Once a Hollywood starlet, Marion Ross found stardom in maturity as the good-hearted Marion Cunningham on the long-running sitcom "Happy Days" (ABC, 1974-84), then proved her acting mettle as the Yiddish-accented grandmother on the short-lived but critically-acclaimed series "Brooklyn Bridge" (CBS, 1991-93).
Sweet-looking, Ross actually began in Hollywood on the 1953-55 series "Life With Father", based on the Broadway play. She made her feature film debut in "Forever Female" (1953) at Paramount, which she joined during the very waning days of the studio system. She was a nun in both "Lust for Life" (1956) and "Some Came Running" (1958), did a nice comedy turn in "Operation Petticoat" (1959), as a lieutenant/nurse, and stole her moments from Clark Gable and Doris Day in "Teacher's Pet" (1958). By 1961, she was back on TV as Gertrude Berg's daughter in "The Gertrude Berg Show" (Or "Mrs. G. Goes to college"), and spent the 1963-64 season as the school nurse on "Mr. Novak"--all very supporting roles. In fact, Ross' career might not have added up to a trivia question had it not been for her casting in an episode of "Love American Style" in 1972 called "Love and the Happy Days." She was the mother of a teen (Ron Howard) and married to the father in a continuous state of consternation (Harold Gould). When the segment was turned into a series called "Happy Days" in 1974, Gould was replaced by Tom Bosley, but Ross remained. She brought 50s-era "everything will be fine" sensibility to the role of Richie Cunningham's mother, the only character who called 'The Fonz' by his birth name, 'Arthur'. (Howard later cast Ross in his 1977 feature directorial debut, "Grand Theft, Auto" 1977).
After the demise of "Happy Days", Ross joined ABC's "The Love Boat", appearing in two-hour specials as the wife of Gavin MacLeod's Captain Steubing. Her career then slipped into guest appearances until she was surprisingly cast as the very powerful grandmother in "Brooklyn Bridge", for which she was nominated for a Best Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy.
Ross also occasionally appeared in TV-movies and other dramas. She made her first telefilm, "Any Second Now" (NBC) in 1969 and also appeared in "Sins of the Father" (NBC, 1985). In 1987, she starred as a mother who would not let her Downs Syndrome son be treated differently in "The Kid Who Wouldn't Quit: The Brad Silverman Story," an ABC children's special.
While Ross' Broadway work has been limited to a production of "Edwin Booth" and a 1987 revival of "Arsenic and Old Lace" joining Jean Stapleton as the aunts, she has appeared in numerous stage productions elsewhere. Ross was Amanda in a production of "The Glass Menagerie" at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1990, and performs occasionally in a one-woman show based on the work of Edna St. Vincent Millay entitled "A Lovely Light".
In 1996, Ross returned to the big screen with a meaty supporting role as Shirley MacLaine's housekeeper in Robert Harling's "The Evening Star" (1996).
Copyright © Baseline 2005.