Erin Moran, the former child star who rose to fame as Joanie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days but lived out her final years in a trailer park in Indiana, has died age 56.

Police in Harrison County, Indiana, said they had been called to her address on Saturday but Moran was found unresponsive. There will be an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Garry Marshall, Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, Erin Moran, Henry Winkler and Anson Williams of the television show Happy Days, pose after Ross received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Photograph: E.J. Flynn/AP

Moran was just 14 when she first appeared in in Happy Days as Joanie Cunningham, the freckly, trouble-making sister of Richie Cunningham, played by Ron Howard. However, after a decade on the show, Moran’s spin-off series failed to take off and she barely acted again. She fell on hard times and eventually ended up living in a trailer park in Indiana with her husband Steve Fleischmann, after the couple lost their California home, and it was reported they then separated.

Moran’s Happy Days co-stars shared their sadness at her death. Howard tweeted: “Such sad sad news. RIP Erin. I’ll always choose to remember you on our show making scenes better, getting laughs and lighting up tv screens.”

Winkler said he hope that Moran would “finally have the peace you wanted so badly here on earth ...Rest In It serenely now.. too soon.”

Born in Burbank, California, and raised in North Hollywood, Moran’s mother signed her up with an agent aged 5 and she began acting in TV and movies before she was 10 years old.

Henry Winkler and Garry Marshall: how we made Happy Days Read more

Her big break came as a teenager when she landed the role in Happy Days in 1974. Debuting at a time of nostalgia for the seemingly innocent 1950s, the sitcom was set in Milwaukee and soon became a hit. Howard and Henry Winkler, who played tough guy Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli, were the show’s biggest stars, but Moran also became popular and her relationship with character Chachi Arcola became one of the show’s most loved storylines.

However, she also spoke openly about the pressures put on her as a young woman in the limelight. In an interview in 1983, she said as soon as she had turned 15 the producers on Happy Days “suddenly wanted me to lose weight and become this sexy thing.”

In 1981, when asked what she’d like to do after Happy Days, Moran told CNN: “I would love to do a feature [film], I’d love to do a play.”



In 1982, she was paired off with fellow Happy Days performer Scott Baio in the short-lived comedy Joanie Loves Chachi but it was widely panned and cancelled after just 17 episodes.

Moran later said she had been reluctantly “talked into it” .

“I liked working with the people. But I didn’t even want to do it,” she said. “I wanted to stay on Happy Days. They were running them at the same time.”

Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) Such sad sad news. RIP Erin. I'll always choose to remember you on our show making scenes better, getting laughs and lighting up tv screens. https://t.co/8HmdL0JKlf

After acting offers dried up, Moran decided to move away from Hollywood and reassess her career but she never managed to repeat her childhood success. Her more recent credits included The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote, and a brief appearance in 2007 film not Another B Movie.

In 2011, Moran and several other Happy Days cast members filed a $10m lawsuit against CBS, who owns the show, for not being given money from merchandising, and in 2012 Moran and her co-stars Don Most, Anson Williams and Marion Ross were each awarded $65,000.

Williams also spoke of his sadness at her death. “Erin was a person who made everyone around her feel better,” he said. “She truly cared about others first, a true angel. I will miss her so much... she is in God’s hands’.

Most, who played Ralph Malph on the hit sitcom, said: “I am so incredibly sad to hear about Erin. She was a wonderful, sweet, caring, talented woman. As I write this I can’t really comprehend this right now. A very painful loss. It gives me some comfort to know that she’s with Tom, Al, Pat and Garry. Rest In Peace, sweet Erin.”