Biografía

Actress Melissa Gilbert's son Michael (born 1995) was named after him.

Before he became a successful actor, he worked in a warehouse and at a gas station.

Always claimed to have chosen his professional name by picking the name Michael Landon out of the Los Angeles telephone directory.

Despite only being given a 3-5 percent chance of survival, Landon announced he was going to beat his pancreatic cancer. However, by the time of the diagnosis, the cancer had already spread to his liver and stomach.

Comedian and ex-talk show host, Johnny Carson was a longtime friend of his and had (in private) always confided in Landon and shared his own issues with him.

Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows.

I was grown before I realized that other mothers didn't put their heads in the oven.

I felt my father's presence with me, enlightening my memories, helping me to commit to paper the feelings I had. I really heard my father speaking to me from the other dimension, filling my mind with just the right words. The story came so fast and was so right. In three days, the script was complete.

I want people to laugh and cry, not just sit and stare at the television. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I think viewers are hungry for shows in which people say something meaningful.

[on his illness] Well, the news shocked the hell out of me. Nothing was further from my mind, since I'm only 54 and, with rare exceptions, I'd been healthy my whole life. Not that I don't deserve to have a cancer. I'm a good athlete and I work out hard--before this happened I could bench press 300, 350 pounds, no sweat --but I've abused my body over the years. I don't want people to think that everybody is a likely candidate for cancer of this type. I think I have it because for most of my life, though I was never a drunk, I drank too much. I also smoked too many cigarettes and ate a lot of wrong things. And if you do that, even if you think you're too strong to get anything, somehow you're going to pay.