5 Things You Never Knew About ‘Happy Days’ Star Marion Ross

Marion Ross, best known as Marion Cunningham, the perfect sitcom mother on Happy Days, was born 96 years ago today, on Oct. 25, 1928. While her stand-out role was on Happy Days, Ross starred in a plethora of other shows and movies throughout her long career, including Sabrina; Operation Petticoat; The Outer Limits; Love, American Style; The Evening Star; Grand Theft Auto; Pearl; Gilmore Girls; and many, many more.

In honor of her special day, let’s learn a little more about the woman who is so much more than Richie Cunningham’s mom.

1. She changed her name at age 13

FRONT ROW CENTER, Marion Ross, 'Dinner At Eight,' aired June 1, 1955

Everett Collection

Born Marian Ellen Ross, she changed the spelling of her first name to “Marion” at 13, because she aspired to become a famous actress and felt it would look better on a marquee. Ross made her film debut in 1953’s Forever Female and her TV debut the same year in Life With Father. It took her over 20 years to land her biggest role on Happy Days in 1974.

2. Her last role was as a cartoon grandmother

Ross lent her voice to the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon as Grandma SquarePants. While she retired in 2018, she occasionally voices the character, as seen in a 2023 TikTok video posted by her son Jim Meskimen.

3. She studied archaeology

Paramount/Everett Collection

While Ross always wanted to be an actress and pursued it during her school years, she also attended San Diego State University in the 1940s and majored in archaeology.

4. She was broke before Happy Days

Everett Collection

While Ross worked fairly steadily throughout the ’50s and ’60s, she mostly secured mostly smaller roles, which came with small paychecks. After she divorced her first husband, Freeman Meskimen, in 1969, she found herself fairly broke.

Luckily, she was soon cast in Happy Days, which became one of the biggest television shows of the ’70s and beyond. Ross appeared in every single episode of the show — all 255 of them! She once shared that her favorite episode of the series was a Season 3 episode called “Dance Contest.” Do you remember it?

5. She didn’t get along with her TV husband at first

HAPPY DAYS, Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, 1974-1984

Everett Collection

While Ross and Tom Bosley played husband and wife on Happy Days, they weren’t feeling the love initially. They reportedly didn’t get along at first, but found a friendship as the series went on. They remained friends and even worked together a few additional times before he died on Oct. 19, 2010.