‘Happy Days’ Star Marion Ross Turns 98 as Son Shares Rare Video of Mrs. C

Beloved Happy Days star Marion Ross just turned 98! The former Mrs. Cunningham celebrated this major milestone on October 25.

While Ross continued acting after Happy Days ended in 1984, guest starring in popular series such as MacGyver, The John Larroquette Show, Touched by an Angel, Nurse Jackie, The Middle, Two and a Half Men, and Hot in Cleveland, she stepped away from the spotlight and retired in 2018, according to People.

Even though the public hasn’t seen Ross in several years, her son, actor and comedian Jim Meskimen, recently shared a rare throwback clip on Instagram of Ross in honor of her birthday. In the hilariously sweet video, Meskimen helps his mother master the word “Poughkeepsie” for a voice audition.

Ross may have played a classic married stay-at-home mom on Happy Days, but in real life she was actually a single mom. In 2023, the impressionist talked to David J. Maloney on The Weekly Show podcast about his childhood: “I grew up in an environment where my mother, who became the iconic Mrs. C on Happy Days, but who was just a struggling actress most of my childhood. My mother raised me and my sister here, mostly as a single mom. My folks were divorced when I was eight. And she was a great, great mom. Very different from Mrs. C. I don’t really know anybody who was raised by Mrs. C. Although a whole generation of people think that they were raised by Mrs. C, which I find kind of amusing.”

He also opened up about looking back at his mother’s career and talked candidly about the importance of some of her earlier costars, such as Clark Gable and other Hollywood legends, and how his mother fit into the celeb life: “I mean she went to Humphrey Bogart’s house one time for a reading…But I did know by virtue of the fact that she was an actress and on TV, I did know that she was kind of special.”

Meskimen also talked about the early days of Happy Days, revealing, “It didn’t just sell and become a series. It actually languished for about a year, which is a pretty long time. And kind of died and got resuscitated with the success of American Graffiti, which also starred Ron Howard.”

The 67-year-old added, “I do remember watching the first episode when it was a proper series. And it was kind of cool. But no inkling that this would be the opening of the gateway of a whole new life. It continues to boggle the mind how much that series and that character, her character, mean to people still. And they still have a lot of love and affinity for what she represented.”