Melissa Sue Anderson (born September 26, 1962) is an American actress best known as playing Mary Ingalls in the NBC television series Little House on the Prairie, which aired from 1974 until 1982.

Anderson was born in Berkeley, California and her show business career got under way when a dance teacher urged her parents to find an agent for her. She began doing TV commercials, and soon the blond, blue-eyed beauty was in great demand for many roles. One of those included that of Millicent, the girl who kissed Bobby and induced him to see fireworks on The Brady Bunch. At eleven years of age, she won her role in Little House on the Prairie ahead of hundreds of competitors. After the popular series ended in 1982, she continued her acting in several TV shows, such as The Equalizer, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Murder, She Wrote.

She has been described as mild mannered and unpretentious, not unlike her Mary Ingalls character. Her first known romance was with actor Lorenzo Lamas, with whom she made an appearance in the film series The Love Boat in which two friends (Lorenzo and Melissa) resist the matchmaking efforts of their parents. After this short romance, she dated Frank Sinatra, Jr., who at the time was more than twice her age. She says, "It was fun, but never really wild. That's just not me."

She won an Emmy for her performance in Which Mother Is Mine?, an ABC Afternoon Special (1979). She did secure a Spanish 'TP de Oro' Award for 'Best Foreign Actress' for her role on Little House on the Prairie (1980). She was the associate producer for the next to last TV project Michael Landon made before dying; Where Pigeons Go to Die (1990).

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1998, she was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

She has two children, daughter Piper and son Griffin, with husband Michael Sloan.

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1962 births | Living people | American actors | American television actors | American child actors | Little House on the Prairie actors | People from the San Francisco Bay Area | X-Men actors | American television producers | Brady Bunch actors | Spider-Man actors | American voice actors

Melissa Sue Anderson | Melissa Sue Anderson | Melissa Sue Anderson | Melissa Sue Anderson | Melissa Sue Anderson