Getty Images/David Livingston(INDIANA) — Indiana authorities say Saturday’s death of Erin Moran, best known for playing Joanie Cunningham on the hit sitcom Happy Days and its spinoff, Joanie Loves Chachi, “likely” died of cancer.
The Harrison County Sheriffs Department in Harrison County, Indiana posted the preliminary cause of death, noting that an autopsy of Erin Marie Moran Fleischmann found that she, “likely succumbed to complications of of stage 4 cancer.” What type of cancer was unspecified.
While toxicology tests were performed as a matter of course, the authorities noted, “no illegal narcotics were found at the residence.” Toxicology test results are pending.
Moran, 56, who had appeared in movies and on TV shows like The Courtship of Eddies’ Father and My Three Sons, was cast as Joanie Cunningham, the younger sister of Ron Howard’s Richie Cunningham, in 1974. She played the role on Happy Days until 1982, when she and Scott Baio’s character, Chachi Arcola, left to star in the spinoff Joanie Loves Chachi. That show was canceled in 1983, and Moran returned to Happy Days for its final season.
After Happy Days, Moran made guest appearances in shows like The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote and Diagnosis: Murder. In 2007, she appeared on the reality show Scott Baio Is 45 and Single as herself, and in 2008, she was a contestant on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club.
In recent years, Moran had reportedly fallen on hard times, and was said to be living in a trailer park, and then in a series of motels.
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
