Set in the 1950s and 60s, Happy Days followed the adventures of all-American teen Richie Cunningham and his circle of family and friends.
The cheery sitcom initially aired in the US on ABC from 1974 to 1984. Despite initially receiving mixed reviews, it went on to become one of the most popular shows of the 1970s. It ran for an impressive 255 episodes over 11 seasons, drawing in an astonishing 30.5 million American viewers for its finale, and becoming popular around the world.
Read on as we take a look at the stars of Happy Days now and then, and discover who is the richest in 2023. All dollar amounts in US dollars, unless otherwise stated.
Anson Williams played gullible teen Warren "Potsie" Weber throughout all 11 seasons of the hit sitcom.
Aged 24 when he was cast, the baby-faced Williams was actually much older than his teen character when Happy Days first aired. However, he lacked experience and had previously only performed in school plays before finding success in Hollywood.
While still starring in Happy Days, Williams released a single titled Deeply, which peaked at 93 on the US Hot 100 music chart.
Once Happy Days ended, the multi-talented star more or less put his singing and acting endeavours in the past, opting to instead pursue a career behind the camera.
Now a prolific TV director, Williams has helmed episodes of shows including Charmed, Xena: Warrior Princess, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Williams has a fortune that's estimated to be worth somewhere between $1.8 million (£1.4m) and $3 million (£2.3m).
Don Most played the joker of the pack, Ralph Malph. A business student at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, Most travelled to Hollywood in the summer of 1973 to look for acting work while waiting for his studies to resume in the fall.
Despite his lack of experience, Most swiftly landed the role in Happy Days and decided to move to California to pursue acting full-time.
Most portrayed Ralph for eight seasons, revealing to Boise Beat in 2017 that his early departure was due to his feeling that the show "was getting repetitive".
However, he did return as Ralph for a guest appearance in the show's final season.
While the mischievous Ralph remains his most iconic part to date, Most has enjoyed a multi-decade acting career. The star continued to flex his comedic chops with roles in movies like 1999's satirical comedy EDtv and the 2008 dramedy The Great Buck Howard.
He's also had guest-star roles on a number of popular TV shows, including Baywatch, Star Trek: Voyager, and Glee.
In more recent times, he's swapped the screen for the stage, starring in a 2017 production of The Sunshine Boys, as well as a 2019 adaptation of the play Middletown.
The actor is reportedly worth a neat $2 million (£1.6m).
Scott Baio joined the cast of Happy Days in the fifth season and played Chachi Arcola, the younger cousin of Fonzie.
Baio’s original big break came in 1976 when he was cast as the lead character in the children's gangster musical Bugsy Malone. He also had a leading role as Anthony in the Happy Days spin-off Blansky’s Beauties, before landing the part of Chachi in Happy Days at the age of 16.
Along with Erin Moran, Baio departed the sitcom to star in its spin-off Joanie Loves Chachi. Like Moran, he also returned to Happy Days after the spin-off was axed in 1983.
Soon after Happy Days ended, Baio was cast in the lead role of sitcom Charles in Charge, which aired from 1984 until 1990. In the 90s, Baio got behind the camera, directing episodes of productions including The Jamie Foxx Show and Malcolm & Eddie.
By the 2000s, the former child star’s career was struggling. His 2004 movie Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 was panned by critics and had the dubious honour of being nominated for four Razzie Awards.
This prompted the actor to turn to reality TV, and between 2007 and 2008 he starred in the VH1 shows Scott Baio is 45…and Single and Scott Baio is 46…and Pregnant.
He also co-hosted reality show Confessions of a Teen Idol, which featured the stories of former teen stars who were attempting to revive their careers.
According to estimates, Baio is worth $4 million (£3.1m), though some sources state he has a fortune of $6 million (£4.7m).
Marion Ross played Marion Cunningham throughout all 11 seasons of Happy Days, earning two Emmy nods for her portrayal of the archetypal 1950s housewife.
Before she was cast in the hit sitcom, the veteran actress had already appeared in numerous movies, sharing the screen with a number of Hollywood icons in the process.
Her pre-Happy Days credits included 1954's Sabrina, which starred Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, as well as Teacher’s Pet in 1958, which featured Doris Day and Clark Gable.
Although she’s retired now, Ross enjoyed a long and lucrative acting career following Happy Days, enjoying recurring roles on hit sitcoms Gilmore Girls and Brothers & Sisters. She also had a starring part in the 1996 comedy-drama movie The Evening Star, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
The talented Ross has also voiced characters in the likes of SpongeBob SquarePants and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster, as well as in the Marvel blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy.
She announced her retirement from acting in 2018 and has a reported net worth of around $10 million (£7.8m).
Henry Winkler rose to fame playing cool guy Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli throughout all 11 seasons of Happy Days.
Winkler attended the Yale School of Drama between 1967 and 1970, joining the Yale Repertory Theatre company after graduation. In 1973, he moved from New York to California and was hired for a small part in the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show before landing his career-making Happy Days role.
Controversially, Winker was 28 years old when he was cast as the 16-year-old Fonzie. Originally written as a minor character, The Fonz soon became the show's main character when he proved the most popular with audiences.
Winkler was never short of roles to sink his teeth into, being nominated for Golden Globe Awards for performances in the 1977 drama Heroes and the 1982 comedy Night Shift while still starring in Happy Days.
However, when the sitcom wrapped in 1984, Winkler was typecast and struggled to find roles, which led him to try directing and producing instead. His first silver screen release was 1988’s Memories of Me, followed by 1993’s Cop and a Half.
Winkler returned to acting in the early 90s and has appeared in everything from the 1996 horror hit Scream to the 2006 Adam Sandler comedy Click. Between 2003 and 2019, he had a recurring role in comedy series Arrested Development, and more recently he appeared in 2021's lauded drama The French Dispatch.
Today, Winkler is estimated to be worth between $35 million (£27.4m) and $40 million (£31.3m).
Ron Howard played Richie Cunningham in Happy Days. Richie was originally the lead character, though the focus of the show later shifted to The Fonz during the second season.
Howard was a child star who had been cast in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show at the tender age of five.
Other early roles included appearances in TV shows The Twilight Zone and Dennis the Menace, while his first major film role was in George Lucas's 1973's coming-of-age flick American Graffiti.
Having made his directorial debut in 1977 with the low-budget comedy-action flick Grand Theft Auto, Howard departed Happy Days in 1980 to pursue making movies full-time.
His big break came when he directed the 1982 hit comedy Night Shift, which starred Michael Keaton and Henry Winkler.
Howard is now a prolific director, having helmed major blockbusters such as space epic Apollo 13, holiday classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Da Vinci Code and its sequels, and Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The richest of his former co-stars by far, Howard is estimated to be worth a whopping $200 million (£156.7m). How's that for Happy Days?
Now let's take a look at cast members who have sadly passed away...
Unfortunately, some of the familiar faces from Happy Days are no longer with us, including the late Erin Moran, who played Richie's younger sister, Joanie Cunningham.
A child star, Moran started acting in TV commercials at just five years old and landed a role in family TV drama Daktari when she was six.
She made her silver screen debut at the age of eight, starring in the 1968 comedy flick How Sweet It Is! alongside Debbie Reynolds. The young starlet also made guest appearances in popular sitcoms like The Waltons and Family Affair before being cast in Happy Days when she was 13.
Moran departed Happy Days in 1982 to star in spin-off Joanie Loves Chachi. However, the ill-fated show was axed after just 17 episodes due to poor ratings and Moran returned to Happy Days for its final season.
After the sitcom ended, Moran battled depression and struggled to find work. Her credits include guest roles in TV shows such as The Love Boat and Diagnosis: Murder, as well as a small part in the 2010 satirical flick Not Another B Movie.
She fell on hard times and was reportedly evicted from her trailer park home due to partying. The tragic star died in 2017, aged just 56, of complications relating to cancer. Her estimated net worth at the time of her death was $50,000 (£41.6k).
Another Happy Days star who has sadly passed away is Tom Bosley, who played Cunningham family patriarch Howard, perhaps better known as "Mr. C".
Bosley started out on the stage while at university and his big break came when he played the lead role in Broadway’s Fiorello!, for which he earned the 1960 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical.
He then made his movie debut in 1963, sharing the screen with Hollywood legends Steve McQueen and Natalie Wood in the rom-com Love with the Proper Stranger.
He also racked up an impressive list of TV show credits before landing his part as Mr. C, including guest appearances in Bewitched, Get Smart, and The Love Boat. Alongside Fonzie, Howard was the only Happy Days character to appear in every episode of the show.
Although Bosley is best known for Happy Days, he also had a recurring role in popular TV series Murder, She Wrote from 1984 to 1988. He also played the lead character in the crime series Father Dowling Mysteries, which aired between 1989 and 1991.
After Happy Days, Bosley continued to grace both the stage and screen. Career highlights include playing Maurice in the 1994 Broadway adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and Herr Schultz in the long-running Cabaret musical in 2002.
The actor worked continuously until his death in 2010 at the age of 83, and had a starring part in rom-com movie The Back-up Plan alongside Jennifer Lopez that very same year.
The late star's estimated net worth at the time of his passing was a cool $5 million (£4.2m).
The late Al Molinaro played grumpy malt store owner Al Delvecchio. He also portrayed the character's twin brother, Father Anthony, in the episode Fonzie's Baptism.
After graduating from high school, Wisconsin-born Molinaro left his home state and moved to Los Angeles with his sights set on stardom. The wannabe actor got off to a rocky start in Tinseltown and was forced to work odd jobs to make ends meet.
A determined Molinaro eventually began to land small parts in some of the most popular sitcoms of the 1960s and 1970s, including Bewitched and That Girl.
However, his big break came when he was cast in The Odd Couple, which was produced by Happy Days creator Garry Marshall. In 1976, Marshall cast Molinaro in Happy Days, and the rest, as they say, is history.
When Happy Days ended, Molinaro hoped to capitalise on the popularity of his character by opening a chain of diners called Big Al's. However, the venture went bust.
In 1990, he played Joe in the CBS sitcom The Family Man but it was axed after just one season. Although he officially retired from acting in the early 90s, he continued to star in TV commercials and also reprised his beloved Happy Days character for Weezer’s Buddy Holly music video in 1994.
Molinaro passed away in 2015, aged 96. His estimated fortune at the time of his death was $10 million (£8.3m).
Now take a look at the cast of Cheers, then and now, and who's richest today