Melissa Gilbert

As the bright and spunky Laura "Half Pint" Ingalls on "Little House on the Prairie" (NBC, 1974-1983), Melissa Gilbert was one of the most loved child actors of the 1970s, and remained a viewer favorite in subsequent decades through a substantial list of dramatic made-for-TV movies that traded on her can-do screen image. Gilbert found her niche both on and off the screen. In the former, she was a go-to for sudsy romances or reality-based melodramas like "Cries from the Heart" (CBS, 1994) or "Zoya" (NBC, 1995), while in the latter, she was the third and longest-running female president of the Screen Actors Guild, where she served two terms. The enduring status of "Little House" in reruns, combined with her active television career, ensured that the beloved Gilbert would remain a fixture on the small screen for years to come.