Happy Days stars’ tribute to Erin Moran after death at 56
FORMER HAPPY Days actors Ron Howard and Henry Winkler have led tributes to their co-star Erin Moran, who has died at the age of 56.
Moran played Joanie Cunningham in the hit sitcom as well as its spin-off Joanie Loves Chachi.
Howard played her older brother and high school student Richie Cunningham, and has now carved out a hugely successful career as a film director responsible for movie blockbusters including
Apollo 13 and The Da Vinci Code. He wrote on Twitter: “Such sad sad news.
“RIP Erin. I’ll always choose to remember you on our show making scenes better, getting laughs and lighting up tv screens.”
And Winkler, who is best remembered as Happy Days heartthrob Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli, posted: “OH Erin ... now you will finally have the peace you wanted so badly here on earth ... Rest In It serenely now.. too soon.”
The sheriff’s department in Harrison County in Indiana said that a dispatcher had received an emergency 911 call on Saturday about an “unresponsive female”.
Police confirmed that once paramedics had arrived it was “determined that Erin Moran Fleischmann was deceased”, adding that an autopsy will be conducted to establish the cause of death.
A native of Burbank, California, who had been married to Steven Fleischmann, Moran began acting in television and movies before she was 10.
She had nearly a decade of experience in 1974 when she was cast in Happy Days.
In 2009, she said: “What happened with all of us was like we were this family.
“It was so surreal with all the cast members ... They were my family, get it?”
Her more recent credits included The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote, and she also
appeared in The Waltons and Diagnosis Murder, but Moran never approached the success of Happy Days.
She had instead appeared in media reports for her numerous personal and financial struggles, and was reportedly homeless at times.
“I would love to do a feature (film), I’d love to do a play,” the actress told CNN in 1981 when asked what she would like to do after Happy Days.
In 2012 she received a settlement from the US network CBS after joining various Happy Days cast members in a legal action claiming they were owed money from merchandising revenue related to the show.
Now you will finally have the peace you wanted so badly here on earth Former Happy Days actor Henry Winkler, who played The Fonz