How Erin Moran's Happy Days Co-Stars Helped Her Through The Challenges Of Childhood Fame

The following article includes mentions of substance use.

"Happy Days" star Erin Moran won American hearts while playing Ron Howard's sister, Joanie Cunningham, on the hit sitcom for over a decade. She was just 13 years old when she started the show in 1974. Eventually, Joanie's love story with Scott Baio's character Chachi even inspired its own spin-off. But Moran's experience in Hollywood wasn't the '50s fairytale she was a part of on screen. In a 1983 interview (via The Guardian), the late actress said that as soon as she hit her mid-teens, "Happy Days" producers "suddenly wanted me to lose weight and become this sexy thing." 

In a 2008 interview on "Today," when it was pointed out that she went through puberty in front of the country, Moran explained how she got through it. "It was so much fun with these guys," she said, referring to her co-stars. "They made it better, they made it easier. I loved it. I had such a good time."

She loved working on "Happy Days" so much that she didn't want to do the "Joanie Loves Chachi" spinoff because it was running at the same time as the original show, so it wouldn't include the same main cast. She returned to "Happy Days"  for the final season after the spinoff aired just 17 episodes. Moran and other cast members had to come together again in 2010 to fight CBS in a lawsuit in which they claimed the company didn't pay them the merchandising money they were owed. Moran and her co-stars, including Marion Ross, Anson Williams, and Donny Most, were each awarded $65,000 in a settlement

Erin Moran starred in nine episodes of "The Love Boat" from 1980 to 1985, but she never found comparable success in Hollywood when "Happy Days" ended in 1984. She spent the rest of her career doing reunion shows with her "Happy Days" co-stars, single episode guest spots on various shows, and a handful of films. Her last acting credit was 2010's "Not Another B Movie." Moran and her husband, Steve Fleischmann, moved to Indiana to take care of Fleischmann's mother sometime after 2010, her publicist revealed in 2012, after rumors surfaced that she'd been evicted from her California home (via Hello!).

Moran died in April 2017 at the age of 56; she was reportedly living in an Indiana trailer park at the time. Although she allegedly had substance abuse issues, her official cause of death was related to stage four squamous cell carcinoma, which she had been diagnosed with months before her death, according to Fleischmann. Moran's "Happy Days" co-stars, like Henry Winkler, mourned her on social media. "OH Erin... now you will finally have the peace you wanted so badly here on earth ...Rest In It serenely now.. too soon," Winkler tweeted.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).