Whenever I hear the name Melissa Gilbert, I see a little girl running through a field of flowers on the prairie, her dual braids bouncing against the flowered print of her hand-sewn dress. Out of 500 other little girls who auditioned for the role of Laura Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie, in 1974, ten-year-old Gilbert was the only actress whose screen tests were actually sent on to NBC executives.

For nine years, she captured the hearts of America, growing up both onscreen and on the prairie. During her years portraying Laura Ingalls, Melissa Gilbert also appeared in a variety of made-for-television movies and even guest starred on The Love Boat.

Throughout the course of her career, she was romantically tied to a number of other Hollywood actors, including Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe and Michael Landon Jr. She is currently married to Babylon 5 actor, Bruice Boxleitner and is the mother of two sons, one from her first marriage to actor Bo Brinkman, and the second with Boxleitner.

Gilbert has often been called the “Queen of Made-for-TV-Movies,” as she has appeared in over forty television films since she started her acting career in 1972. She is also a familiar infomercial face, and recently published a tell-all book called “Prairie Tales,” in which she talked about her career, as well as her battle with alcoholism and drug addiction.

A full-time mother and wife these days, Gilbert still makes time for acting, though she’s not as prevalent a face as she once was. After portraying Caroline Ingalls in various onstage productions, she is currently working on a project titled “Jack’s Back.”