Kathy Coleman, who famously played the character Holly on the 1970s children’s television show “Land of the Lost,” recently reflected on her life after Hollywood.
As an 18-year-old, Coleman left Hollywood after getting married and helped run her father-in-law’s large ranch in Nevada, where she took on physically demanding farm work from milking cows to operating machinery.
“It was very hard work, but it was also very rewarding,” the actress said. “It’s funny, I watched ‘Yellowstone,’ recently – the whole series. I lived that life! I lived that exact life.”
Though it was an adjustment from her acting career, Coleman said the experience taught her valuable life lessons.
She maintained close friendships with her castmates from the show.
“When ‘Land of the Lost’ was first introduced, my sisters and I fell in love with the character Holly [played by Coleman],” Marty Krofft’s daughter, Deanna Krofft Pope, said. “We wanted to be like her, and we weren’t alone. I believe most little girls looked at her as a role model. She was strong, independent and fearless.”
“Holly didn’t just stay in the cave and make stone soup,” Krofft Pope said. “From dinosaurs to aliens, Holly boldly faced the dangers of ‘Land of the Lost,’ proving she was a survivor. Kathy did a remarkable job bringing the character of Holly to life, making her a fan favorite.”
“The farm was gigantic,” Coleman said. “We had a hog farm where we produced 12,000 hogs a year. We were milking 24-hour double shifts. Because my father-in-law owned the ranch, we were brought in, and we started at the bottom of the totem pole. We had to learn everything. You messed up, God help you.”
“[My father-in-law] said, ‘You can never ask anybody to do something you don’t know how to do or haven’t done yourself,’” she said. “So I did everything. I fed the cows, I milked them. I worked the hay, the grains. I worked the front loaders, all kinds of stuff. I really had to learn everything. There are 150 steps to cleaning the milk barn after every milking session. And all 150 steps had to be done just right.”
“We had baby calves all over the place,” she said. “We also used to have nice parties. It was a small town, so we knew everybody. We put everybody to work in the town. I was only 18. I was raised in Los Angeles and put on a farm in Nevada at 18. It was a culture shock… But my mother taught me something that I think has been a valuable lesson in [surviving child stardom] – ‘Stay true to your word.’ If you’re going to do something, follow through. Fame is not an easy club to belong to. It’s taxing. But if you stay true to your word and what you’re going to do, what you’re going to achieve, you can survive anything.”
“People think that because you’re on television, life is so easy,” she said. “I just had a different kind of job that happened to be on television. I went through all the same heartaches and hardships that any other teenager or woman goes through – and 10 others… My life changed, but I was also a responsible soul. I learned to love myself. You can’t survive this industry without learning to love yourself.”
“It’s not very common in this industry to have such a closeness as we do,” she said. “I live right down from my [TV] brother. We travel together all the time. We really are like brother and sister. My TV father was like a real father. I grew up in a single-family home, so I wasn’t raised with a father in the house. And yet, he stepped into that role, not only for the show but in real life as well. We’re extremely close and love each other to death.”
“Why did the show end? I believe it was a combination of things,” Coleman said. “There was a limited amount of funds to produce this show, one that had a lot of special effects. I was also hired as a young girl. I was already starting to bypass [co-star] Wesley Eure in height… The show ended, but the memories remain.”
Now 62 and living in Palm Springs, Coleman has written books about her experiences and still meets fans while seeking a reboot of “Land of the Lost.”
Though her Hollywood career was brief, Coleman reflected positively on overcoming challenges both in the industry and on the farm through hard work and staying true to herself.
“Life is wonderful,” she said. “I have great friends. I’m surrounded by a lot of loving people and good energy. I have great kids whom I adore. Life is good – it truly is. I made it that way. I did the homework. I did the legwork.”
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