Michael Landon represents one of the highest values in American culture – a strong sense of family and a sense of deep caring and love.

    Yet, he gew up in a physically and emotionally abusive environment. His parents fought constantly, his mother frequently attempted suicide. He was a chronic bedwetter, even in high school, and was afflicted with facial tics, made involuntary gulping noises, and was skinny and fearful.

    One day, at high school, a gym-teacher took the class to javelin throwing. Michael was about to have an experience that was to reshape his view of himself forever. When it was his turn, he approached the javelin with the same fear and lack of confidence with which he approached everything else. But it was as if a miracle occurred.

    Michael hurled the javelin 30 feet further than the rest of his classmates. Michael suddenly saw a future for himself – field athletics. In later years, Michael identifies this day as one of the most important in his life. It gave him something to hold onto.

    That summer, he was allowed to take the javelin home. He pursed the sport with a ferocious intensity and the results were amazing. In his senior year he broke records in javelin throwing and won an athletic scholarship to university.

    Part of Michael's power came from seeing the movie Samson and Delilah. He was growing his hair longer at the same time he was developing upper body strength, so the movie seemed to hold some truth. Then, when he went to university in the crew-cut 1950s, he was set upon by althletic students who cut his hair short. Even though intellectually he knew better, Michael's strength disappeared. His javelin performance fell off. Pushing himself to match prior performance levels, he injured himself, was out for a year, and was forced to leave university. A rising athletic star burned out!

    However, while working in a mundane laboring job, he was spotted by a Hollywood talent scout and invited to try out for the part of Little Joe Cartwright in the first color television western, Bonanza. From there, there was no looking back!

    Michael Landon became an actor, a director and a producer. Missing his dream to be an international sports star had, in fact, given him a future. By pursuing his original goals he had developed a physique and character that turned out to be necessary elements for his life. This fearful, puny child, so lacking in confidence, became the self-assured patriarch of the Ingalls family he portrayed in Little House On The Prairie.