14:38Classic TV · 1977Happy Days Cast Then and Now: Who's Still Alive?
Episode: Happy Days (1974): Cast Then & Now 2026 — Who's Still Alive After 52 Years?
From Hollywood Legends Era · 16 min ·This episode plays on YouTube — the button opens it in a new tab.
About the Happy Days Cast Then and Now
The Happy Days cast then and now is the story of a TV family that welcomed America into the Cunningham house and Arnold's Drive-In every week. The ABC sitcom premiered on January 15, 1974, and ran for 11 seasons and 255 episodes, ending on July 19, 1984.
Set in 1950s Milwaukee, the show slowly built into a hit, and in its fourth season, 1976–77, it was the top-rated series on American television. More than fifty years after that first episode, this look back covers twelve people from the show. Six are still with us, and six have passed away.
What Happened to the Happy Days Cast Members Who Are Still Here?
Henry Winkler as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli
Henry Winkler was 28 when Happy Days premiered, and by the third season his Fonzie had become one of the biggest icons on television. Behind the cool, he struggled to read his scripts.
In a 2019 NPR interview, he explained that he was 31 when his stepson Jed was tested for a learning problem, and the description fit him too. Learning that he had dyslexia, he said, showed him he was not stupid or lazy. With Lin Oliver, he later co-wrote the Hank Zipzer children's books about a boy with dyslexia.
In 2018 he won his first Primetime Emmy for HBO's Barry. Henry Winkler is 80.
Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham
Ron Howard was born on March 1, 1954, in Duncan, Oklahoma, and was 19 when the show began. Viewers already knew him as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show. When Happy Days began filming before a live studio audience in 1975, Howard, who had no stage experience, later admitted the change terrified him at first.
He left before the eighth season in 1980 to direct, making Splash, Willow and Apollo 13, and won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind (2001). He is 72.
Marion Ross as Marion Cunningham
Marion Ross was born on October 25, 1928, in Watertown, Minnesota. Before Happy Days, she had an uncredited, non-speaking part as a passenger in the 1970 film Airport.
As Mrs. C, she earned Emmy nominations in 1979 and 1984. She has credited the cast softball team, which played American troops in Germany and Okinawa, with keeping everyone close. Later she played grandmothers on That '70s Show and Gilmore Girls. Now retired, Marion Ross is 97 and turns 98 later this month.
Don Most as Ralph Malph
Don Most was born on August 8, 1953, in Brooklyn and was 20 when the show premiered. As Ralph, the class clown, he appeared in 167 episodes and left with Ron Howard in 1980.
In the late summer of 2010, Most and his wife visited Tom Bosley and his wife, Patty, near Palm Springs. Bosley died about a month later, and Most told CBS News he was really glad he got to spend that time with him. Most later directed independent films and performs as a swing singer. He is 73.
Anson Williams as Warren "Potsie" Weber
Anson Williams was born Anson William Heimlich on September 25, 1949, in Los Angeles. Dr. Henry Heimlich, inventor of the maneuver for choking, was a cousin of his father. Williams has said he arranged for Dr. Heimlich to demonstrate it on The Merv Griffin Show, helping bring it to a national audience.
After the show, he became a busy TV director, with episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In 1987, he and Al Molinaro opened a short-lived diner chain called Big Al's. He is 77.
Ted McGinley as Roger Phillips
Ted McGinley was born on May 30, 1958, in Newport Beach, California. From 1980 to 1984 he played Roger Phillips, Marion's nephew, in his earliest listed TV role.
The phrase "jump the shark" comes from the 1977 episode in which Fonzie jumps a shark on water skis. Jon Hein, founder of Jumptheshark.com, later called McGinley its "patron saint" because he often joined shows late in their runs. McGinley took it with humor, noting in 2003 that people kept hiring him. He went on to The Love Boat and Married... with Children. He is 68.
Who From Happy Days Has Passed Away?
Tom Bosley as Howard Cunningham
Tom Bosley was born in Chicago on October 1, 1927, and won a 1960 Tony Award playing Fiorello La Guardia in Fiorello! He first turned down Happy Days, then changed his mind over a scene between Howard and Richie. In 2004, TV Guide ranked Mr. C ninth among the 50 greatest TV dads.
He later played Sheriff Amos Tupper on Murder, She Wrote and originated Maurice, Belle's father, in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast in 1994. He died on October 19, 2010, in Rancho Mirage, California, at 83.
Gavan O'Herlihy as Chuck Cunningham
In season one, the Cunninghams had an oldest son, Chuck. Gavan O'Herlihy, born in Dublin in 1951 and the son of actor Dan O'Herlihy, left during that first season, preferring film. Randolph Roberts played Chuck in season two, and then Chuck was never mentioned again.
O'Herlihy appeared in the Bond film Never Say Never Again and played the warrior Airk in Willow (1988), directed by his old TV brother Ron Howard. He died on September 15, 2021, in Bath, England, at 70.
Pat Morita as Arnold
Pat Morita was born in Northern California in 1932. Spinal tuberculosis kept him in hospitals for much of his childhood, and when he was released he was taken to the Gila River internment camp in Arizona to join his family.
He became Arnold in 1975 and returned to the role in 1982. In 1984 he played Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid, earning an Oscar nomination, and he received a Walk of Fame star in 1994. He died at home in Las Vegas on November 24, 2005, at 73.
Al Molinaro as Al Delvecchio
Al Molinaro was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1919 and moved to Los Angeles in 1940 to act. Success came late. Through an improv class, he met producer Garry Marshall, who cast him as Officer Murray on The Odd Couple.
In 1976 he replaced Pat Morita behind the counter and stayed until 1982. He played Al again in Weezer's 1994 video for "Buddy Holly." He died on October 30, 2015, at 96.
Beatrice Colen as Marsha Simms
Beatrice Colen played Marsha, the carhop on roller skates, and was the first Etta Candy on Wonder Woman. Her grandfather was playwright George S. Kaufman.
Her son James was cast in a high school production of Kaufman's The Man Who Came to Dinner. It opened on November 18, 1999, the day she died of lung cancer at 51, and he honored her wish to go on stage that night.
Erin Moran as Joanie Cunningham
Erin Moran was born on October 18, 1960, in Burbank, and was 13 when the show premiered. She had acted since age five, with roles on Daktari and Gunsmoke, and later starred in the spin-off Joanie Loves Chachi.
She died on April 22, 2017, at her home in Indiana, at 56, of complications of stage four throat cancer. Her husband, Steve Fleischmann, said it was the anniversary of the day they met, and that she passed while he lay beside her holding her hand.
Why Happy Days Still Feels Like Home
For eleven seasons, Arnold's and the Cunningham kitchen felt like places viewers visited every week. Off camera, the cast built something similar: a softball team, lasting friendships, and visits long after the cameras stopped.
Which Happy Days character felt most like family to you, and who did you watch the show with each week?
Sources and Further Reading
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