Steve Harvey is a comedian known and loved by many people, who managed to bring a smile to our lips. However, Steve has his secrets.

Steva was born in 1957 in Welch, West Virginia and his name was Broderick, but he always used the name Steve.

After a few years, he and his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio.

His life was quite difficult.

He worked as a boxer, car repairman, carpet cleaner and postman.

From 1980 he began to show interest in a career in stand up and in 1985 he had his first show in Cleveland and the audience immediately fell in love with him.

However, Steve was homeless for several years and lived in his car and bathed in gas stations. He worked hard until he managed to get his own shows. Between 1996-2002, he ran the „The Steve Harvey Show”. He has also had a lot of shows over time, such as Family Feud, Celebrity, Little Big Shots.

But success never affected Steve and he kept his feet on the ground.

Steve believes in helping helpless people. He and his wife have The Steve and Marjorie Harvey Foundation, which helps over 3,000 families each year.

He remembers that at one point he had nothing and now that he has he will give back to others.

He has two daughters with Marcia Harvey, his first wife. Unfortunately, Steve lost touch with his girls because that’s when he chose a career. He also has a son with his second wife, Mary Shackelford.

Steve is currently married to Marjorie, whom he met at one of his stand-up shows.

She was late for the show and when she arrived she made a fuss trying to find her place on the ticket. Then Steve interrupted the show and said, „I’m sorry, I don’t know who this is, but I’m going to marry her.”

The two love each other very much and do not shy away from showing this to everyone.

During an episode of the Steve Harvey Show in 2015, Steve invited his wife to the show to help him catch a „special mom.” During the show, Steve stopped and said he had a confession.

Then he said that he kept secret from his wife the real purpose of the show, that of celebrating her.

At that moment, Marjorie started to cry, especially as Steve continued with a speech to show her how much he loves her.

He said he owed her everything.

He also said: “You made my children comfortable and I existed before you and now I live. I never lived before you ”.

The son of Karen Rhodes and Paul Rybkin lived only 36 hours due to a rare disease called Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). This disease can cause kidney failure due to cysts that grow in the kidneys.

The two were very happy when they became parents again in 2013, but unfortunately, Maddy was born with the same disease as her brother.  The two parents were very worried and were trying to find a solution so that their daughter could live a long and happy life. They did not accept that this disease could take their second child. After two years of fighting, Maddy’s father managed to give her a chance at life.

In the first year and a half of her life, Maddy spent most of her time surrounded by doctors. She also needed tubes to breathe and oxygen treatments. The girl’s stomach was always swollen from the disease.

All of these things made Maddy powerless, always sleepy and vomiting all the time. Doctors have begun to worry that they will not be able to find a kidney donor and Maddy will die.

Fortunately, the doctors announced the family that the girl’s father is suitable as a donor.

Karen, Maddy’s mother, was very worried about her husband and daughter, who were about to have surgery.

Fortunately, the operation was successful for Paul and Maddy and Paul managed to save his daughter.

Karen said that now Maddy is a girl full of energy, full of life. She also added that now Maddy is a happy and healthy 2-year-old child and her stomach is normal, only slightly rounded.

Paul is very happy that he was able to save his second child, but he knows that he did what any parent would have done for his child in a situation like this.

„I am very happy that now we have a healthy child, who is enjoying life. We went through a lot of feelings and hard events, but we succeeded to overcome them. Any father would have done the same thing as me, if this way he could save his baby „Paul said, according to The Mirror.

Her parents can’t wait to see how Maddy will grow up as a normal person, especially since the little girl was able to get over the moments when she was sick and now she plays with her friends.

Doctors said Maddy will need another kidney transplant in 25 years, but parents are enjoying the moment and are confident that their daughter will be able to cross this barrier as well.

We hope that this family will be happy together and enjoy each other.

Ever since Bruce Jenner publicly announced that he would become Caitlyn Jenner, she has been in the spotlight.

It’s been 5 years since the transformation happened, but people are still interested in what’s going on in Caitlyn’s life.

Some people admire her decision and consider that she had the courage to express how she really feels and to do something about it even if she was old. At the same time, there are people who judge her for the choices she makes.

Caitlyn is the father of five children, including Kendall and Kylie Jenner.

To complete the transformation, Caitlyn had to go through several interventions, such as hairline correction, forehead contouring, and jaw and chin contouring. Also she had breast implants, had her beard removed and finally had the most complicated surgery, gender reassignment surgery.

Caitlyn wrote a book saying that she wants to be an inspiration to people who are afraid to confess what they actually feel. The book is called „The Secrets of My Life.”

In the book, Caitlyn says that surgeries were a success and that she now feels free and happy with herself.

During her journey, Caitlyn encountered a lot of problems, as she was always attacked on social media by people who did not agree with her decisions. She received and still receives a lot of messages that remain, but fortunately she managed to get over them and no longer affects her emotionally.

Caitlyn participated in a reality show, the British version of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, where she couldn’t wear makeup. In this way, everyone was able to see how beautiful she is in reality and how honest she is.

There are many people who believe that Caitlyn’s decisions were made to keep her in the public eye, but she says this is not true, especially since she was already in the public eye before talking about the transition. However, let’s not forget that many people consider her very brave and want her to be happy.

What do you think? I believe that everyone has the right to be happy, no matter what the world thinks. We also need to make decisions and move forward.

We don’t have to judge people for the decisions they make, because even though we don’t realize it, our comments can affect others a lot. This can cause depression, insecurity and anxiety.

Let’s be good to each other!

Max Baer Jr. is most commonly known as Jethro Bodine from The Beverly Hillbillies, but whatever happened to this legend after the show?

This is Max Baer Jr today, age 83.

Comedy show The Beverly Hillbillies followed the story of the Clampett family, with Jed Clampett, played by Buddy Ebsen, who found himself accumulating wealth extremely fast.

Jed became a millionaire overnight, deciding to move to Beverly Hills, California. The crux of the story? The family maintained their hillbilly way of life.

Max Baer Jr – Jethro Bodine
The street-smart Jed brought his Clampett family clan with him, and among the many popular characters was one that stood out.

Max Baer Jr played the role of Jethro Bodine, the son of Jed’s cousin, Pearl, a naive and borderline dim-witted man who showed off his great math skills with his multiplication classic “five gozinta five one times, five gozinta ten two times.”

The Beverly Hillbillies was an instant success when it aired in 1962. It rose to the No. 1 spot quicker than any other show in television history within the first three weeks after its debut, according to IMDB.

Television audiences loved the show. It ran for 11 years, amassing a total of nine seasons and 274 episodes, before being cancelled in 1971.

The Beverly Hillbillies was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best TV Show Comedy in 1964, in addition to four Emmy nominations.

The Beverly Hillbillies – Jethro
As for Max’s character, he had a goofy year to ear grin, his laugh made everyone else laugh and, above all else, he made everyone believe his character Jethro Bodine was real.

Max had practiced his backwood accent by listing to Andy Griffith and Jonathan Winters records. He was able to couple this with maintaining a constantly stupid look on his face, which obviously had fans laughing.

Max Baer Jr was truly an American comedy icon while portraying the country bumpkin Jethro. Not only that, but the show gave Max his big breakthrough.

Sadly, his life after the show didn’t turn out as many would’ve thought. This is the story of the man behind Jethro Bodine – a character people in Hollywood never wanted to let go of.

Max Baer Jr was born Dec 4, 1937 in Oakland, California. He is the son of legendary boxer Max Baer and his wife Mary Ellen Sullivan.

Picked up in parking lot
It would be a long time before Baer Jr went into acting. His first acting role was in a stage production of Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Blackpool Pavilion in England in 1949. Later, it was actually just a mixture of coincidence, luck and a great self-confidence that landed him the role of a lifetime in The Beverly Hillbillies.

Baer Jr was raised in Sacramento and later moved to Santa Clara to study. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the Santa Clara University in 1959, but only a year later, he would find himself standing in a parking lot in Los Angeles.

According to a 1999 article in People Magazine, Max Baer Jr decided to ride his motorcycle to Los Angeles the year after graduation. He ended up in the Warner Bros. lot, where an executive thought he looked like James Garner.

Baer Jr was discovered, and he decided to give acting a chance. Soon, he had signed his first one-year contract, despite knowing anything about acting. Instead, he just thought he might as well should go for it.

He scored small parts and guest roles in television, appearing in series such as 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick and Hawaiian Eye.

Even though his career wasn’t skyrocketing, he decided to stay, and soon he found himself the greatest gig he would ever land: a sitcom about a country bumpkin family getting rich off oil.

Max Baer Jr – career
Following an open audition, he scored the role as Jethro Bodine in The Beverly Hillbillies, earning $1000 for the pilot and $500 the following show.

“When you play a role like Jethro it’s for other people to judge because it’s pretty hard to be subjective or objective about yourself,” Baer Jr told Medium.

“You just do the best you can with the material that you’re given, and then you try to add to it [with your performance] as much as you possibly can. But in the end, it’s the audience who has the final say. Well, we liked what you did’ or ‘We don’t like what you did.’ And you really don’t have any other way of evaluating it.”

At this point, the show was a huge success. Baer never earned more than $800 per episode, but he held a very special place in the hearts of the American TV public.

Max Baer Jr knew he was doing a good job, and most importantly, getting people to laugh.

“You have to perform well. And, in my case, if I have made the people laugh and even if they can laugh at my expense, it’s okay. I don’t care,” Baer Jr said. “They can laugh with me or at me. It doesn’t matter, just as long as they laugh. Because if I can make them laugh, then I believe that my performance was a successful one. I can’t evaluate it as to what degree of success it was. But I can say it did what it was supposed to do.”

In 1993, a feature-length adaptation of the classic TV show aired, including Dolly Parton among others. Unfortunately, it didn’t achieve quite the same level of success. To be honest, how could it be after they had cast someone else in the role of Jethro?

Praised as Jethro Bodine
Celebrated actress Donna Douglas played the role of the mountain beauty Elly May Clampett on Beverly Hillbillies.

Speaking in 2013, she praised Max Baer Jr for his outstanding role as Jethro, who might not have been seen as the brightest bulb in the bulb box.

“Max Baer did well as Jethro because he didn’t come across as so dumb that you didn’t like him,” she said according to the book Dashing, Daring, and Debonair: TV’s Top Male Icons from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

“He gave me a hard time then and still does. But we all were like a family. Max could complain about any one of us (for whatever reason), but do not let someone else say something about one of us. Boy — would Max really let that person have it. He’d defend us just like with a real family member.”

Donna Douglas passed away in 2015, aged 82, leaving Baer Jr the only surviving cast member of the show.

TV historian Jeffrey D. Dalrymple, a good friend of Baer Jr’s, agrees.

“You believed Uncle Jed, Granny, and cousin Elly May was his family because they played it so well,” he says. “And Max had the ability to blend in with the other cast members, without overplaying or underplaying Jethro. He was a good actor and a good guy, and he still is”

Max Baer Jr – golf professional
Besides being a celebrated star on The Beverly Hillbillies, Baer Jr had a great interest in sports, just like his father, who was a professional boxer. Unfortunately, Baer Jr’s father, Max Baer, passed away in 1959, age 50.

Baer Jr was no boxier, but he played professional golf, participating in several tournaments in California.

While attending Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento, California, Baer Jr won letter in golf, football, baseball and basketball. In addition, he won the Sacramento Junior Open Golf Championship two years in a row. Later, he was also a runner-up in the men’s tournament.

In 1968, Max Baer Jr teamed up with professional golfer Charlie Sifford, with whom the actor won the pro-am division of the Andy Williams Golf Classic in San Diego.

”Acting, though, is really only a hobby with me”, Baer told The Times in 1971. ”Golf is my occupation.”

Following The Beverly Hillbillies being cancelled, Baer Jr didn’t have a great amount of offers on the table.

One of the problems was that producers only saw him as Jethro, not Baer. He managed to get guest appearances on several shows like Love, Fantasy Island and Murder, She Wrote.

Director and producer
Instead of taking on different small projects and TV shows, he decided to go his own path, producing and directing. They might not have been movies meant for the Academy Awards, but boy, did he put food on the table.

Bear Jr found himself producing and directing two movies named Ode to Billie Joe and the small-town psycho cop film Macon County Line (1974).

The movie reportedly cost $225,000 to make. However, it became a bigger success than anyone could’ve ever imagined. In fact, it was the single most profitable indie-film of 1974, earning $18.8 million in North America and over $30 million worldwide, according to IMDB.

It also inspired the sequel Return to Macon County (1975).

Max Baer Jr made a fortune on his own movies. And it soon led the actor, writer and producer into becoming a businessman.

His legacy of Jethro from The Beverly Hillbillies was still intact. That’s why, in 1991, he decided to purchase the rights to The Beverly Hillbillies name from CBS.

Max Baer Jr – casino plans
Baer Jr, now 83 years of age, had plans of using the show’s theme and characters for casinos, theme parks, restaurants and cosmetics. The themed casino and theme park were supposed to be built on 24 acres of land he owns in Carson Valley, Nevada.

More than 200 rooms, 1,000 slot machines and animatronic figures of the cast were planned for the resort.

However, Baer Jr’s been through several lawsuits regarding his projects and nothing really came out of his dream of making a blockbuster franchise of the popular TV series.

In 2014, it was reported that Baer had sued CBS. He claimed that the network had made a secret deal with a Des Moines based Jethro’s BBQ. According to the actor, it interfered with his opportunity to make money on his role from the iconic television show.

However, the owners in Des Moines were confident it wouldn’t affect their business.

Max Baer Jr has been married once. In 1966, he tied the knot with Joanne Kathleen Hill. They divorced in 1971.

Max Baer Jr – relationships
Following several relationships, he dated Chere Rhodes, a 30-year-old model from California. Their relationship continued until a tragedy happened in January of 2008 in Carson City, Nevada. Chere was shot in the chest, and following a police investigation, the death was labelled as suicide.

Max Baer Jr had to fight his way into the Hollywood spotlight. In 1963, he spoke about his future, a quote that truly showed what he went through the years that followed.

“We Baers never wound up exactly the way we hoped we would. My grandfather always wanted to be a prize fighter, but he became a butcher. He did win a slaughtering championship once,” Baer said according to Closer. “Dad had hoped to become an actor and, as everyone knows, he became a boxer. I wanted to be a lawyer and here I am acting. The show has done a lot for my career. The exposure will help insure work for me in the future, too. And someday I hope to prove I can play something besides a hillbilly.”

No matter what happened before or after the show, we will remember Max Baer Jr as a great actor that made us laugh in pretty much every single episode of The Beverly Hillbillies.

It’s safe to say he will always have a special place in our hearts.

Please share this story with friends and family!

Princes William and Harry met for the first time since their grandfather’s funeral to unveil the statue of their late mother, Princess Diana, which is placed on the grounds of Kensington Palace. The two brothers could be seen standing shoulder to shoulder as they honored the life of the woman who meant the world to them.

In their joint statement, the brothers said: “Today, on what would have been our Mother’s 60th birthday, we remember her love, strength and character – qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better.

“Every day, we wish she were still with us, and our hope is that this statue will be seen forever as a symbol of her life and her legacy.

“Thank you to Ian Rank-Broadley, Pip Morrison and their teams for their outstanding work, to the friends and donors who helped make this happen, and to all those around the world who keep our mother’s memory alive.”

 

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The image of William and Harry talking to each other and honoring their mother together is what many anticipated seeing after the number of scandals involving the royal family. The two haven’t been on good terms since the infamous Oprah interview and the number of accusations brought up by the Sussexes.

However, today’s event sparks rays of hope that the brothers could be once again as close as they have been before. In doing so, they will fulfill the promise they gave Princess Diana shortly before her death.

Royal historian Robert Lacey, writes in his book Battle of Brothers that the late princess asked from her boys to promise her to be best friends forever. Quoting psychic Simone Simmons, who used to consult Diana, Lacey writes: “You must promise me that you will always be each other’s best friends,” Diana told her sons. “And never let anyone come between you.”

“Both boys promised they would keep to that,” Simmons recalled. “They high-fived each other and gave their mother a big cuddle.

“‘Anybody would have melted at the sight,’ she was reported saying. “Then they went out to play soccer.”

After her split with Prince Charles, Diana was worried that the Royal Family could take the boys from her.

Biographer Howard Hodgson, author of the 2007 book Charles: The Man Who Will Be King, wrote: “She was well aware that the Queen had the constitutional right and authority under common law to take control of both boys’ care and education.

“As such she could become the boys’ guardian or even appoint one: this would probably be their father and that might lead to Diana’s exclusion if she finally burned all her bridges with the Royal Family.”

The divorce meant a fresh start for her, according to royal author Richard Key. Unfortunately, she passed away in August 1997 in a car crash in Paris and left the world mourning.

May Princess of the People rest in peace. As of her boys, we hope they will be able to put any differences aside and keep the promise they gave their mother.

Actress Stefanie Powers, 78, was born as Stefania Zofia Federkiewicz on November 2, 1942, in Los Angeles, California. After her parents divorced, she continued living with her mother who was a big fan of ballet and classical music. In fact, it was this love that was later passed on to Stefanie who attended ballet at the Michele Panieff Ballet Company along Natalie Wood and Jill St. John.

Shortly after, Stefanie’s interest switched from dancing to movies and acting. When she was 15, she auditioned for the role of Velma in West Wide Story, but didn’t get it due to her young age. However, this audition helped her attract the attention of a director at the American School of Dance who encouraged her to audition for a role in his movie.

This led to her to attend classes at 20th Century Fox, MGM Studios and Columbia and sign a contract with Colombia Records.

“That was the beginning of my contract with Columbia Pictures. I was tied for seven years; in those days if you signed a motion picture contract you were not allowed to do television,” Powers said. After doing several movies with them, MGM Television bought her contract from Columbia to present her as The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966) a spin-off of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

This series was a short-lived one but very popular at the same time and it opened the doors for Powers to some even greater movies. In 1979, she got the role that marked her whole career, that of freelance writer Jennifer Hart. Starring alongside Robert Wagner, the series was a huge success.

“You don’t want to hope too much for something to click,” Powers told TV Insider in 2019, speaking of the beginnings of the series when no one knew whether audiences would love it or not that much. “Yes, we were picked up. But the feeling of how much do people love those characters? We didn’t feel that until we went out into the world.”

“‘Do you remember, Stef? We did about six shows, and I walked into your dressing room and you had tears in your eyes’ and said, ‘Do you think it’s going to be good? What are we doing?’ We loved doing it but were very anxious,” Robert Wagner added.

 

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The onscreen chemistry between Roberts and Wagner was undeniable and people found it hard to believe that the two weren’t an actual couple in their real life. In fact, Wagner was married to Natalie Wood at the time and he and Powers were just very good friends. The two are very close even today. “We adore each other,” she said of her relationship with her lifelong friend. “Robert and I live in separate parts of the world, but he’ll visit for dinner at times.”

 

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Powers was married twice.

During the filming of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., she met actor Gary Lockwood at a party and the two tied the knot. However, just six year later, they divorced. Shortly after, she started dating  Academy Award-winning actor William Holden after meeting him at a party at the La Costa Spa.

“I don’t know why Bill decided to attend, as he was normally a loner, but happily he did. We met again, and by now, while he might very well not have remembered our previous meetings, he had seen some of my work, so he did not regard me as a stranger. As the cocktail hour was coming to an end but our conversation was not, he asked me to join him for dinner, and I accepted,” she wrote in her biography One from the Hart.

“Having filed for divorce, I was a free agent, so there was no reason not to be seen out with someone, even this someone. Ever discreet, Bill chose a quiet local restaurant. Our attraction was undeniable, but Bill was from the old school and maintained a certain formality.”

Sadly, Holden died of intoxication in 1981 at the age of 63 in his home in Santa Monica, California. In 1993, Powers married her second husband, Patrick Houitte de la Chesnais, and divorced him in 1999.

In 2008, the actress was diagnosed with lung cancer. Her battle was long and tough but she ended up a winner and she’s now inspiring others.

Throughout her rich career which has spanned six decades, Powers received numerous awards. She was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992. Today, at the age of 78, she is still active and plays at theaters.

Powers is a huge animal lover. Her step-father raised race horses and she has been around animals her whole life. “Growing up, my best friend was a large goat — one I used to pal around with until he ate my grandmother’s rose garden”, she said. “Both of us were banished. Everything that fell out of a tree or got hit by a car ended up getting brought to our house. We had a potpourri of animals, pets and critters.”

Today, she’s running the The William Holden Wildlife Foundation, an animal rights and wildlife conservation group and an education center in Kenya. It helps young children learn more about the animals and the nature.

I am heartbroken over the discovery of 8 tons of smuggled ivory in Singapore. Please continue the fight. Please boycott Chinese goods. #elephants #EastAfrica #ivory #conservation pic.twitter.com/GnLaI2IaE8

— Stefanie Powers (@Stefanie_Powers) August 6, 2019

Currently, the actress lives in the U.S, The UK, and Kenya. “I don’t live anywhere; I travel between houses and residences. At this stage in my life and career I look for roles that are going to be challenging,” she says. “I didn’t become an actor to be myself, I became an actor to be somebody else and so, to the extent that I can, that’s what I look for.”

Powers still has a lot to offer to her fans and audiences from all over the world. She defies age and looks absolutely stunning.

John Goodman is a star known and loved by many people, but like each of us, he has his own problems in life, as he struggled with depression and alcoholism. However, he managed to find the strength to overcome all his problems in order to stay with his family for as long as possible. For this reason he chose to lose weight to maintain his health.

John is one of the lucky people who ended up doing what they love in life, because since he was a child he knew he wanted to become an actor. He also managed to have a wonderful family. Although everything seems great, the star suffered from depression.

Goodman was born on June 20, 1952 in Affton, Missouri.

His father was working at the post office and his mother was a waitress and had two siblings.

Unfortunately, his father died when John was two years old, and their mother was forced to raise her 3 children alone.

John has been attracted to acting since he was a child, but he was also thinking of becoming a radio DJ, because he felt attracted to this world. He said he listened a lot to the radio because it made him forget about everyday life. He also said that until he got to college he was convinced that he would work in radio.

John was also a good athlete, which is why he got a scholarship to Missouri State University, but suffered an accident that made him stop playing football.

That’s how he came to study drama at Missouri State University. That’s when he realized that in fact his mission is to become an actor. He didn’t want to wait any longer, so he moved to New York, where he rented an apartment with the help of money borrowed from his brother.

He was convinced that if he did not make this decision, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

Life in New York was not easy, and for many months John struggled to live from day to day. However, he did not give up and went to all the auditions that were available. He said there were days when he ran out of food, but his desire to become an actor was greater than hunger. In order to stay in New York, John worked as a bartender and waiter and occasionally received various roles in commercials.

n 1977 he made his film debut in Jailbait Babysitter and in 1983 he landed a role in The Face of Rage. In 1985 he starred as Pap Finn in Big River (1985) and again the same year in David Byrne’s True Stories. In 1987, he got a role in the Coen Brothers ’cult-classic Raising Arizona (1987), in which Goodman starred alongside Nicolas Cage.

John was starting to get as many roles as possible, but the biggest role was the role of Dan Conner on the new sitcom Roseanne. John said he really liked the role. Without realizing it, John became a celebrity, but his fame did not suit him.

He continued to live in a small apartment. He won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical in 1995, as well as an additional four nominations. Goodman was also nominated for seven Emmys for his work on Roseanne, with the series winning thee Golden Globes and three Primetime Emmys.

In 1989, John met his future wife, Anna Beth Hartzog, at a Hollywood party. After a while, their first child, Molly Evangeline Goodman, was born.

John seemed to have a perfect life, but in reality he was struggling with depression and alcoholism.

Fortunately, the actor has managed to recover and can now control his anxiety. He said his wife helped him a lot to overcome the difficult moments. John said that he had big weight problems and that it was several years in a row when he lost over 60 pounds every spring and then he gained that weight again

But at one point he decided that his lifestyle needed to change, so he hired a nutritionist and a personal trainer. His diet was based on Mediterranean food and he trained 6 times a week. That’s how he managed to lose over 100 lbs.

Little House on the Prairie is one of those series that remain iconic and never lose their popularity no matter how much time passes by. Since the day it first aired back in 1974, it has never been off air.

The story follows the lives of the Ingalls family who live on a farm in Plum Creek, near Walnut Grove, Minnesota. It explores various themes and remains until this day one of best series of all time.

The actors who were part of its creation made huge names for themselves in the film industry. Among those who made the series what it is today are great Michael Landon, who played the role of Charles Ingalls, Karen Grassle, who portrayed the role of Caroline Ingalls, the most famous mother figure in the history of film, Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson, Dean Butler, and a lot more.

Karen Grassel got the role of Caroline Ingalls thanks to a happy coincidence. At the time the producers were looking for someone to play the role, Grassle was planning on working on another project, an independent film in LA. However, as she went to the airport, there were no tickets.

She then got a call from her agent about a film starring Michael Landon whom she knew at the time as “that guy from Bonanza.”

“They’d seen everyone in Hollywood who was right for the part. They were down to the wire because they cast everyone else. After I read my second scene with Mike, he leaped up like a jack-in-the-box and said, ‘Bring her to wardrobe!’ But NBC had to approve me, so he interviewed for executives on closed-circuit TV,” Grassle recalled.

 

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Although the series was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s best-selling series of Little House books and on her childhood, when it came to Caroline Ingalls, actress Karen Grassle based the role on her own mother.

“If you read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books and see photos, Caroline was very tough and sturdy,” she explained. “My mother rode a horse barefoot to school, and as a young woman, she taught in a one-room schoolhouse! So I took her character, strength and wisdom and infused Caroline with that.”

 

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At the time she became part of the cast, the actress was probably not aware of the extent of popularity Little House on the Prairie would bring for her and the rest of the crew. Speaking of the time she was working on the iconic series, Karen said of Landon: “He was constantly trying to make the crew laugh and make everybody happy. A very hard worker and he could be quite moody — he had a lot on his shoulders that first year. He had a falling-out with a producer very early on, so he was the only captain.”

However, as the series gained more and more popularity, Grassle and Michael Landon got into a fight about the amount of money she earned.

“Michael was prodigiously talented,” she told Closer. “A complicated character from a dysfunctional family who loved his crew. But when the show was in the top 10 and I said, ‘Gee, it is time to renegotiate my contract,’ Michael did not want to pay me. It was very difficult.”

She didn’t speak publicly about the rift because she didn’t want to damage her relationship with Landon any further. “I didn’t speak up publicly at the time,” Grassle said. “Unless the fact that I continued to negotiate meant that Mike might have said things about me that could have been detrimental.”

 

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Before Landon’s passing back in 1991, he and Grassle got on good terms again and spoke to one another recalling the good old times. “We had a friendly call about the good old days,” Grassle said. “I was glad we had that healing.”

Landon was much appreciated by everyone who has ever met him. He was an exceptional man and an actor who helped many succeed. Actor Dean Butler, for once, spoke of the impact Landon had on his life and career.

He was a kind of person who cared for those working with him dearly and always made sure each member of the crew would be home having dinner with their family every night.