
First responders in Indiana found a woman identified as Erin Marie Moran Fleischmann dead around 4pm on Saturday after a 911 call said she was unresponsive, according to a Harrison County Sheriff’s Office statement.
“Upon the arrival, it was determined that the female was Erin Marie Moran-Fleischmann. First responders determined that she was deceased and an autopsy is pending,” CNN reported the department as saying in the statement.
Moran, then a budding teen actress, joined the “Happy Days” cast as the kid sister of Ron Howard’s Richie Cunningham. The popular show, set in the 1950s, ended in 1984 after an acclaimed 10-year run.
The actress revived her role as Joanie in the short-lived spinoff “Joanie Loves Chachi” with actor Scott Baio from 1982 to 1984.
More of Moran’s co-stars – Henry Winkler, who played Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli; and Don Most, who played the goofball character Ralph Malph – expressed their condolences on Twitter:
“OH Erin… now you will finally have the peace you wanted so badly here on earth,” Winkler wrote.
According to IMDb, Moran was born October 18, 1960, in Burbank, California, and her first professional acting gig was in a TV commercial.
She made regular appearances on the series “Daktari” in the late ’60s and “The Love Boat” in the ’80s. She made guest appearances on TV shows such as “The Waltons,” “My Three Sons” and “Gunsmoke.”