By: Vickie J. Rubinson
"I spent a lot of time trying to distance myself from "Little House on the Prairie," actress Melissa Gilbert tells PEOPLE Magazine.
Gilbert played Laura Ingalls (a.k.a. "Half Pint") on the hit series from 1974 to 1983. But now the 45-year-old mom of two boys and two stepsons feels just fine about looking back.
In the fall, she will return to play Ma in a musical stage version of Little House, touring through 2010. And she has a new memoir, Prairie Tale, that encompasses both her pigtailed TV years and what came after: high-profile romances, a series of plastic surgeries and a drinking problem.
So why tell all now?
"I'm comfortable in my own skin," she says. Married for 14 years to actor Bruce Boxleitner, she lives in L.A. and serves on the board of the Children's Hospital, a charity that promotes better care for terminally ill kids.
Gilbert won the lead role of Laura and shooting began in 1974.
"Once I slipped on the dress I felt transformed. But not all the acting was pretend. The on-screen rivalry between sisters Mary and Laura was real between Melissa Sue Anderson and me. The lines also blurred between Mike Landon and me. There was nothing I feared more than disappointing him.
In the ensuing years, I've realized his influence on me extended beyond the set. As a kid, I didn't know he sipped vodka from his coffee mug almost as frequently as he pulled me into his sweat-soaked torso for a bear hug, but I'm sure he's one reason why, as a young adult, I almost always picked men who smelled like alchohol."
"I spent a lot of time trying to distance myself from "Little House on the Prairie," actress Melissa Gilbert tells PEOPLE Magazine.
Gilbert played Laura Ingalls (a.k.a. "Half Pint") on the hit series from 1974 to 1983. But now the 45-year-old mom of two boys and two stepsons feels just fine about looking back.
In the fall, she will return to play Ma in a musical stage version of Little House, touring through 2010. And she has a new memoir, Prairie Tale, that encompasses both her pigtailed TV years and what came after: high-profile romances, a series of plastic surgeries and a drinking problem.
So why tell all now?
"I'm comfortable in my own skin," she says. Married for 14 years to actor Bruce Boxleitner, she lives in L.A. and serves on the board of the Children's Hospital, a charity that promotes better care for terminally ill kids.
Gilbert won the lead role of Laura and shooting began in 1974.
"Once I slipped on the dress I felt transformed. But not all the acting was pretend. The on-screen rivalry between sisters Mary and Laura was real between Melissa Sue Anderson and me. The lines also blurred between Mike Landon and me. There was nothing I feared more than disappointing him.
In the ensuing years, I've realized his influence on me extended beyond the set. As a kid, I didn't know he sipped vodka from his coffee mug almost as frequently as he pulled me into his sweat-soaked torso for a bear hug, but I'm sure he's one reason why, as a young adult, I almost always picked men who smelled like alchohol."
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