MELISSA SUE ANDERSON AMERICA-CANADIAN ACTRESS BORN 1962 SEPTEMBER 26

MELISSA SUE ANDERSON 

AMERICA-CANADIAN ACTRESS

BORN 1962 SEPTEMBER 26

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?.

Acting[edit]

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 in 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.

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.[1]

 After leaving Little House, she continued acting in television shows like The Equalizer, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1980s), CHiPs 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[edit]

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[edit]

Anderson and her husband, Michael Sloan, became naturalized Canadians in 2007.[2]

Film[edit]

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