The Only Surviving Actors From The Cast Of Happy Days

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

“Happy Days” was for audiences of the 1970s what 1990s nostalgia is for Gen Xers and Millennials. Just as ’90s kids look back on the last pre-internet decade with a certain romanticism, the Baby Boomers relived their youth, filtered through rose-tinted glasses, via “Happy Days,” a show that depicted an idealized version of the 1950s that shaped how an entire generation visualized post-war America.

Created by Garry Marshall, the sitcom ran for an impressive 11 seasons on ABC from 1974 until 1984. The show had its ups and downs, but at its height, it was the most popular series on TV, spawning several successful spin-offs, including “Laverne & Shirley” and “Mork & Mindy.”

For those who watched the show in its initial run, it might seem like it was only yesterday that “Happy Days” ruled the world, but Fonzie and the gang left the airwaves over 40 years ago, and several of our favorite actors from the series are no longer with us. Creator Garry Marshall died in 2016 at the age of 81, and we’ve also lost several performers, including Tom Bosley (Mr. C), Erin Moran (Joanie), Al Molinaro (Al), and Pat Morita (Arnold). While it’s sad to think about losing actors from such a feel-good show, “Happy Days” was all about looking back at better times. Join us as we take stock of this seminal sitcom by way of its surviving actors.

After George Lucas’ similarly nostalgic look back at teen life in the early 1960s, “American Graffiti, released in 1973,” proved popular, ABC was convinced that “Happy Days” would be a hit. And who could be better to play the wholesome Richie Cunningham in the new sitcom than Ron Howard, who portrayed equally squeaky-clean Steve Bolander in Lucas’ film? Son of actors Rance Howard and Jean Speegle, Howard got his start as Opie Taylor on “The Andy Griffith Show.” His familiar face ensured “Happy Days” viewers immediately felt at home. Howard remained with the show for seven seasons, but during that time he was building his confidence, getting the seal of approval from John Wayne himself after starring alongside the screen legend in 1976’s “The Shootist.” A year later, with the help of B-Movie legend Roger Corman, he directed the action comedy “Grand Theft Auto,” launching a long and celebrated filmmaking career. 

Howard left “Happy Days” to pursue directing in 1980, and in the years since has become one of the premier directors in Hollywood, charting an impressive filmography that includes such works as the critically acclaimed films “Apollo 13” and “A Beautiful Mind” which won the Academy Awards for best picture and best director in 2001. He’s also overseen cult hits like the fantasy “Willow” and was responsible for “The Da Vinci Code” movies, which depending on how you feel about them, is either a point in his favor or a blemish on an impressive résumé.

Ron Howard has largely focused on directing movies since departing “Happy Days.” That’s not to say he hasn’t revisited the small screen at all, though. Throughout his post-“Happy Days” years he’s shown up in guest roles on “The Simpsons” and “Frasier” and also provided the voice of the narrator on “Arrested Development.” Recently, he appeared as himself on Apple TV+’s “The Studio,” and in 2024, Howard and his former “Happy Days” co-star Henry Winkler reunited on stage for the Emmys.

“Happy Days” shifted focus after its second season to feature Henry Winkler’s coolest-of-the-cool fan-favorite supporting character Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli more prominently. The move made Winkler a superstar (even if his dyslexia did ruin “Happy Days” table reads). Fonzie transcended the show and evolved into a cultural icon. When Ron Howard departed the show in 1980, the producers had Winkler to fall back on, with the actor leading the series until its final season in 1984.

With an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, Winkler was off to a good start when he embarked on a screen career, but with his portrayal of Fonzie boosting his profile, he was pretty much set for life. That said, his film career never really took off (though he had a few notable lead performances, including a starring role in Ron Howard’s 1982 comedy “Night Shift”) nor did his attempts at directing. 

Still, Winkler never stopped working. Ultimately, he became a character actor, delivering memorable performances in a host of TV shows and movies, including “Parks and Recreation” and “Arrested Development.” He also played acting coach Gene Cousineau on “Barry,” winning his first Emmy for the role in 2018. Winkler’s post-“Happy Days” work also includes roles high-profile projects such as “Scream,” “The Waterboy,” and “The French Dispatch.”

While Henry Winkler was busy portraying the quintessential TV greaser, Marion Ross was establishing herself as one of the great TV moms, playing Marion Cunningham opposite Tom Bosley’s Howard Cunningham. Ross received two Emmy nominations for her work on “Happy Days,” and while she went on to feature in several big screen productions, she remained a fixture of the small screen throughout her career.

Ross, who began acting in the early 1950s, was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in 1996’s “The Evening Star,” a sequel to “Terms of Endearment,” which sadly didn’t fare quite as well with critics or general audiences. She also featured in Ron Howard’s 1977 directorial debut “Grand Theft Auto.”

There’s no doubt TV was where Ross shined. The actress worked consistently after “Happy Days” ended, landing several recurring roles on shows such as “Gilmore Girls” and “The Drew Carey Show” and lending her voiceover talents to a host of animated series, including “King of the Hill” and “SpongeBob SquarePants,” where she voices Grandma SquarePants. Now in her late 90s, she’s retired.

To this day, Anson Williams’ best-known role is that of beloved goof Warren “Potsie” Weber, Richie Cunningham’s charmingly gullible friend whose geeky charm was a highlight of “Happy Days” throughout its run. Having such an impact as a well-known character was always going to make it hard for Williams to build a career outside of “Happy Days,” and he did struggle for a time. However, he continued to work in TV after the show wrapped, appearing in guest roles on several series, including “Fantasy Island” and “Baywatch,” and some TV movies and specials. In 2016, he even showed up in an episode of Matthew Perry’s short-lived “The Odd Couple” remake, which at one point, paid tribute to “Happy Days” creator Garry Marshall.

Aside from acting, Williams found success as a television director, beginning with the 1985 ABC Afterschool Special “No Greater Gift,” and overseeing multiple episodes of well-known TV shows ranging from “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place” to “Star Trek: Voyager” and “Lizzie McGuire.” He also directed 31 episodes of ABC Family’s teen drama “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.”

The former “Happy Days” star ran for mayor of Ojai, California, in 2022 but was unsuccessful. Williams married for the third time in 2023. The now 76-year-old underwent hernia surgery on August 12, 2025. At the time of writing, Williams is recovering well based on his most recent updates.

On “Happy Days,” Don Most’s Ralph Malph was a beloved member of Richie’s friend group, always there with a groaner of a one-liner and often chasing girls when he should have been focusing on sharpening his comedic skills. Most wound up on the series almost by accident. Originally intending to take small acting gigs between his classes at Lehigh University, Most landed the role of Ralph on his third audition, and his life immediately changed. He remained with the series until its seventh season, departing alongside Ron Howard and returning for a quick guest role in the final season.

Much like Anson Williams, Most found it difficult to leave his “Happy Days” character behind in the years after the show. The actor told the Morning Call how he was planning to work in movies following “Happy Days” but received “a rude awakening” when he tried to establish a film career. “I couldn’t even get interviews for movies,” Most says. “They wouldn’t even bring me in to audition.” He eventually secured some big screen gigs, beginning with the1980 rom-com “Leo and Loree,” which was executive produced by Ron Howard’. Film roles were sparse in the following two decades, but Most did play Benson in 1999’s “EDtv,” and released his directorial debut “The Last Best Sunday” the same year. He also continued to act in TV, appearing in episodes of “Charles in Charge” (which had one of the best TV theme songs of the 1980s), “Murder, She Wrote,” and more recently, “Glee.” Millennials might even remember him from his guest role on “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”

Outside of acting and directing, Most is a singer. He released the self-titled album “Donny Most” in 1976, featuring the single “All Roads (Lead Back to You),” which made it to No. 97 on the Billboard Hot 100. Most also contributed a single to the “Leo and Loree” soundtrack. In the 2010s he began recording swing and jazz music. In 2023, Most released the album “New York High” to positive reviews.

Unlike the majority of beloved “Happy Days” characters, Scott Baio’s Chachi Arcola joined the show relatively late, appearing as Fonzie’s cousin in the Season 5 premiere, “Hollywood: Part 1.” As a miniature Fonzie, Chachi quickly became a fan favorite, ultimately falling for Erin Moran’s Joanie, with whom he shared a spinoff in “Joanie Loves Chachi,” which made our list of the worst TV spinoffs. That show lasted just two seasons before its stars returned to the mothership series. However, Baio found success outside of “Happy Days” with the 1982 teen comedy “Zapped!” in which he played Barney Springboro, a teenager who manages to give himself telekinetic powers.

Following a failed attempt to break into the music industry, Baio became the star of another hit sitcom, “Charles in Charge.” The series ran for five seasons and kept Baio in the spotlight, but after it ended in 1990, the actor mostly appeared in small guest roles. However, he was part of the main cast of “Diagnosis: Murder,” playing Dr. Jack Stewart in 41 episodes of the medical crime drama, and also portrayed lawyer Bob Loblaw on “Arrested Development” for five episodes. Baio then co-hosted VH1 reality series “Confessions of a Teen Idol” in 2009 and directed several episodes of series such as “Harry and the Hendersons” and “The Jamie Foxx Show.”

In recent years, Baio has become known more for his conservative political views and trenchant political support of Donald Trump. The actor courted controversy in 2017 for sharing a meme implying the killing of protester Heather Heyer at a Charlottesville, Virginia, white supremacist rally was a hoax perpetrated by crisis actors who were also involved in the Sandy Hook school shooting. The actor apologized soon after, but has never been able to shake the image of a conspiracy theorist.

Though he did an admirable job as Howard and Marion Cunningham’s nephew. Roger Phillips, Ted McGinley came to “Happy Days” so late and with seemingly so little to do that he was always destined to be remembered as one of the less successful characters on the show. McGinley’s Roger was a teacher and basketball coach at Jefferson High School, who would later become a principal at George S. Patton Vocational High School. Unfortunately, McGinley would become synonymous with the phrase “jumping the shark,” which itself stemmed from the “Happy Days” episode in which Fonzie water skied over that fateful fish.

Making matters worse, after “Happy Days” ended, McGinley couldn’t shake his reputation as a show killer. In fact, he only further bolstered it by similarly joining shows such as “The Love Boat,” “Dynasty,” and “Married… with Children” towards the tail end of their runs. This led to him, perhaps unfairly, being dubbed “The Patron Saint of Jumping the Shark” by Jon Hein, the founder of the website JumptheShark.com. McGinley actually joined “Happy Days” in its eighth season, long after the notorious shark-jumping event occurred in Season 5, so he can hardly be blamed for the series’ decline. The same goes for the other shows he joined. Though he’s maintained a good sense of humor when it comes to his shark-jumping reputation, the actor admits that, at one point, things got quite dark. As McGinley told Variety in 2024, “At first I thought it was kind of funny, and then I realized that I started losing jobs.”

Now in his late 60s, McGinley continues to work, landing roles on “The West Wing” and “Family Guy,” He also had a lead role on ABC’s “Hope & Faith,” which ran for three seasons from 2003 to 2006. More recently, he’s starred as Derek, neighbor of Jason Segel’s Jimmy, in Apple TV’s “Shrinking,” which returned for a third season in 2026, . 

Soon after Scott Baio’s Chachi Arcola joined the cast of “Happy Days,” Lynda Goodfriend’s Lori Beth Allen (later Cunningham) followed suit. Debuting in Season 5, Episode 4, “Hard Cover,” Lori Beth started as a recurring character who met Richie in the college library. The two hit it off and soon became an item. After Ron Howard left the show in Season 7, Goodfriend became part of the main cast and, ultimately, married Richie over the phone, with Fonzie filling in for her fiancé in person. After becoming Lori Beth Cunningham, she gave birth to the couple’s baby in Season 9.

Once “Happy Days” wrapped, show creator Garry Marshall cast Goodfriend in several of his films, including “Pretty Woman,” “Exit to Eden,” “Nothing in Common,” and “Beaches,” all of which featured the actor in cameo or guest roles. She also appeared on several popular shows in the 1980s, including two episodes of “The Love Boat” and a Season 5 episode of “Fantasy Island,” a show that was later rebooted for Fox.

Goodfriend is now the Creative Director of Acting for Film at the New York Film Academy’s Los Angeles campus. She still has fond memories of her time on “Happy Days,” telling the Academy in a 2023 interview that it was “the most fun of all the work I’ve done.” 

Another late addition to “Happy Days,” Cathy Silvers’ Jenny Piccalo came in the wake of Ron Howard’s exit from the series and debuted in the show’s eighth season as Joanie’s best friend. The character had been mentioned throughout the earlier seasons. but Silvers was tasked with bringing Jenny to life — which she did to memorable effect, making the boy-crazy Jenny a positive addition to “Happy Days.”

The daughter of actor Phil Silvers (known for playing Master Sergeant Ernest Bilko on the 1950s sitcom “The Phil Silvers Show”), Cathy Silvers acted in several shows after she left “Happy Days” following its tenth season. Along with appearances on “The Love Boat,” “Wings,” and “Punky Brewster,” Silvers also landed a main role on the CBS sitcom “Foley Square,” which only ran for one season between 1985 and 1986. She also appeared in the 1996 movie “Sgt. Bilko,” a modern adaptation of  her father’s show.

After retiring from acting in the 1990s, Silvers attended American University and obtained a degree in marketing. She quickly started a company that delivers organic farmers’ market produce to Los Angeles County residents. Silvers has also worked as a vegan chef and in 2007, published a book titled “Happy Days Healthy Living: From Sitcom Teen to the Health-Food Scene.” In a Los Angeles Daily News interview, Silvers echoed her former castmate Lynda Goodfriend, saying that making “Happy Days” was “the most fun I ever had in my life, absolutely, bar none.”