Michael Landon was an American actor, producer and director who starred in three popular NBC TV series that spanned three decades. He is widely known for his roles as "Little Joe" Cartwright in Bonanza (1959-1973), Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974-1982), and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven (1984-1989). He ... hosted the annual long-running coverage of the "Tournament of Roses Parade" with Kelly Lange, also on NBC. Landon was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz in the New York City borough in the Queens neighborhood of Forest Hills, New York. Landon's father, Eli Maurice Orowitz, was a Jewish American actor and movie theater manager, and his mother, Peggy O’Neill, was an Irish American Catholic dancer and comedienne. Maurice was the Orowitz' second child; his sister, Evelyn, was born three years earlier.