The last time Melissa Gilbert spent time with her TV dad was just a week before his death.
Michael Landon, the “Bonanza” actor who starred as beloved patriarch Charles Ingalls on “Little House on the Prairie,” died three months after publicly announcing his pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 1991. He was 54.
Gilbert, who played “Half Pint” Laura Ingalls in the series, is teaming up with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN). The nonprofit aims to fund research, provide patient/caregiver support, and advocate for increased federal research funding for those affected by the disease.
“I had been running from the grieving process my whole life and trying to avoid it. But it was really important for me to go and have that goodbye time, which I didn’t have with my father. . . . This was a chance to gift …