HappyDays loss
Sitcom sweetheart’s trailer park tragedy
As freckle-faced Joanie Cunningham on the iconic ’70s sitcom
Happy Days, actress Erin Moran charmed an entire generation.
She navigated the pitfalls of life as a teenager in small-town America, getting into scrapes with her best friend Jenny Piccolo and earning the nickname “Shortcake” from the show’s famous leather-clad hunk, Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli.
It was a shock to everyone who remembered her huge smile and cheeky one-liners last week when Erin died in a trailer park, aged 56 and almost penniless.
While rumours initially swirled that she died alone after a lifetime of alcohol abuse, it later emerged that the former child star had, in fact, passed away in the arms of husband Steve Fleischmann after a short battle with throat cancer.
ERIN MORAN 1960-2017
As her neighbours – some of whom had no idea she was once a big star – watched Erin’s body being removed from her dilapidated trailer in Indiana, it was a stark reminder of how fame and fortune, when found too early, can end in a lifetime of broken dreams.
“You’re on top one day and then you’re on the bottom,” remarked David Holt, the maintenance man at the trailer park. “She was still hopeful she could work again. That’s why she drank so much, not getting that call.”
Born in 1960, Erin landed her first showbiz job at the tender age of five, in a bank commercial. She went on to appear in a number of TV shows before cracking the big-time in 1974, when she was cast at 13 years old in the hugely successful sitcom Happy Days as Richie Cunningham’s kid sister Joanie.
The show lasted 10 years, and Erin and her real-life boyfriend, Scott Baio, went on to star in the spin-off sitcom Joanie Loves Cha chi.
Unfortunately, the show lasted just two seasons and, while many of the Happy Days cast members – including Ron Howard and Henry Winkler – went on to find show business success, Erin’s career faltered.
In 1987, she married singer Rocky Ferguson, who disliked the spotlight. They moved away from Hollywood to live in the California mountains and Erin said later that she began suffering from depression. The couple divorced in 1993 and that same year, she married Walmart employee Steve,
but money troubles followed.
In 2009, she penned an autobiography entitled Happy Days, Depressing Nights, which didn’t find a publisher. In 2010, she lost her home to foreclosure and was evicted. The couple moved in to Steve’s elderly mum’s trailer. Failing career r
Over the years, Erin had a handful of guest roles in The Love Boat and
Murder, She Wrote. In 2008, she appeared in the reality show Celebrity Fit Club:
BootCamp and two years later, she also got her final acting credit, a cameo role in Not Another B Movie.
In 2012, as her finances continued to plummet, Erin and some of her Happy
Days castmates sued the company that produced the hit show over merchandise royalties. They were awarded $94,000 each.
Meanwhile, Erin’s drinking was taking a toll – both on her health and on those around her. She was photographed more than once letting loose after a long drinking session and, in 2012, her mother-inlaw kicked her out due to her hard-partying ways. The pair eventually made up and Erin was allowed to move back in.
Paul Petersen, who works as a child-actor advocate, wrote on Facebook last week, “Fame won young can be a cruel mistress ... I am proud of our efforts over the years to help Erin, whose troubles were many and complex.”
In the end, however, it was cancer – not her battle with the bottle – that ended Erin’s life. She woke one morning last November to find a small blood stain on her pillowcase. Soon afterwards, a doctor informed her she had squamous cell carcinoma in her throat, which had spread to other parts of her body.
Erin had chemotherapy and radiation treatment, but by February, she needed a feeding tube, was having trouble breathing and mostly communicated by text message. Regardless of her difficulties, Steve says she remained “active and happy”.
On April 22, he lay next to her, holding her hand as she slept. He soon fell asleep and when he woke an hour later, she was gone.
Friends from her showbiz days and her trailer-park neighbours alike were quick to tell of the star’s kind and generous personality.
“I will always remember Erin with her sweet smile that greeted me on the very first day,” said her HappyDays co-star Henry Winkler, who had tried unsuccessfully to get her a role in his show
ArrestedDevelopment. “For the next 10 years, that smile never faded. Unfortunately, yesterday it did.”
And maintenance man David was adamant that Erin was finally getting her life back on track. “She had problems. Everybody’s got problems and she was working through them to try and better herself. She was such a nice lady – she’d walk up and down the street, and she was always waving. She was a good lady.”