A Look Into ‘Little House On The Prairie’ Actress Melissa Sue Anderson’s Life Today

Aug 25, 2021

Melissa Sue Anderson is an American-Canadian actress and author that rose to fame on the popular television series “Little House On The Prairie.” Anderson played the role of Mary Ingalls from 1974 to 1981. The show was based on the book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Anderson received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Mary.

The star is also known for her performances in films such as “Midnight Offerings” in 1981, “Happy Birthday to Me” the same year and the ABC After School Special, “Which Mother Is Mine?” in 1979. For her performance in the last film, she won an Emmy Award. In 1998 she was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Anderson’s career began when she was 10 after a dance instructor recommended her parents find her an agent. She first appeared in commercials before starring in a guest role on “Bewitched.” She also performed on “The Brady Bunch” as a girl named Millicent and appeared in an episode of “Shaft” as well.  

Outside of her career as an actress, Anderson married writer and producer Michael Sloan in 1990 and they have two children together. She became a naturalized citizen of Canada in the year 2007. Then, in 2010, Anderson wrote a memoir titled “The Way I See It: A Look Back at My Life on Little House” which chronicled her time on “Little House On The Prairie” and her life as a child actor. Keep reading to learn more about what Anderson has been up to recently. 

Anderson was born September 26, 1962, in Berkeley, California. She is the second of two daughters born to James and Marion Anderson. The family moved to Los Angeles when she was 7 and the young actress soon began appearing in commercials for companies like Sears and Mattel.   

“I was raised well as a kid,” Anderson said to Pop Entertainment. “A lot of people ask me, ‘How come you didn’t get into trouble?’ Frankly, I was just too afraid. I didn’t want to get into trouble. I was afraid of the consequences. And I was a good kid overall.”

Anderson added, “The one thing that was missing from my childhood, the one thing that I didn’t focus on enough as a child, was a regular life, having a regular childhood. However, I loved what I had. I loved working professionally. I wanted it to be my career so that life was fantastic. But when I became an adult, I strived for ‘regular.’ That’s what I wanted.”

‘Little House On The Prairie’ 

“Little House On The Prairie” ran for eight seasons and Anderson saw her character change quite a bit, but not always for the better. However, the star has said that she is grateful she had the chance to play Mary. Anderson told Pop Entertainment:

“I’m lucky that there even was a character to play because, in the book, there isn’t much of one. Laura (Ingalls, author of the ‘Little House’ novels) was a quite older woman when she wrote the books. She was remembering the best of her life. There was a lot of Laura and Pa and Laura and Jack the dog and Laura and Mr. Edwards, but there wasn’t a lot of Mary. I’m fortunate that they discovered that I could act.”

Anderson saw her character go blind and face many other obstacles during her run on the show. By the end, she was very vocal about her desire to leave. “It’s no fun,” she grumbled in an interview with People magazine from 1981. “When they run low on story ideas, someone says, ‘What can we do to Melissa Sue that’s really awful?’”

The actress also felt she was outgrowing the role. She said to her manager, “I told him no teen roles, no posters. I don’t want what Shaun Cassidy gets. I am a serious actress. I’ve already played a 22-year-old. Why go backward?”

Melissa Sue Anderson Today

The star’s most recent acting credit came in 2014 when she played a role in the “Veronica Mars” film. In 2010, Anderson released her memoir and sharing her story seemed to be a very freeing experience for her. She said about the book:

“I wanted to be able to tell my story, but not in the way so many other memoirs seem to be. Other memoirs are sometimes very mean and there is always a villain somehow. I wanted to show that the experience that I had was quite good. I wanted it to be honest; it’s not a completely rosy picture, but nothing terrible has happened to me and I don’t blame anybody for anything.”

Anderson continued, “I had a pretty normal life, but you never know if people are your friends for the right reasons. When I had my own kids, I was out of the business, removed; I only worked occasionally so that my kids could have a really normal upbringing. You want something a little more stable for your children. It’s nice for me to have kids and live a regular kind of life through them.”

Did you watch Melissa Sue Anderson on “Little House on the Prairie?” Would you ever read her memoir? Let us know what you think and be sure to send this along to your loved ones.