His father was Jewish, [ 4 ] and his mother was Roman Catholic. Eugene was the Orowitz family's second child; their daughter, Evelyn, was born three years earlier, in In , when Landon was 4, he and his family moved to the borough of Collingswood, New Jersey.
He attended, and celebrated his bar mitzvah at Temple Beth Sholom. His family recalls that Landon "went through a lot of hassle studying for the big event, which included bicycling to a nearby town every day in order to learn how to read Hebrew and recite prayers. During his childhood, Landon was constantly worrying about his mother attempting suicide. He reported that on a family beach vacation, his mother tried to drown herself, but Landon rescued her.
Shortly after the attempt, his mother acted as if nothing happened, and a few minutes later, he vomited. He said that it was the worst experience of his life. His mother put his wet sheets on display outside his window for all to see. He ran home every day and tried to remove them before his classmates could see. Landon attended Collingswood High School [ 2 ] [ 4 ] and was an excellent javelin thrower , with his ft 4 in Landon considered show business and served as an attendant at a service gas station opposite the studios of Warner Bros.
He was eventually noticed by Bob Raison, a local agent. Landon's first starring appearance was on the television series Telephone Time , in the episode "The Mystery of Casper Hauser" as the title character. During Bonanza ' s sixth season β , the show topped the Nielsen ratings and remained number one for three years.
Receiving more fan mail than any other cast member, [ 10 ] Landon negotiated with executive producer David Dortort and NBC to write and direct some episodes. In , Landon wrote his first script. In , Landon directed his first episode. Landon's script recalled Little Joe's brother, Hoss, who was initially the story's groom, before Dan Blocker 's death. The last episode aired on January 16, The year after Bonanza was canceled, Landon went on to star as Charles Ingalls in the pilot of what became another successful television series, Little House on the Prairie , again for NBC.
