Melissa Gilbert Stuns At 58 – Look At Her Today

Jun 16, 2022 by apost team

Melissa Gilbert is a woman of many talents. She is best known for her work as an actress, television director, producer and politician. On top of that, she was also once the president of the Screen Actors Guild.

On May 8, 1964, Melissa was born to a couple who gave her up for adoption immediately after she was born. She was adopted by actor Paul Gilbert and his wife Barbara Crane just one day later. They later adopted a son named Jonathan Gilbert.

With such a talented set of parents, it's no surprise that Melissa and Jonathan went on to find themselves working in the entertainment industry. Melissa began making a name for herself at a very young age and had a stable career as a child actress in the late 1960s. She started off by appearing in several commercials and obtaining guest-starring roles on television shows.

Melissa got her big break when she starred as Laura Ingalls Wilder in the series "Little House on the Prairie." The series, which also starred Melissa's brother, had a successful run, airing from 1974 to 1982, with a sequel series generated shortly after.

The actress continued to find work in the acting department, mostly appearing in television films. She has also released a few memoirs that detail her life experiences. Nowadays, Melissa is 58 years old and has chosen to live a much simpler life than others in Hollywood. She has encountered some hardships along the way but has overcome them with plenty of positivity and grace. On top of that, she is absolutely beautiful both inside and out.

We take a look at her life story and all the tragedies she has faced. 

Just one day after she was born, Melissa was adopted by actor Paul Gilbert. Paul first began his career as an aerialist as his family were vaudeville performers. However, he ended up quitting that part of the business after suffering a fall, but continued acting, singing and dancing. 

He began to pick up acting gigs in the industry in the early 1950s and was cast in the series “The Duke” in 1954. Showing off his plethora of talents, Paul continued to find success in the business and appeared on “The Spike Jones Show” the same year before moving on to appear in other shows such as “The NBC Comedy Hour,” “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

As a pretty established star himself, it was only fitting for Paul’s adopted children to enter the entertainment industry. Both Melissa and Jonathan found themselves working on “Little House on the Prairie,” although Jonathan later left show business. However, Melissa stayed relevant in the industry, landing several roles in mostly television shows following her time on the successful family series.

"Little House on the Prairie" was a very successful TV series starring Melissa and Jonathan, as well as other actors such as Michael Landon, Karen Grassle and Melissa Sue Anderson. Based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" book series, the show had a long run and helped establish many up-and-coming stars.

"It was like a really great summer camp, but I also got to play the ultimate game of dress-up," Melissa told CBS Sunday Morning as she reminisced on her time on the series. "I don't remember it ever not being fun."

apost.com

While the show had a great focus on family, it also touched on heavier topics — something that Melissa could relate to. Speaking with CBS Sunday Morning, Melissa said: "I tell people I do not have a family tree; I have a family shrub."

After her years of inspiring children from the Prairie, Melissa continued to play strong figures, such as Anne Frank in "The Diary of Anne Frank" and Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker." While she saw recognition for her talents on screen, Melissa struggled in her personal life, battling substance abuse, unfaithful boyfriends, and medical complications. However, looking back on her hardships, Melissa said, "Everything, no matter how painful, led me to this place I am right now, which is really an amazing place to be." 

Her life in Hollywood had started softly. Recalling her time on set, Melissa relayed,

"By child-actor standards, mine was probably the best experience that you could have...I was the opposite of what you would expect a child star to be…I was the girl in the one-piece bathing suit with cotton pajamas over it and a hat, eating a baloney sandwich with mayonnaise dripping down my hand." 

However, Melissa would not remain so sheltered. She suffered the loss of her father in 1976, which deeply affected her.

Her adoptive parents divorced when she was 8 years old, and in Feb. 1976, Melissa's father, Paul, died. 

Speaking with Oprah Winfrey in 2014, Melissa explained, “He’d had a stroke about a year before (his death), and we were told – my brother and I – that he had a second stroke in his sleep and passed away. Actually, everyone was told that. There were only a couple of people who knew the truth.”

The truth was that Paul had taken his own life. "That was a very deeply hidden secret from pretty much everybody in my life," Melissa said. She added, “It was a bad time for me. I was not functioning at all for a few weeks. I couldn’t get any answers.” It took some time, but Melissa finally found her answers, and learned that Paul was in “uncontrolled excruciating pain.”

Melissa also seems to be at peace now with the loss of her father. “I still sometimes wonder why I wasn’t enough to stick around for,” she revealed. “But he was in unbearable pain. I understand his decision and I honor that decision.”

During her interview with Winfrey, Melissa also explained more about the hardships she endured in her home life. “I had my own familial traumas and difficulties,” she said. “My father died when I was 11. My parents divorced when I was 6. My mother remarried a few times. There was sadness and discomfort at home.”

The actress also encountered difficulties within her family life later on when her brother “completely cut himself off from the family,” according to her 2009 memoir. 

In her memoir which is titled "Prairie Tale: A Memoir," Melissa talked about how Jonathan completely decided to leave the family during his early adulthood. She wrote:

"... My brother, Jonathan, completely cut himself off from the family. He turned 18 and simply disappeared. Though he would turn up a couple of times over several years, I have only seen him three times in the last two decades."

Melissa continued: "Surprisingly, I am at peace with it. Though my heart does ache for my mother."

Though her tragic family story was a challenging time, Melissa did find a father figure in costar Michael Landon, who already played her on-screen father on the Prairie. As she got older, she even dated Landon's son, Michael Landon Jr. Then Melissa met Rob Lowe and "fell instantly, hopelessly and stupidly in love." 

In her memoir, Melissa wrote, "We went from first date to instant couple. I felt like I was starving for Rob." Despite rumors of infidelity, Lowe proposed in 1986. But, the couple would never make it down the aisle as they broke up after learning Melissa was pregnant. 

The engagement evaporated when Lowe told Melissa he "wasn't ready to be a father — or a husband." Melissa's pregnancy forced Lowe to reconsider. Afterward, Gilbert lost the pregnancy. Recalling that time, Gilbert said, "It was very, very painful. It was a very dark and difficult time for me … Now that I have children that are his age...I understand it. But at the time it was devastating." Melissa struggled with alcohol abuse but managed to still find work, earning herself the title of "The Queen of the Made-for-TV Movies."

On her drinking, Melissa recalled, "I don't know if [I] rebelled so much as tested the waters — swam against the waters. Drank the waters." Her behavior was perhaps exacerbated by her marriage to Bo Brinkman in 1988, not long after her split with Lowe. Melissa realized later she had a problem and attended AA meetings as well as therapy to help her get sober. 

However, before she could return to the land from her dark waters, Melissa first walked down the aisle a second time. She divorced Brinkman in 1992 and married Bruce Boxleitner.

Both had children from their previous marriages and, for a time, formed a family unit together. Melissa became pregnant with their son, Michael, in 1995. The couple remained married until 2011, when they divorced due to "irreconcilable differences." 

Then about a year later, Melissa met her now-husband, Timothy Busfield. On finally connecting with someone she feels she's meant to be with, Melissa said, "The depth of understanding, compassion, and kindness in this man blows me away. And oh, how we laugh! How blessed I am. How grateful."

Melissa and Busfield recounted their sweet love story to M Live back in 2019. Busfield explains that one day he was heading to his local bar to get a slice of pizza and a beer and watch sports on the TV, knowing the venue would be empty. He recalls what happened next:

"So I walked in the front door, and there was one person, sitting in my chair, at the bar …. It was like when Indiana Jones sees snakes in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' and says, 'Why does it have to be snakes?' Because my first thought was, 'I haven't been on a date in 6 months, I'm just working and not dating, I really don't want to date anyone right now.'"

Like Melissa, Busfield had also been married twice before, so the prospect of dating again wasn't at the top of his mind. But having known Melissa for about two decades, Busfield clearly had an inkling that this moment meant something. He continues: 

"So I sort of talked to myself for a moment, and then I went in, sat at the bar, and ordered a drink. Then I saw her smile and I was gone." 

Clarifying that she doesn't usually "just sit in bars alone," Melissa had actually been out with her best friend when the bar they were originally going to go to was closed, leading them to sit in the other bar until the one they wanted to go to opened. Melissa's friend had left his cell phone at her place, so while he went back to retrieve it, she stayed alone.

This is when Busfield struck up a conversation and they hit it off. 

After they wed, Busfield asked Melissa to move to his home state of Michigan with him. Unphased by the sudden shift in surroundings, Melissa agreed. Their home was a fusion of both their lives, having been furnished with a few pieces of memorabilia from "Little House on the Prairie," such as Michael London's fiddle and Melissa's red dress. Melissa said they were "starting over" in Brighton, where they had "a 3-story log house on 25 acres in the woods." On that first relocation, she gushed, "I went back to the big woods."

The couple then truly shed the Hollywood life and moved into even deeper woods, taking on their cabin-turned-dream-home in New York State. At the serene cottage, Melissa found she had the space to keep chickens and grow vegetables as well as raise a new puppy named Chicago. Reflecting on her mountainside life, Melissa said, "This is what I've always wanted." 

According to Fox, the couple refers to their rustic home as “The Cabbage,” and the very first night they slept there, they realized: "This is home."

On reaching this incredible new chapter in her life, the fifty-eight-year-old Melissa said, "I feel really good about where I am in my life right now… I've found this incredible stillness and peace in my life, in my home upstate, and in myself." Her journey, which began on the "Little House on the Prairie" set and continued in the wilds of rural Michigan, which she explored with Busfield, now finds renewed purpose in New York State. The Catskills life appears to have truly reinvented the actress, who used her newfound joie de vivre to build Modern Prairie. 

In an Instagram post in which Melissa announced the launch of Modern Prairie, she explained how the lifestyle brand is aimed at encouraging modern, mature women "to reclaim their confidence in aging through (re)discovery." In another post, Melissa wrote, expanding on her mindset and goals for Modern Prairie, saying,

"Growing older has given me the confidence and permission to discover my authentic self. I have become more empowered by embracing change and my reaction to it and now understand the importance of slowing down." The brand works to "celebrate Modern Mavens, like Melissa, who are making a difference in the lives of others, every day."

While we can't all abandon our current lives in order to embrace sprawling, cottage-core dreams in an old hunting cabin Upstate, perhaps we can take a page from Melissa's metaphorical book (or her literal one) and remember her words: "It's never too late to find your natural self...brave change, open your heart and evolve."

What do you think of Melissa Gilbert at 58? Did you know about her life story and her current lifestyle and career? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your loved ones.