As the wife of Howard Cunningham and the mother of both Richie and Joanie Cunningham, Marion Cunningham had a lot on her plate during her 11 seasons on “Happy Days.” Largely playing the role of a 1950s homemaker, Mrs. Cunningham is warm, friendly, and incredibly caring towards her family. Like her husband, Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli refers to her by her initial, “Mrs. C,” and in turn she is the only one who calls him by his first name of Arthur. She is sympathetic when it’s needed, but she is also not afraid to step up and put her family in line when necessary.
For the entire 255-episode “Happy Days” run, Marion Ross played the role of Mrs. Cunningham, and Ross got her start acting in the mid-1950s. She played many roles on TV and in movies, and from 1965–1966 she appeared in more than 150 episodes of the soap opera “Paradise Bay” as Mary Morgan. After playing Mrs. Cunningham, Ross has continued to regularly act on TV and in movies, including 33 episodes as Sophie Berger on “Brooklyn Bridge.”
In the 1990s, she appeared as Grandma Foreman on “That ’70s Show,” and in the 2000s she became Grandma SquarePants within the “SpongeBob SquarePants” universe. During her career, Ross has racked up five Primetime Emmy nominations, and she has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ross was still acting through the early-2020s, playing Marion in “Senior Entourage” in 2021.