X-Men Adventure"
1983	First Affair	Toby King
1984	Finder of Lost Loves	Nikki Gatos	Episode: "Pilot"
1984	Murder, She Wrote	Eve Crystal	Episode: "Hooray for Homicide"
1984	Glitter	Elizabeth	Episode: "A Minor Miracle"
1984/85	Hotel	Cassie Ray / Anne Goldman	Episodes: "Lifelines", "Imperfect Union"
1986	Dark Mansions	Noelle Drake
1987–88	The Equalizer	Yvette Marcel	4 episodes
1988/89	The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Laura Donovan / Julie Fenton	Episodes: "VCR - Very Careful Rape", "Murder in Mind"
1989	Memories of Manon	Yvette Marcel
1989	The Return of Sam McCloud	Colleen McCloud
1993/94	X-Men	Snowbird (voice)	Episodes: "Repo Man", "Phoenix Saga, Part 5: Child of Light"
1994	Burke's Law	Michelle Ryder	Episode: "Who Killed Alexander the Great?"
1998	Earthquake in New York	Dr. Marilyn Blake
1999	Partners	Cheryl Darrin	3 episodes
2000	Thin Ice	Tanya Ferguson
2006	10.5: Apocalypse	First Lady Megan Hollister
2007	Marco Polo	Mother (voice, uncredited)

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Happy Birthday to Me	Virginia Wainwright
1984	Goma-2	Kukki (uncredited)
1984	Chattanooga Choo Choo	Jennie
1988	The Suicide Club	Laura Donovan on TV
1988	Far North	Young Nurse
1989	Looking Your Best
1990	Dead Men Don't Die	Dulcie Niles
1991	Manuel
1994	Animated Stories from the Bible: Music Video – Volume 1	Snake (voice)	Video
1995	Killer Lady	American Lady
2006	Crazy Eights	Hospital Patient (uncredited)
2010	Marker 187		Short film
2016	The Brits Are Coming		Filming

External links

• Melissa Sue Anderson at the Internet Movie Database
• Melissa Sue Anderson interview on YouTube