How many times have you thought about an old show that you used to love watching and wondered what the actors were doing after so many years? I think many of you who watched Little House on the Prairie and were excited about each new adventure of the family that lives on the farm in Plum Creek near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, would like to know what the actors plan days.
The fans who liked actress Melissa Sue Anderson, who played Mary Ingalls, were convinced that she would continue to be a part of their lives on the small screen, but had other plans.
Today she talks about her decision to leave Hollywood behind and move to Canada.
This actress began her acting career with guest roles and entered show business when she became one of the main characters of Little House on the Prairie. Her acting performance earned her several nominations for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and her fans knew she deserved it.
Speaking about her experience filming the drama that made her famous in 2010, Anderson told Pop Entertainment: “I’m glad there was even a character that I could play, because there’s not much of that in the book.” Laura [Ingalls , author of the Little House novels on which the series was based and at the center of the story] was quite an older woman when she wrote the books. She remembered the best of her life. The characters of Ma and Mary didn’t take much into account. There was a lot of Laura and Pa and Laura and Jack the dog and Laura and Mr. Edwards, but not much of Mary. I’m lucky that they discovered I could act.”
After Mary Ingalls, she tried other supporting roles, but then married television producer Michael Sloan in 1990 and moved to Montreal in 2002 with her husband and their two children, daughter Piper and son Griffin.
In 2007, the family accepted Canadian citizenship and with their new life came new responsibilities. Therefore, Anderson decided to quit show business because she wanted to spend more time with her children and did not want them to feel pressured to pursue an acting career themselves.
In an interview with E-Talk, Anderson said: “I retired for a really long time. That was really for the kids to get their own sense of who they are instead of being with me.”
However, Anderson did not give up acting completely, but rather took on smaller roles in recent years. Her life-changing experience of being a part of a show like “Little House on the Prairie” encouraged her to write a memoir titled “The Way I See It: A Look Back at My Life on Little House.”
