It’s never a great idea to date a coworker, but for Michael Landon, it seemed that love was boundless in film sets he frequented. Landon met his third wife, Cindy, while she was a makeup artist on his series, Little House on the Prairie.
But even before that, Landon found love when he met his second wife, Marjorie Lynn, on the set of another one of his television shows, Bonanza. According to Landon’s daughter’s biography of her father, I Promised My Dad, Marjorie was working as an extra on the set and while chatting before production, she looked across the room and caught the eye of Landon.
Cheryl Landon Wilson wrote, “According to everything I’ve ever been told by both my parents, it was love at first sight. Their eyes met, and as Dad explained, he knew in that instant that he ‘had to have her,’ that this woman had to be his mate.”
Wilson continued, “Mom finished her Bonanza scene, but decided to stick around, something she ordinarily wouldn’t do; it wasn’t her style. It was obvious that something was happening, and she wasn’t about to run away from it.”
As Marjorie Lynn chatted with a friend, Landon eventually approached Marjorie and asked her out on a date. However, it seemed to take all of his courage, as Wilson wrote, “My dad was a shy kind of guy who tried to mask his insecurity and reticence with jokes. Some people interpreted this behavior as brashness because they didn’t know he was covering up.”
Still, Marjorie accepted his invitation for a date, which Wilson explained consisted of the two mooning over each other, which is either adorable or gag-inducing, depending on what sort of person you are. The passion wasn’t fleeting, however; Wilson explained that it was the beginning of something beautiful.
She said, “It was the beginning of a pattern my parents followed for many years — all their friends tell stories about being with Mom and Dad and how suddenly they’d turn everything and everybody else off. They had eyes only for each other.”