Erin Marie Moran Fleischmann (October 18, 1960 – April 22, 2017) was an American actress, best known for playing Joanie Cunningham on the sitcom Happy Days and its spin-off Joanie Loves Chachi.

Early life

Moran was born in 1960 in Burbank, California, and raised in nearby North Hollywood. She was born to Sharon and Edward Moran, a finance manager, and was the second youngest of six children.

Career

At the age of six, she was cast as Jenny Jones in the television series Daktari,[4]which ran from 1966 to 1969. In 1968, she made her feature-film debut in How Sweet It Is! with Debbie Reynolds. She appeared in 80 Steps to Jonah (1969) and Watermelon Man (1970). She made regular appearances on The Don Rickles Show in 1972. She made guest appearances in The Courtship of Eddie's Father, My Three Sons, Bearcats! and Family Affair. As a young child, she was also on the television series Gunsmoke.

In 1974 at the age of thirteen, Moran was cast to play her best known role, Joanie Cunningham on the sitcom Happy Days. She played the feisty younger sister of Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard). Moran continued the role in 1982 in the short-lived spin-off series Joanie Loves Chachi, alongside Scott Baio. She won the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress in a New Television Series for her role. After Joanie Loves Chachi's cancellation in 1983, she returned to Happy Days for its final season.

Moran made several other television guest appearances, including The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, and Diagnosis: Murder. In 2008, she was a contestant on VH1's reality show Celebrity Fit Club.

In 2010, she made an appearance in the independent comedy feature Not Another B Movie. In 2013, despite reports that she would be reunited with former Happy Days co-stars Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, and Scott Baio in the fourth season of Arrested Development, she did not appear in the revamped Netflix series.

Happy Days lawsuit

On April 19, 2011, Moran and three of her Happy Days co-stars, Don Most, Anson Williams and Marion Ross, plus the estate of Tom Bosley, who died in 2010, filed a US$10 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS, which owns the show. The suit claimed that cast members had not been paid for merchandising revenues owed under their contracts. Revenues included those from show-related items such as comic books, T-shirts, scrapbooks, trading cards, games, lunch boxes, dolls, toy cars, magnets, greeting cards and DVDs where cast members' images appear on the box covers. Under the actors' contracts, they were supposed to be paid five percent from the net proceeds of merchandising if a single actor's image was used, and half that amount if the cast members were pictured in a group. CBS said it owed the actors US$8,500 and US$9,000 each, most of it from slot machine revenues, but the group said they were owed millions. The lawsuit was initiated after Ross was informed by a friend playing slots at a casino of a "Happy Days" machine on which players win the jackpot when five Marion Rosses are rolled.

In October 2011, a judge rejected the group's fraud claim, which eliminated the possibility of millions of dollars in potential damages. On June 5, 2012, a judge denied a motion to dismiss filed by CBS, which meant the case would go to trial on July 17 if it was not settled by then. In July 2012, the actors settled their lawsuit with CBS. Each received a payment of US$65,000 and a promise by CBS to continue honoring the terms of their contracts.

Personal life and death

In a 1988 interview, Moran said she suffered from depression after Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi ended and she was unable to get acting roles.

On April 22, 2017, Harrison County, Indiana, authorities were alerted to an unresponsive female, later identified as Moran. She was pronounced dead, aged 56. Among her survivors are her second husband, Steve Fleischmann. Following her death, Variety magazine said Moran "had fallen on hard times in recent years. She was reportedly kicked out of her trailer park home in Indiana because of her hard-partying ways".

Filmography

Film and television

• 1968: How Sweet It Is! as Little Girl
• 1968–1969: Daktari as Jenny Jones
• 1969: Death Valley Days as Mary (2 episodes)
• 1969: 80 Steps to Jonah as Kim
• 1970: The Courtship of Eddie's Father as Emily Ruth Gustafson
• 1970: The F.B.I. as Vickie Florea
• 1970: My Three Sons as Victoria
• 1970: Watermelon Man as Janice Gerber
• 1970–1971: Family Affair as Amy (2 episodes)
• 1971: O'Hara, U.S. Treasury as Little Girl
• 1971: Bearcats! as Elisa Tillman
• 1971: Gunsmoke as Rachel (2 episodes)
• 1972: The Don Rickles Show as Janie Robinson
• 1973: Lisa, Bright and Dark
• 1974–1984: Happy Days as Joanie Cunningham Arcola (234 episodes)
• 1975: The Waltons as Sally Ann Harper
• 1977: The Magic Pony (voice)
• 1978: Greatest Heroes of the Bible as Tova
• 1980–1985: The Love Boat as Carrie Walker (4 episodes)
• 1981: Twirl as Bonnie Lee Jordan
• 1981: Galaxy of Terror as Alluma
• 1982–1983: Joanie Loves Chachi as Joanie Cunningham
• 1983: Hotel as Karen Donnelly
• 1986: Murder, She Wrote as Maggie Roberts
• 1998: Diagnosis: Murder as Cynthia Bennett
• 1998: Desperation Boulevard
• 2007: Scott Baio is 45 and Single as Herself
• 2008: Celebrity Fit Club as Herself
• 2011: Not Another B Movie
• 2012: The Deceit as Mrs. Shephard

Soundtrack

• Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003) ("Child Stars on Your Television")