Melissa Gilbert Supports Pancreatic Cancer Awareness in Honor of Actors Michael Landon, Patrick Swayze

Melissa Gilbert attends the "Nymphes D'Or—Golden Nymphs" Award Ceremony during the 62nd Monte Carlo TV Festival in Monte-Carlo, Monaco, on June 20, 2023. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Melissa Gilbert is supporting efforts to fight pancreatic cancer in honor of her late co-star, Michael Landon, who died after a battle with the disease in 1991.

The “Little House on the Prairie” star, who played opposite Landon in the series, recalled watching her on-screen father suffer from the cancerous effects and was shocked by the outcome.

“I‘d seen Michael have meningitis, I’d seen him with broken bones, I'd seen him with a lot of illnesses over the course of our time together. But this took him and decimated him so fast,” she told People.

“This man was the epitome of physical wellbeing,” she said. “I always described him as an upside down triangle, so strong, in such great shape, so healthy. And to see it happen so quickly and so almost violently, it felt like an enemy I wanted to defeat.”

Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, according to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, and currently has a five-year survival rate of 13 percent. Experts note that detecting the disease in its early stages is difficult, and symptoms don’t usually appear until it has advanced in the body.

“We read about it, we hear about it from a distance, but until it touches you close to home, which it did with me, I personally did not realize how brutal it can be,” Gilbert told the outlet.

“To me, it feels like a tornado. You have no warning. It’s just there, and the survival rate is virtually nil,” she added.

Landon was not the only one the actress witnessed fight the disease. Her friend “Dirty Dancing” star Patrick Swayze died from pancreatic cancer in 2009 at the age of 57.

“Literally nothing has brought this man down and this is going to do it?” Gilbert said. “He was able to fight for a lot longer than Michael Landon was able to. But still … You see them before and you see the pictures of them as they’re going through it and it is devastating.”

“This is the thing that killed two of the strongest, most extraordinarily extraordinary physical specimens of men I'd ever known in my life,” she spoke of Landon and Swayze. “Athletic, talented, I mean, you name it.

“To me, these guys were pillars, almost like superheroes. And to see something like that take them the way it did. ... And it’s not just the person going through it. I’m watching a whole family suffer along with both of these men as they are suffering in a way that is indescribable.”

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network

Through her lifestyle brand Modern Prairie, Gilbert is partnering with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network to raise funds and spread awareness of the charity’s efforts in donating to research, advocating for increased federal funding, and offering patient and caregiver support, according to People.

“My work with PanCAN is a passion of mine and important to me because of the people I’ve lost—whom I’ve known and loved—to pancreatic cancer,” Gilbert told the news outlet.

The actress is releasing a special capsule collection in November in honor of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. The products—including women’s and children’s bonnets, pocket squares, and a signature pie carrier—will have purple features, the official color of pancreatic cancer awareness. All of the collection’s earnings will support PanCAN.

“Whatever I can do to support the organization,” Gilbert said. “It can be a scary world when you think about all that stuff that’s out there. So why shouldn’t we all put our heads together, put our pocketbooks together, put our hearts together, and do whatever we can to eradicate this scourge that is cancer, and especially pancreatic cancer.”

Born on May 8, 1964, Melissa Gilbert is best known for her role as Laura Ingalls on the TV western “Little House on the Prairie,” making her debut on the show at 10 years old in 1974 and continuing her role until its finale in 1983. She also starred in the 1983 television film “Choices of the Heart” and competed in “Dancing with the Stars” in 2012.

Gilbert married actor and director Timothy Busfield in 2013 and released her memoir “Back to the Prairie” in 2022.