Cindy Landon, born Cindy Clerico, is an American documentary film producer, former makeup artist, and philanthropist.
She is best known as the third and final wife of actor and director Michael Landon, who died in 1991.
Cindy Landon is still living and remains active in film production and animal-welfare philanthropy.
Who is Cindy Landon?
Cindy Landon built two distinct chapters into her career. She started in Hollywood as a makeup artist, then moved into documentary production after her husband’s death.
Her earliest on-camera credit was an uncredited role as Hippie Woman in the 1978 film Coming Home.
She later shifted toward the production side, working on socially conscious documentaries covering topics such as marine conservation, wildlife trafficking, and youth recovery from conflict.
Beyond film, Cindy Landon is a longtime philanthropist. She leads a family charitable foundation and supports animal-rights and pancreatic cancer research causes.
Early Life of Cindy Landon
Cindy Clerico was born in Los Angeles, California. According to her IMDb profile, her father was named John Blower, and she has a sibling named Chuck Blower.
Detailed information about her childhood, schooling, and upbringing has not been independently verified beyond her birthplace and immediate family.
She began working in the film industry as a makeup artist, a role that eventually put her on the set of one of American television’s most popular family dramas.
It was through that job, on Little House on the Prairie, that she met her future husband, Michael Landon, who starred in and produced the series.
Cindy Landon Age
Cindy Landon’s birth date is reported inconsistently across sources, with her IMDb profile listing November 25, 1956, while several other outlets cite January 27, 1957.
Using the IMDb date, she would be 69 years old as of 2026. Her zodiac sign, based on that birth date, is Sagittarius.
Cindy Landon Ethnicity and Nationality
Cindy Landon is an American citizen, born and raised in Los Angeles. She has been widely described as being of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.
Her late husband, Michael Landon, was also of partial Jewish descent through his father. Detailed information about Cindy’s extended family background beyond her father and brother has not been publicly confirmed.
Cindy Landon Career
Cindy Landon’s career spans more than four decades, moving from behind-the-scenes makeup work to producing documentaries with social and environmental themes.
Early Career and Makeup Work
Cindy Landon worked as a makeup artist in the film and television industry during the 1970s. She had an uncredited role as Hippie Woman in the 1978 Hal Ashby film Coming Home.
It was during this period that she worked on Little House on the Prairie, where she met Michael Landon, the show’s star and executive producer. The two married in 1983.
Following Michael Landon’s death in 1991, Cindy appeared in the documentary Michael Landon: Memories with Laughter and Love, a tribute film produced by his son, Michael Landon Jr.
Move Into Documentary Production
Cindy Landon transitioned into producing in the mid-2000s. She served as co-producer on the 2006 documentary Whaledreamers, which examined a tribal culture’s connection to whales.
In 2011, she worked as executive producer on After Kony: Staging Hope, a documentary about Ugandan teenagers using theater to process the trauma of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army.
That same period, she received thanks or special-thanks credits on The Eyes of Thailand in 2012 and Unity in 2015.
She produced the 2016 documentary Sanctuary, which focused on the treatment of primates used in research.
In 2018, she served as an executive producer on The Game Changers, a documentary about plant-based nutrition and athletic performance.
Recent Work
Cindy Landon’s most recent production credit is the 2025 short film Big Rock Burning, where she worked as co-producer, according to IMDb.
Her production career now spans nearly two decades, consistently favoring documentary subjects tied to conservation, human rights, or public health.
Cindy Landon Husband
Cindy Landon married actor and director Michael Landon on February 14, 1983. The two had met several years earlier on the set of Little House on the Prairie, where she worked as a makeup artist and he served as the show’s star, writer, and executive producer.
Michael Landon was widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza and Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie, along with Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven.
Cindy was his third wife; he had previously been married to Dodie Levy-Fraser and Lynn Noe.
In April 1991, Michael Landon was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer. He died on July 1, 1991, at the age of 54, with Cindy at his bedside.
Cindy Landon has not remarried since his death. Multiple reports over the years have confirmed she remains unmarried.
Cindy Landon Children
Cindy and Michael Landon had two children together. Their daughter, Jennifer Rachel Landon, was born in August 1983 and became an actress, known for roles in Animal Kingdom, Yellowstone, and Banshee.
Their son, Sean Matthew Landon, was born in 1986. Sean has worked in real estate and, like his sister, has been involved in raising awareness around pancreatic cancer, the disease that took their father’s life.
Michael Landon also had seven other children from his two previous marriages, making Cindy a stepmother to that side of the family as well.
Cindy Landon Net Worth
No verified net worth figure for Cindy Landon has been confirmed by a reliable financial source.
Older celebrity-biography sites have circulated a figure of roughly $1.5 million dating back to around 2017, while other, less credible sites have more recently floated figures as high as $15 to $20 million with no supporting evidence.
Because these numbers conflict and none trace back to a verifiable source, no confirmed figure is presented here.
Michael Landon’s own net worth was reported at around $40 million at the time of his death in 1991, though Cindy did not inherit his full estate, which was divided among his nine children as well.
In 2018, Forbes reported that she listed a Malibu beachfront property for $18 million after purchasing it for $7.5 million.
Cindy Landon Philanthropy
Cindy Landon has remained active in charitable work for decades, particularly around animal welfare and pancreatic cancer research.
The nonprofit organization Last Chance for Animals named her Philanthropist of the Year in 2016.
She serves as president of the Michael and Cindy Landon Foundation, the family’s charitable organization established in her late husband’s memory.
She is also a longtime advocate for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, known as PanCan, which funds research into the disease that killed her husband.
The Bottom Line
Cindy Landon built a documentary production career spanning from Whaledreamers in 2006 to Big Rock Burning in 2025, with credits on socially driven films like After Kony: Staging Hope and The Game Changers in between.
She started in the industry decades earlier as a makeup artist on Little House on the Prairie.
She met Michael Landon on that set in the 1970s and married him in 1983, remaining his wife until his death from pancreatic cancer in 1991. She has not remarried in the decades since.
Cindy Landon now splits her time between producing and philanthropy, serving as president of the Michael and Cindy Landon Foundation and supporting pancreatic cancer research through PanCan.
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