70s TV child star unrecognisable 41 years after hit show, quitting Hollywood and movie comeback – can you guess who?
A FORMER child star from the 70s looked unrecognisable as they stepped out 41 years after their hit show.
Now aged 60, the beloved actress shot to fame when she appeared on a hit American Western drama series.
Stepping out on Tuesday for a press event in New York, Melissa Gilbert looked worlds away from how fans will remember her as Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie.
Beating over 500 other child stars for the part, Melissa was nine years old when she filmed the pilot in 1973.
She would go on to appear in over 200 episodes as the hit show ran from 1974 to 1983.
During the run of the series that catapulted her to superstardom, Melissa also appeared in several television films.
In 1980 she starred in The Diary of Anne Frank , and in 1979 she appeared in The Miracle Worker.
Melissa’s career in the television industry has continued throughout her life.
From 2009 to 2010, she appeared as Caroline “Ma” Ingalls in the touring production of Little House on the Prairie, the Musical.
And in 2012, she was a contestant on season fourteen of Dancing with the Stars in the US.
Back in November, Melissa appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show, where she spoke about the hit show that shot her to superstardom.
“Can you believe it’s been 50 years of Little House on the Prairie?!” the show’s Instagram account penned alongside a video of Melissa chatting to Kelly.
“It never went off the air,” Melissa said on the show last year, swooning over how “people still watch it”.
In May 2023, the actress told fans of how she had spent the night in hospital after she suffered a painful insect bite that soon developed into an abscess and cellulitis.
HOSPITAL DASH
“A Public Service Announcement,” she penned in the caption of an Instagram post, adding: “Well that was a fun night in the ER (she said with dripping sarcasm).”
Explaining the ordeal, Melissa went on: “Two days ago a flying insect (not bee or wasp) bit my arm. By last night my arm was incredibly swollen, red and hot.
“Called my [doctor and] he suggested we hightail it to the ER. I was gonna wait but [Timothy] said, ‘Absolutely not. We are going!’ After many tests I was diagnosed with an abscess and cellulitis.”
PERSONAL LIFE
Melissa has been married three times.
She married Bo Brinkman in 1988 and they divorced in 1994. They welcomed Dakota Brinkman during their marriage.
Melissa then wed Bruce Boxleitner in 1995 and they welcomed Michael Boxleitner before they split in 2011.
The actress is now currently married to Timothy Busfield, whom she tied the knot with in 2013.