Homeless Erin Moran of Happy Days attempts to sneak back into her mother in law’s trailer park home.
Erin Moran of Happy Days is now destitute and homeless.
The fall of a former child star.
It is said Hollywood takes innocent souls into the stratosphere before eventually spitting them back out, which might to some degree explain the misery and heart breaking fall from grace of some former child stars. Case in point Erin Moran who once played Joanie Cunningham in the cult show ‘Happy Days,’ (the irony as you will soon find out is ruefully bitter) filmed in the early 1970’s (and which still shows every day now some 40 years later) who this week was photographed looking extremely haggard and looking far older than her 51 years as she smoked outside her trailer home. A trailer home that is which she and her husband, Steve Fleischmann recently found themselves evicted from…
While Erin Moran’s former cast mates went on to find some degree of further success in Hollywood (Ron Howard who played Erin’s on screen brother Richie Cunningham has gone on to become a top producing producer and director) it seems Erin was never able to re invent herself past the image of a rebellious curious younger sister of a angst ridden 1950’s coming of age ingenue.
According to RadarOnline.com Erin Moran and her husband came to find themselves homeless after being kicked out of the trailer they’d been sharing with her husband’s mother, who was tired of their ‘hard-partying ways’.
The National Enquirer reported back in June that the couple had moved into the ‘rundown trailer park’ after losing their California home to foreclosure.
‘Erin was going out to bars and coming home at all hours of the night, sometimes with her rowdy bar friends, and Steve’s mom just couldn’t take it anymore,’ a source told The National Enquirer at the time.
But it wasn’t always this bad, after her decade long stint on Happy Days, Erin Moran was offered a chance in 1982 to star in her own spin off show, ‘Joanie Loves Chachi,’ alongside Scott Baio (who himself has not fared too well in recent years) which was shortly cancelled after failing to catch on with viewers.
It is then when Erin Moran’s problems began to escalate when for a number of years she was unable to secure other Hollywood roles before making a brief appearance in 2007 in an independent comedy feature. From there she was offered a spot as a contestant on VH1‘s reality show ‘Celebrity Fit Club,’ the following year before once again sinking back to obscurity as her persona failed to reignite viewers.
Since the 90’s it is believed Erin Moran (and perhaps sooner) had found herself ensconced in a lifestyle which included excessive drinking, partying and one suspects excessive hard drug use. It is speculated her counterproductive ways alienated her from studio heads over the years.
In the photographs, taken about two weeks ago, Moran – who has not aged well – is seen walking in a grey T-shirt and plaid shorts, a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. Hardly the sight that fans of yesteryear could imagine or savor.
In the photos she is seen standing outside a motel with her husband Steve, who is also smoking, both of them looking worse for wear.
At present it is understood Erin Moran and her husband are living off a dwindling sum of money the result of a payout springing from a lawsuit filed by several Happy Days cast members in April 2011.
The aging actress 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 $10 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS, which owns the show.
With a payout of only $65 000 and a penchant for the fast lifestyle (or is it one of numbing oneself away from the pain of self capitulation?) it is thought Erin Moran and her husband have by now almost relinquished the money that Ms Moran won in her payout. It is not at present understood where Ms Moran and her husband are living or if whether they have sought counseling for their self defeating behavior.
So much for childhood heroes who end up growing up to become disillusioned wasted vestiges of their former selves or is it their rising star that they could never live up to in real life…? So much for ‘Happy Days’….
(see video below)
Yes, most therapists worth their salt know this is what usually happens to rape victims, very textbook.
I agree with Lori, and I am sure once she rocked the boat, they ruined her.
Meth is a bitch…
What a stupid little article. Nobody’s business how people choose to live their life. Hasn’t aged well? She is 51 and is looking pretty buff to me.
I do not care.
they keep trying to blame her for the fact that her work is shown everyday all over the world, and yet she gets no money? Its not the drink and drugs, its the networks lawers!
Like a football player losing millions…. What happened?
That “dumb broad” told her story on Howard Stern about how she was raped on the set of “Happy Days”… I’m betting she’s never had therapy or gotten over it in any way, and she drinks to forget her shambles of a life. Have a heart.
So this dumb broad is a star on a phenomenally successful television show for 11 years, has her own show for 2 seasons, and is now destitute? Cry me a river. Hollywood phonies make more per episode that an average person will make in a year, and we’re supposed to feel sorry for her. I bet all her money went right up her nose. Ron Howard or Henry Winkler must be aware of her plight. They aren’t callous wretches, so there’s much more to this story.
Bravo should do a reality show whereby folks like Moran, along with no-name individuals, can get their act together, have a decent place to live and possibly find a job. It will be a good lesson for everyone, not to live beyond your means, that if you make 50, your youth will probably have faded a bit, and to be nice to people you pass by on the way up the ladder of success. It will do Bravo some good to make up for all the other foolishness they broadcast and might benefit many of us during these trying times. The life coaches should be regular working people who know the value of a buck, elders who have good family ties, moms who raised teenagers who still talk to them, men and women who have had hard times but managed to hold on to another and get through them — without drugs, alcohol or social dramas.
Hard partying at the bars in Corydon, Indiana? I’ve been through that burg a million times and it sure doesn’t seem to be a “hard-party haven”…
Maybe she’s heading into Louisville for a good time!!!
It’s sad that the media has to watch every move they make. They aren’t the only ones homeless in america.
sad to say but this is all too common for childhood stars. we all go through periodic slumps in our lives where nothing seems to happen, but some of us do not descend into a lifestyle that will ultimately led to death with no honor. People take notice when no matter what age you are, if you have honestly been trying to come back and not just looking for another payday, some producers might actually stand up and take notice that you have actually tried to keep yourself in a respectable manner and have avoided the root of bitterness that can destroy lives. Erin, I had a mad boy crush on you growing up, but to see you this way blurs and diminishes those memories. I can understand aging, and failure, but to see what looks like bitterness and a no care attitude towards living with your mother in law tells me that you have become an ungrateful heart whose life consumed with alcohol and drugs has robbed you of your ability to truly appreciate those who are kind enough to help you. Prayers are given to you that you may awaken out of this drunken sleep and that you realize that you can wake up, even now….. and win…. you can do this baby.
Very sad. Hollywood eats them up, spits them out and steps over them all while forgetting their names. For the life of me I can not understand why anyone would want to be actor.
– I hope she finds her peace somehow.
when times are hard you find out who your family and friends really are . My family did not care .
Very very sad ! I hope she finds peace . I was homeless myself fo a short while . Feel for her
The article was basically well written, but why did the author of the article keep referring to the fact that Erin was smoking a cigarette, and that her husband was smoking a cigarette, as well? So what! Many people smoke cigarettes, it is nothing unusual.
Just flat out sad………..
Oh come on Jose! Why doesn’t he also help all of his other non-actor coworkers as well? A coworker is a coworker. I’m sure Ron gives to MORE WORTHY charities!! She had enough fame that she could have made a survivable living off appearances and the lawsuit. She just doesn’t know the first thing about living a conservative lifestyle.
That is disappointing that this is what celebrities end up with for all those years of long hours and hard work. Mr. Ron Howard, why not give your former TV show co-star a job on one of your pictures, and help her get back on her feet?
Is that Chachi?