Melissa Sue Anderson, who played Mary Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, turned 64 on Sept. 26, 2026. She joined the series at 11 in 1974 and received a 1978 Primetime Emmy nomination for her performance.
Mary lost her sight at the end of season four, a storyline that gave Anderson some of her most memorable material. She left the series in 1981 after seven years. Later credits included Happy Birthday to Me, Murder, She Wrote and The Equalizer; she also won a Daytime Emmy for the ABC Afterschool Special Which Mother Is Mine?.
Anderson later stepped back from acting to prioritize motherhood. She married television writer and producer Michael Sloan in 1990, and they had two children; Sloan died in August 2025 after 35 years of marriage. Anderson published a memoir in 2010 and reconnected with former co-star Melissa Gilbert in late 2025.
