Whatever Happened To The Cast Of Little House On The Prairie?

For many, Melissa Gilbert was the darling of "Little House on the Prairie." Viewers fell in love with Gilbert's portrayal of a precocious Laura Ingalls, and eventually Laura Ingalls Wilder. However, Gilbert has since shared that while her life on the show seemed to be picture-perfect and serene, the reality of what she experienced behind closed doors was anything but. 

When Gilbert released her memoir "Prairie Tale" in 2009, many were stunned to hear about a life that wasn't as rosy as it seemed. In the book, she describes her time on the set of the show as "a fantasy where I was a happy-go-lucky kid with a larger-than-life surrogate father in Michael Landon" (per Today). She went on, "In real life, I struggled with the mythology of my existence." Apparently, though she's always known she was adopted, Gilbert had been told lies about who her biological parents were, and she learned that her adoptive parents hadn't even been "looking" for a child, as her mother put it, when they received a call that "there was a baby available."

In addition to writing, Gilbert worked steadily up until 2019, when IMDb notes she played Ruby in "When We Last Spoke." Gilbert also jumped into politics ahead of the 2016 election when she launched a campaign for a seat in Michigan's 8th Congressional District. Unfortunately, she had to drop out of the race due to health concerns (per the Detroit Free Press).