Melissa Francis

She was also the captain of the Harvard Polo Team.

Melissa started her acting career on television before her first birthday, first appearing in a Johnson & Johnson shampoo commercial at 6 months old. She was best known for her role as Cassandra Cooper Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, for two seasons. She appeared as one of Michael Landon's children for two seasons during the early 1980s. Other television appearances include two series regular roles: Morningstar/Eveningstar and Joe’s World, and three films including Man, Woman and Child, where she played Paula Beckwith; she appeared in the television series St. Elsewhere in 1986; she also played a role in Family Affair as Cynthia; and also in the 1988 film Bad Dreams, where she played young Cynthia. Melissa appeared in nearly 100 commercials during her acting career. She is supposedly the inspiration for the fictional character Avery Jessup (conceived of and played by Elizabeth Banks) in the show 30 Rock, although Banks herself has denied this. Read Less