Tom Bosley's real wife played his bowling buddy on Happy Days

They were married for 30 years.

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Tom Bosley’s real wife played his bowling buddy on Happy Days
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Mr. and Mrs. C burst in the front door of the Cunningham home in the Happy Days episode "Howard's Bowling Buddy."

In matching bowling shirts, they are the ideal couple, but later in the episode after Marion sustains an injury, Howard has to find a new bowling buddy and he finds it in a lovely bank teller named Fern. To make sure Mrs. C isn't jealous of his new "buddy," Mr. C assures her that Fern is a spinster.

"Very interesting to meet you," Fonzie says suspiciously when he meets Fern, who we see is a pretty blonde enthusiastically donning Mrs. C's bowling shirt. "I was just here visiting the Cunninghams," he adds, "You know, they've been married for 27 years."

It would be natural for anyone in the audience to feel as protective of the Cunningham family as the Fonz, so you'd be forgiven if you, too, gave this newcomer with terrible intentions Fern the side-eye. It might delight you to know, however, that Fern isn't just any stranger off the street turning the usually wise and loyal Mr. C into a total pinhead.

Fern is played by Patricia Carr, an actress who actually married Tom Bosley, the actor who played Howard Cunningham. They wed in the year just before we saw her on the show. So while you were worried about the Cunninghams staying together back then, now you know the supposed onscreen interloper was just at the start of her own long and happy marriage to the sitcom patriarch.

AP Photo / Reed Saxon

Just stick around for the credits, and you'll see in this role, she's even credited as Patricia Carr-Bosley. They remained married for 30 years, until Bosley passed away in 2010.

And Happy Days ran for three years past this episode, so that means by Fonzie's math, Bosley was married to Mrs. C for exactly that long, too!

For Bosley, remarrying was a big deal. He lost his first wife Jean Eliot in 1978, in the middle of his success on Happy Days. "The most adverse thing I had to face was the loss of my first wife," Bosley said in an interview a few years after Happy Days ended. He said his wife had gotten sick with a terminal illness before the show started and then after she was gone, he was left to care for their 11-year-old daughter.

"After we lost her, I had to go through that extremely awkward period of being both a father and a mother," Bosley said. "Then all of a sudden, getting over the loss of my wife and realizing that I had to go on, that life has to go on. And I went through that terrible phase of having to date."

Almost like a moral lesson learned on Happy Days, he said he learned at the age of 50 that he was capable of making the same mistakes in dating that he had made at 20.

That's when the interviewer asked him if he remarried, and Bosley brightened up immediately at the thought of Patricia Carr, quickly answering, "Yes, very happily so."

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12 Comments

BustaNutter1 41 months ago
Guess what, Mr. Cunningham was not a nice man! My wife is a theater buff, and she always waits at the stage door exit after the show to meet her favorites,and Tom Bosley was one of them. She was the only fan there to greet him, and he was rude to her and wouldn't take a picture with her! What a jerk!!! She has met with much bigger stars, like Lauren Bacall
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BustaNutter1 OldTVfanatic 41 months ago
In New York, there are hundreds of fans at the stage door, waiting for a favorite celebrity to exit. In a case like that, I can see trying to dodge the crowd. But Tom Bosley was appearing in Philadelphia, in Showboat. Philly is a very huge sports town, but theatre, not so much. My wife was the only person there. His rudeness to her was inexcusable. Good riddance, Mr. C.
lyckligflicka BustaNutter1 41 months ago
Sorry to hear of your bad experience, but one never knows what is happening in another’s life at that moment. I have a friend who worked for Mr Bosley and his family for years and has nothing but good things to say about him.
BustaNutter1 lt32253 41 months ago
Your so right! As an autograph hound, my wife has three albums of stars she met. The biggest stars, such as Lauren Bacall, Joan Collins, and Robin Williams, were much nicer than soap opera actors and mediocre TV actors. Seems like soapie and TV actors are full of themselves. Movie stars are more appreciative of their fans.
BustaNutter1 lyckligflicka 41 months ago
I am an optician working in downtown Philadelphia. Ironically, after my wife's bad experience, Bosley broke his glasses and sent his assistant to my office to have them repaired, which I did free of charge. I told him to tell his boss that it was a complimentary repair, even though he was rude to my wife at the stage door. He never contacted me or thanked me. A total schmuck.
DarioWiter 41 months ago
Nice to see Mr. C on the rebound after the loss of his first wife. 😊
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stephaniestavropoulos 41 months ago
The love of a good woman will do that for a man. As the saying goes "Behind every good man, is a good woman. He was a good man, and she was a good woman! From what little I know, it sounds like she might have also been a good step-mom to TB's daughter.
OldTVfanatic 41 months ago
I can see why.
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