LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE’s Shannen Doherty Says Co-Star Michael Landon Mentored Her
By Movieguide® Contributor
Shannen Doherty credits her love for acting to her LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE co-star, Michael Landon.
“That show, LITTLE HOUSE, shaped me in so many ways, and it still is the best experience of my entire career,” the star said.
On the show, Doherty played Jenny Wilder, sister of Almanzo Wilder. She performed on the show’s last season, from 1982–83. Landon played “Pa,” Charles Ingalls.
About Landon, she said, “I adored him. He was a mentor. He taught me so much.”
“It’s kind of amazing because, when I think about the long span of my career, but also how rough some jobs were — and unenjoyable to be a part of, a little bit toxic — it was really the experience on LITTLE HOUSE that spurred that passion on for being an actor,” Doherty explained. “And it was having a mentor like Michael Landon — and I don’t care what anybody else’s experience was like, I know the truth about that man, and he was just unbelievable.”
Doherty previously worked with Landon in 1980 on FATHER MURPHY.
“I was so excited because it was a Michael Landon-produced TV show,” she said.
When she got the chance to work with Landon again on LITTLE HOUSE, she jumped on it.
“I just remember being seriously overjoyed that I got to work with Michael again because he was so kind and so funny and so witty and so smart,” Doherty said.
She added that Landon, who passed in 1991, was “so, so, so talented, so kind, so considerate, and it really helped shape me. And he was incredibly caring for my entire family.”
Doherty’s mother added that the “wonderful” actor had helped Doherty’s dad see a doctor who was “very hard to get into.”
“He knew that because he had taken the time to talk to your dad and know him,” Doherty’s mother told her.
Movieguide® recently reported on Doherty’s battle with breast cancer:
In an episode on the “Let’s Be Clear” podcast, Doherty said she underwent a treatment she called a “miracle”—though she didn’t say what the treatment was—after the cancer spread to her brain.
“After four treatments, we didn’t really see a difference and everybody wanted me to switch, and I just was like, ‘We’re gonna keep going with this and see,’” she began. “After the sixth, seventh treatment we really saw it breaking down the blood-brain barrier. Do I call that a miracle? Yeah. For me, that happens to be a miracle right now. That I sort of rolled the dice and said, ‘Let’s keep going.’”
“That it’s actually breaking down that blood-brain barrier is actually a miracle of that drug, a miracle of maybe God intervening and saying, ‘I’m gonna give her a break,’” she shared.
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