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See the cast of Happy Days in their earliest screen roles
They met Alice in Wonderland and worked in forgotten Spielberg projects.
Happy Days has given pop culture so much — the Fonz, "Sit on it!" and the entire concept of jumping of the shark. And that's just Henry Winkler's character.
The sitcom lasted for a decade thanks to its ensemble cast, a wonderful mix of relative newcomers and veterans. Though the sitcom was set in the Fifties, only a few stars of the show were working back then.
Let's (rock and) roll back the clock to see how these actors got their start!
1. Ron Howard
Before he was Richie, "Ronny" Howard was known from coast to coast as little Opie Taylor, a role he originated on The Danny Thomas Show in 1960 before The Andy Griffith Show charmed America. In the year prior to that, the precocious actor worked a recurring role as Stewart on Dennis the Menace. 1959 proved to be a breakthrough year for the 5-year-old. He landed a significant role — and his movie debut — in The Journey, a Yul Brynner film about the Hungarian Revolution, seen here.
Image: The Everett Collection
2. Henry Winkler
Winkler's screen career does not stretch back much beyond the Fonz. Like many aspiring actors, his career began with a healthy mix of stage work and commercial bookings, like this ad for American Airlines. His primetime TV debut came on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in a memorable episode titled "The Dinner Party." Perhaps you remember him as the extra guest in Mary's apartment. Then again, he was sharp-dressed in a suit, not in a leather motorcycle jacket.
3. Don Most
"Showtime," the season one finale of M*A*S*H, involves a visiting USO tour and a crisis of faith for Father Mulcahy. Pay close attention to the dying soldier in the bed, the young man over which Mulcahy makes the sign of the cross. It is none other than Don Most in his first screen appearance — uncredited.
4. Anson Williams
A random episode of Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law might seem like the most inauspicious debut on this list, but Anson quietly had the most prestigious collaboration here, arguably. You see, 1971's "Eulogy for a Wide Receiver" was an early directorial credit from Steven Spielberg! The budding director featured Williams as the titular "Wide Receiver" who dies following football practice. Williams gives shows his chops as he stumbles into the locker room shower and collapses. Spielberg demonstrates his creative framing of actors.
5. Marion Ross
Paramount Studios pitched its 1953 romcom Forever Female as the coming-out party for Pat Crowley. The trailer used Crowley's newcomer status as part of the appeal. Quietly, however, the flick featured the film debut of a future TV icon. Marion Ross has a small role as Crowley's friend, Patty. Note the spelling of her name in the opening credits — "Marian Ross." She was born with that spelling. The aspiring actress changed it to "Marion" at the age of 13 because she thought it would look better on marquees. Paramount must not have agreed with her.
Image: Paramount
6. Tom Bosley
What about Mr. Cunningham? Tom Bosley has a much more obscure beginning — literally obscured. He sports loads of clownish makeup and a fake nose as the Knave of Hearts in a 1955 television production of Alice in Wonderland. It aired under the Hallmark Hall of Fame umbrella shortly before Halloween.
7. Erin Moran
The youngest in the Cunningham clan made her breakthrough in 1968. Moran's first credited roles came in that eighth year of her life. On the big screen, she was Laurie, a kid having a phone conversation with Debbie Reynolds in the James Garner comedy How Sweet It Is! The screenwriter on that movie? Garry Marshall, naturally! Shortly thereafter, she landed a recurring role on the animal series Daktari as Jenny Jones.
Image: National General Pictures
8. Scott Baio
Before he was Chachi, he was a boy gangster. The 1976 movie Bugsy Malone told a lighthearted, musical take on the classic noir gangster film. Jodie Foster was the moll. Baio starred as Bugsy Malone himself. Director Alan Parker would go on to helm Fame and Pink Floyd – The Wall.
Image: The Everett Collection
9. Robin Williams
Robin Williams may have only popped up in two episodes of Happy Days, but his wildly successful guest role as the alien Mork would lead to a hit spinoff and kickstart a legendary Hollywood career. The sleazy sketch comedy movie Can I Do It… 'Til I Need Glasses? original left Williams' scenes (playing a lawyer and a man with a toothache) on the cutting room floor. However, shortly after "Nanu Nanu!" became a national catchphrase, the 1977 film was re-released with Williams' scenes restored.
Image: National American Films
10. Pat Morita
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita played Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi, eponymous owner of Arnold's Drive-In. Following Happy Days, his career crane-kicked to new heights as Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid films. The Japanese actor made his screen debut in his homeland, in a 1964 Toho Studios drama titled Car Thieves. By 1967, he was in America, making his television debut alongside Jim Nabors on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.! Look for him in "The Recruiting Poster" — minus the mustache.
Image: The Everett Collection
30 Comments
Pat Morita was not "a Japanese actor"; Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor. Born in California, Morita was a Japanese-American or, more precisely, an American of Japanese descent. BIG difference and, despite Morita's being undeniably proud of his heritage, calling him "a Japanese actor" is insulting because it's unlikely that an American-born actor of European descent, without Asian features, would be described as if he or she was a citizen of another country.
PLEASE learn the difference.
! I am completely dumb-founded! I had no idea that the soldier/patient that Father Mulcahy gave comfort to in the episode "SHOWTIME" was 'DONNY MOST', a.k.a. 'RALPH MALPH'. To me, he looked like a young 'TOBIN BELL', the guy who played 'JIGSAW' in all the 'SAW' films.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0638402/reference
The should have kept Chuck as a character.
