EUGENE MAURICE OROWITZ: CHALLENGES OF A TEENAGE WEREWOLF 

His mother was an Irish dancer, a Roman Catholic, with suicidal tendencies. His father was a Jewish man who raised his son in his faith although the son never seemed all that religious. In his youth, he saved his mother at least once during an attempted drowning on a day at the beach. He was so sickened that he threw up. 

His mother was apparently not well, but back in the day, that wasn't the sort of thing you talked about much less addressed in any substantive way. You hid it and dealt with the stress. Eugene became a bedwetter, which was embarrassing enough, but his mother cruelly hanged his wet sheets out the window so the neighbors could see. Stress felt insurmountable. 

In spite of his athleticism (he set a 1954 record for javelin throw for a high schooler) and won an athletic scholarship to USC, but a torn shoulder ligament ended both his athletic dreams and college career. He began smoking heavily and it is generally regarded that this was a factor in his eventual passing at the age of 54 from pancreatic cancer (although doctors still seem uncertain as to the causes and triggers of that deadly disease). 

Having headed west, he needed something to do. It was a great time to wind up on Los Angeles. No city so represented the spirit of mid-century modern aesthetics and culture as LA. While Maila Nurmi and James Dean lunched at Googie's next to Schwab's Pharmacy where Lana Turner was discovered, Eugene pumped gas across the street from Warner Bros. studios. 

The land of Bugs Bunny was quick to notice the good-looking kid but the name had to go. So he thumbed through a phonebook and landed upon Landon which he adopted as his last name, taking Michael as his first. 

He bounced around on television and made one certifiable hit of a movie, starring in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, before landing in television as a staple star: Little Joe in Bonanza, Pa in Little House on the Prairie, and Jonathan, a probationary angel, in Highway to Heaven. 

He seemed perfect for family shows, but he was in a bit of career flux after Highway was cancelled in 1988. He only had two more acting credits between then and 1991 when he passed. 

INTENSITY

Visually, physically, the young Michael Landon often reminded me of the young Johnny Depp. To me, they seemed a type. Their character, however, felt markedly different. 

The late mid to late 50s was the age of the juvenile delinquent, the perpetually-enraged teen who posed an existential threat to society. Michael Landon fit the role to a tee. Even in his carefully-controlled role as Little Joe, there was always an intensity boiling beneath the surface. I think that's how he made the werewolf role believable. 

Indeed, the werewolf, whether Chaney's iteration or Oliver Reed's or others, seemed to represent the adolescent and post-adolescent struggles the unfettered male. Neither of those had quite the same figurative or literal teenage angst as Landon's. That had to have come from somewhere, some deep indwelling source. Perhaps the aforementioned sorrows of his youth. 

Regardless of how nice his role seemed, there was always an edginess to his character - as though some beastly anger could burst forth at any moment. The creators of Bonanza were not shy about letting that side show, especially when he was still very young. In fact, the moniker, Little Joe, seemed an attempt to diminish the volcanic rage lying beneath the surface. No telling what fully grown Joe would be capable of doing. 

Over time, Michael lost his edge. He was getting older. Mature men do not act like impulsive boys suffering from terminal testosterone poisoning. Moreover, the whiny James Dean "rebel" who wanted to piss and moan about how much his life sucked while living in relative comfort in a middle class home with three squares and the possibility of a meaningful future became boring and outdated. On TV, the delinquent, Fonzie, was tamed. Henry Winkler went from edgy to bland to who the hell is that? Same thing with Michael Landon except sadly he didn't live long enough to become unrecognizable. 

IN REFLECTION

The werewolf Landon portrayed was in many ways a seminal character. He was the most adolescent of the bunch or as near to it in terms of age as a competent actor could be. His teenage rage was identifiable and relatable and, as indicated, may have come from deep personal embarrassment and suffering. That Landon was actually a different person was no surprise, because a role is a role. That he could bring the heat for the role meant that he remembered what it felt like to be enraged, frightened, and acting out in anger. He knew what it felt like to be helpless and subject to the cruelty and insanity of other people. 

The werewolf as a character will always be thus, relatable because he is not only a transitional character between childhood and adulthood, but because the memory if not the lingering sensations of suffering and rage can last lifetimes.