Landon died of pancreatic cancer on July 1, 1991, at the age of 54, only months after being diagnosed. Doctors swiftly put Landon on a treatment plan that includes chemotherapy treatments after obtaining the diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms of cancer due to its tendency to spread rapidly and be resistant to treatment. Effective treatments for this type of cancer have improved over the years, but the five-year survival rate remains below 8%. Landon was born on March 24, 1949 in New York City. He received his early education in Greenwich, Connecticut before moving with his family to Pacific Palisades, California when he was 10 years old. It was there that he began modeling at the age of 12. Over the next few years, he appeared in more than 100 magazine covers including Vogue, Glamour, and Harper's Bazaar. He started working with major fashion brands such as Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and Chanel before becoming one of the faces of American Apparel in the 1980s. In 1990, Landon co-founded LAXAR Media, a luxury goods company. On May 5, 1969, Landon McCoart married Anne Marie Taylor in a Catholic ceremony in Los Angeles.