Melissa Ellen Gilbert is not just Sara’s older sister, but also a famous actress and TV director. She is a biological daughter of Kathy Wood and David Darlington. Her parents were not married, and gave her for adoption a day after her birth.
The baby girl was adopted by two actors, Sara’s mom Barbara Crane and her then-husband, a comedian Paul Gilbert, whose real name was Ed MacMahon. She grew up with a stepbrother Jonathan Gilbert, who was adopted by her parents either.
photo instagram / melissaellengilbertbusfield
When Melissa turned 8, her parents divorced. She left with her mother but stayed connected with her father, too. Three years later her father committed suicide because he suffered from constant pain. Paul participated in World War II and was injured. His old wounds hurt him so much, and one day he decided to end his life.
Melissa’s mother re-married and gave birth to her younger daughter Sara. Melissa and Sara have always been close.
The girl started her career of an actress at an early age. She began with commercials, and then gradually moved her way to the big screen. She rose to fame as an actress of the series “Little House on the Prairie”. Probably, that was the most popular work in her career.
After the end of the series, she participated in other interesting projects. Melissa played the main role in the biopic drama “Choices of the Heart”. Then she acted in the drama “Babylon 5”.
Among her recent screen appearances was the show “Dancing with the Stars”. She danced in the 14th season of the show. Her partner was Maksim Chmerkovskiy. She occupied the 5th place.
In addition to her career on television, Gilbert tried her hand as a writer and authored an autobiography “Prairie Tale”.
Currently, the woman is married to an actor Timothy Busfield. He is her third husband of Melissa. Previously she tied the knot and divorced Bo Brinkman and Bruce Boxleitner, both actors. Gilbert is a mother of two sons, Dakota Paul Brinkman (with Bo) and Michael Garrett Boxleitner (with Bruce).
In 2019 she produced the drama film “Guest Artist”, directed by her husband Timothy Busfield.
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