Melissa Gilbert became a household name after landing the role of Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House on the Prairie, but she wasn't the only Gilbert to go into showbusiness. Her brother Jonathan, also adopted by Barbara Cowen and Paul Gilbert, was an actor and her adopted sister, Sara Gilbert, is best known for starring on the sitcom Roseanne. It shouldn't have been any surprise the Gilbert children wanted to be performers as Paul Gilbert and his wife Barbara were actors. Barbara was even the daughter of historic comedy writer Harry Crane.
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Here's a closer look at Melissa's two siblings and where they ended up after growing up in Hollywood.
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Sara Gilbert
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Interestingly enough, Sara wasn't actually adopted by Paul Gilbert, despite taking on his last name. She was adopted by Barbara Cowan and her next husband Harold Abeles, originally named Sara Rebecca Abeles. When she was just 13 years old she landed the role of Darlene Conner on ABC's Roseanne, which she played for nine seasons opposite costars Roseanne Barr, John Goodman, and Johnny Galecki. She recently came back to play her original role on the show's revival followed by the spinoff (kind of?), The Conners, after Roseanne Barr was removed from the series following controversial tweets.
Similar to her siblings, Sara essentially grew up in front of the camera. She appeared opposite Drew Barrymore in the 1992 thriller Poison Ivy as well as High Fidelity, Riding in Cars with Boys, Calamity Jane, ER, The Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy, Will & Grace, Supergirl, the Netflix series Atypical, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, The Class, and numerous other TV shows.
Sara was a co-host and executive producer of the CBS talk show The Talk for nine seasons opposite Sharon Osbourne, Julie Chen, Aisha Tyler, and more, even winning an Emmy Award. Despite having a busy acting career, Sara even made time to graduate from Yale University, studying photography.
Outside of work, Sara is also a mom! She shares daughter Sawyer Jane Gilbert-Adler and son Levi Hank Gilbert-Adler with her ex-partner Allison Adler as well as son Rhodes Emilio Gilbert Perry with wife Linda Perry, though the two have been legally separated since 2019.
Jonathan Gilbert
Jonathan was briefly a child actor, appearing opposite his sister Melissa in The Miracle Worker as well as the role of Willie Oleson on Little House, and it's made for TV movies. In her memoir, Prairie Tales, Melissa revealed that Jonathan decided to leave California in his 20s and has had no relationship with her ever since. She disclosed that she did know that he had been working as a stockbroker in New York City.
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