"Little House on the Prairie" star Melissa Gilbert comes from a long line of creatives. Her grandfather, Harry Crane, was a comedy writer and creator of "The Honeymooners" (The New York Times). She remembers her grandfather's famous friends, telling the Television Academy Foundation in a 2011 interview, "I didn't know that any of them were famous until much later in life."
Crane wrote for the likes of John F. Kennedy and Frank Sinatra, developing connections in the industry and giving Gilbert advice as she rose to stardom in the early 1970s. According to Gilbert, it was her grandfather who encouraged her to stick to performing rather than pursue her other passion, medicine.
At the age of 9, Melissa Gilbert was cast as Laura in "Little House on the Prairie" after going through the audition process with approximately 500 other young actresses (via Biography).
Allegedly, she developed a special connection with Michael Landon, set to play her on-screen father, during the audition process. Gilbert remembers being blown away by Landon's star power upon their first meeting. "He wasn't talking to me like I was nine, he was talking to me like I was his contemporary," she said, per the Television Academy Foundation.
Though the 9-year-old Gilbert didn't get much direction on set, she was inspired by the original books and her very active imagination, one she had developed playing make-believe with her childhood friend Amy Sherman, now Amy Sherman-Palladino of "Gilmore Girls" fame.
Filming the pilot, Gilbert was blown away by the many animals brought to the set as well as the period costumes. According to the actress, it was "the greatest dress-up ever." When the series officially premiered on NBC in September 1974, Gilbert was 10 — with nine years of playing Laura ahead of her.
