Have you ever thought about an old TV show you loved and wondered what happened to the actors? If you enjoyed watching “Little House on the Prairie” and followed the adventures of the family on their farm in Plum Creek near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, you might be curious about what the cast members are doing today.
Fans of Melissa Sue Anderson, who played Mary Ingalls, probably expected to see her continue acting on TV, but she chose a different path. Nowadays, she talks about her decision to leave Hollywood and move to Canada.
Anderson began her career with guest roles before becoming a key character on “Little House on the Prairie.” Her performance earned her several nominations for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and her fans believed she truly deserved the recognition.
Reflecting on her time filming the show that made her famous, Anderson shared with Pop Entertainment in 2010, “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 quite older when she wrote the books, and she was remembering the best parts of her life. The characters of Ma and Mary didn’t factor in a lot. There was a lot of Laura and Pa and Laura and Jack the dog and Laura and Mr. Edwards, but not much of Mary. I’m fortunate that they discovered I could act.”
After playing Mary Ingalls, Anderson took on other minor roles. In 1990, she married television producer Michael Sloan and, in 2002, they moved to Montreal with their two children, daughter Piper and son Griffin.
By 2007, the family had become Canadian citizens. With their new life came new priorities, and Anderson chose to leave showbiz to spend more time with her kids and avoid pressuring them into acting.
In an interview with E-Talk, Anderson explained, “I really stepped away for a long time. That was really for the kids so they would have their own sense of who they were as opposed to being with me.”
Although she stepped back from acting, Anderson still took on small roles in recent years. Her experience on “Little House on the Prairie” inspired her to write a memoir titled The Way I See It: A Look Back at My Life on Little House.
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