All About the ‘Little House’ Star’s Relationships

Little House on the Prairie star Michael Landon was a beloved on-screen husband who was married three times off-screen: to Dodie Levy-Fraser, Marjorie Lynn Noe and Cindy Clerico.

Throughout his career, Landon appeared in family-friendly entertainment. He spent 14 seasons as Little Joe on Bonanza, then eight seasons on Little House on the Prairie as Pa Ingalls and five seasons on Highway to Heaven.

Landon met two of his wives through his television shows. He was married to Levy-Fraser from 1956 to 1962, when he was still struggling to break into Hollywood. When they married, Landon adopted Fraser’s son Mark, and the couple later adopted a son, Josh.

He met his next wife, Noe, on the set of Bonanza — they were married from 1963 to 1982. The actor adopted Noe’s daughter, Cheryl, and they had Leslie, Michael Jr., Shawna and Christopher together. Landon met Clerico on the set of Little House on the Prairie, and they were married from 1983 until his 1991 death at age 54 from pancreatic cancer. Together, they had a daughter, Jennifer, and a son, Sean.

“He was very much a family man,” Jennifer told The Coronado News in 2023. “I am so proud to have a father who had such an incredible effect on our people because he truly loved us.”

Here’s everything to know about Michael Landon’s three wives: Dodie Levy-Fraser, Marjorie Lynn Noe and Cindy Clerico.

Dodie Levy-Fraser

Landon married Levy-Fraser in 1956. At the time, she was a legal secretary, and he was still struggling to break into Hollywood. 

When they wed, Landon adopted Levy-Fraser’s son from her first marriage, Mark, who was born in 1948. The couple also adopted their son, Josh. Three years after their wedding, Landon got his breakout role as Little Joe on Bonanza. A while later, in March 1962, the couple separated and ultimately divorced later that year.

Near the end of their marriage, Levy-Fraser adopted another son, Jason, in May 1961. After their divorce, the mother of three was awarded custody of all the children and later gave custody of Jason to an older couple in Texas, Bill and Alma Smith.

Levy-Fraser remarried in 1976 and lived in California until her death.

Marjorie Lynn Noe

Landon married Noe in 1963 and adopted her daughter, Cheryl, at the same time.

Noe, who went by Lynn, was a former model and commercial actress. She was working as an extra on Bonanza when the couple met.

In her 1992 book, I Promised My Dad: An Intimate Portrait of Michael Landon by His Eldest Daughter, Cheryl wrote of her parents’ meeting: “According to everything I’ve ever been told by both my parents, it was love at first sight. Their eyes met, and as Dad explained, he knew in that instant that he ‘had to have her,’ that this woman had to be his mate.”

She continued, writing, “Mom finished her Bonanza scene, but decided to stick around, something she ordinarily wouldn’t do; it wasn’t her style. It was obvious that something was happening, and she wasn’t about to run away from it.”

Their connection was intense, in Cheryl’s recollection. “All their friends tell stories about being with Mom and Dad and how suddenly they’d turn everything and everybody else off,” she wrote. “They had eyes only for each other.”

Together, Landon and Noe welcomed Leslie, Michael Jr., Shawna and Christopher. During their marriage, Landon insisted that his wife travel everywhere with him, which is why he didn’t take on many movie projects. “I love sleeping in my own bed and with a series you have that,” he told PEOPLE in 1974.

In the 1970s, the couple appeared together with their kids in a series of commercials for Kodak.

The pair divorced in 1982, after he had begun seeing Clerico. “I would have done anything to make that relationship continue, but I could not,” Landon told PEOPLE in 1985. “It’s not just difficult for the wife. It is painful for the husband too. But it is far better than letting it stay the way it was.”

In the same story, Noe agreed, saying, “I was too busy being the kind of wife he wanted me to be. I lost myself little by little. I made Michael my god.” She added that she wasn’t bitter towards Clerico, claiming, “If it hadn’t been Cindy, it would have been somebody. He had reached that point in his life.”

After their divorce, Noe opened a boutique in Los Angeles called Trio’s. In 1987, she talked to Copley News Service about going through a Hollywood divorce after she and other ex-wives of famous men formed a support group called LADIES (“Life after Divorce is Eventually Sane”).

Cindy Clerico

Landon met Clerico on the set of Little House, where she was working as a makeup artist and stand-in.

The two instantly had a connection. In her book Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House’s Ma, actress Karen Grassle, who played Carolina “Ma” Ingalls, wrote that the actor spoke with Clerico “longer than he talked to anyone else.”

They married on Feb. 14, 1983, and had two children together: Jennifer, born in 1983, and Sean, born in 1986. Landon and Clerico built a Spanish-style home on a 10-acre plot in Malibu in the late 1980s, which is where he died in 1991, surrounded by family, including his 7 and 4 year old.

“I love you all very much, but would you all go downstairs and give me some time with Cindy,” he said as they were gathered in his bedroom. The couple were alone together when Landon died on the afternoon of July 1, 1991.

Shortly after Landon’s death, Clerico had an accident riding a horse, which scared her off riding. Jennifer, who has followed in her dad’s footsteps by starring on several seasons of Yellowstone, said that riding horses on the show was a healing experience.

“My mom rode hunter-jumpers, and that accident was horrible timing,” Jennifer said in 2023. “I was 7 and we were in Arizona getting a new horse, just after my pops had died and my mom was 34 years old with two young children … [Riding for the show] was really healing on one level … each season I ride a different horse and by the end of filming I’m really attached to it.”

In addition to working as a makeup artist, Clerico has produced documentary films like Sanctuary and Whaledreamers.