Michael Landon was an actor and filmmaker. He was part of iconic films like “Bonanza” and “Little House on the Prairie.” However, Landon’s daughter, Shawana, was faced with the heartbreaking experience of losing her 24-year-old son Dylan Lupia to a car accident.
Shawana had an exclusive interview with Page Six and shared that her son was hit by a bus on August 17, 2022, at 7:31 p.m., on Palos Verdes Boulevard.
Shawan, a realtor in Los Angeles, said she was not informed about her son’s death until the next evening when she was about to catch a movie with her daughters Sophia, 15, and Olivia, 10.
The realtor said the bus driver claimed to have not seen Lupia as he was walking in the bus lane facing the bus. In an attempt to make sense of the bus driver’s version of events, Shawana and her sister, Leslie Landon, visited the site to investigate further.
Shawana said she realized that the bus lane did not have any blind corners, so there was no way that the bus driver would not have seen her son if his eyes were on the road.
The Landon sisters claimed that another passenger was on the bus on the day of Lupia’s death, but they are still yet to interview the person.
Shawana revealed that they did not know anything about this passenger, but they knew that the correct protocol was not followed, which impacted her son’s life.
While Shawana wants to find the answers to Lupia’s death, she reportedly got emotional when she realized why her son was on Palos Verdes Boulevard at the time of his passing.
Shawana said her grandmother Lynn Noe lived in Palos Verdes, and she and Lupia were extremely close. Lynn died in 2015, and Shawana suspects Lupia was there to visit her old house.
Lupia had another relative who also used to own a home about an hour’s drive from where he passed away – grandpa Michael.
Inside the Home Michael Landon Lived in before Marrying Lynn Noe
According to the New York Post, the “Little House on the Prairie” star bought his Spanish revival home in Los Angeles in 1961 after scoring a significant role in the film “Bonanza.”
The New York Post stated that Landon bought the home for his growing family, but soon after the big purchase, he divorced his first wife, Dodie Levy-Fraser.
Life in the Spanish home was short-lived because Landon sold the house after his divorce from Fraser. In 1963 he married Noe, and they had four children before they ended things in 1982.
Nonetheless, Landon’s house was beautiful, captured by many photographers, and featured in several magazines. The New York Post stated that the house was built in 1926. The arched doorways and the Juliet balconies are the first things that catch the eye.
The arched front door opens to a large staircase and beautiful stained glass windows, which add character to the already dramatic two-story foyer.
The house has a large living room with hand-painted beams, as The New York Post reported. It connects to the gaming room, which has big windows overlooking the garden.
The kitchen still has a vintage feel with a slightly modern touch. As described in the listing, it has “red terra-cotta floor tiles, an arched window, and a patterned tile backsplash.”
The upstairs has several bedrooms with balconies and a vintage bathroom with pink tiles and pops of black. The basement was transformed into a screening room with a bar, embezzled with a mirror backsplash and black and white tiles to bring the room together.
Michael Landon and Lynn Noe’s Turbulent Relationship
While Landon celebrated his iconic movie roles, his domestic life was not as smooth sailing as his career. According to People, the actor fathered five children and adopted two in three marriages.
The ending of his first union with Fraser was reportedly blamed on their youth and Landon’s growing fame. His second marriage with Noe lasted 19 years, but the actor was rumored to have left his wife of almost two decades for Cindy Clerico, who was 20 years younger than him.
But Landon cleared the rumors and told People that he would not end things with someone he spent years with to sleep with someone 20 years younger.
The actor clarified that he and Noe had problems, and their marriage had to end. He said he was sure she would have a better life without him.
Noe also opened up about her relationship with Landon. She told People that she spent most of her marriage trying to be the perfect wife for her actor husband and slowly lost herself.
However, Noe said she was not bitter about how things ended with Landon and that there was already a new Mrs. Landon. “If it hadn’t been Cindy, it would have been somebody. He had reached that point in his life,” Noe said.
Despite the drama in his relationships, Landon remained a doting father to his children. Before his death, one of his daughters, Leslie, was lucky enough to have him walk her down the aisle.
Leslie loved and idolized her father. On the 30th anniversary of her father’s death, People reported that Leslie remembered his father with the sweetest words. She said, “We just felt like he was superman. He was just bigger than life, Leslie added.
As reported by People, Landon went public about his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in April 1991. Leslie recalled that her father shared the news hoping he would survive.
However, in just three months, Landon lost his battle with cancer. Leslie added that the scariest part of her father’s illness was how fast his health deteriorated.