Melissa Gilbert Biography
Born: May 8, 1964
Actress Melissa Gilbert literally grew up before our eyes in the role of Laura Ingalls on the TV series Little House on the Prairie. A professional from the age of 3, Gilbert was ten years old when she assumed the role of Laura, and in her mid-20s when Little_House branched off into a handful of TV movies in the 1980s. Outside of this series, Gilbert was the uncrowned queen of the TV remakes: She starred as young Helen Keller in 1979's The_Miracle_Worker, played the title role in 1980's The Diary of Anne Frank, and assumed the old Natalie Wood role in 1981's Splendor in the Grass. More recently, she has been showing up in made-for-TV biopics, e.g. Babymaker: The Dr. Cecil Jacobson Story (1993) and Against_Her_Will:_The_Carrie_Buck_Story (1994). Gilbert's latter-day series-TV work has included the parts of Kate Delany in Sweet_Justice and Rochelle in Stand_By_Your_Man; she has also been heard as the voice of Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, in the daily Batman:_The_Animated_Series. In all of these, she has been billed under her married name of Gilbert-Brinkman (her marriage to Bo Brinkman has since dissolved). Melissa Gilbert is the sister of Sara_Gilbert, who played Darlene on TV's Roseanne; her grandfather, Harry_Crane, was one of the creators of the Jackie Gleason series The_Honeymooners.
Though she continued to work, often in TV movies, her career took a shift when she got deeply involved with the Screen Actors Guild, eventually being elected as president of the organization and serving in that capacity from 2001-2005. Hal Erickson, Rovi
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