Erin Moran, best known for playing Joanie Cunningham on Happy Days, has died. She was 56.
According to TMZ, Moran's body was found unresponsive on Saturday afternoon by authorities in Indiana.
The California-born actress, who also starred in Happy Days spinoff Joanie Loves Chachi, had fallen on hard times in recent years.
She was reportedly kicked out of her trailer park home in Indiana, along with her husband Steve Fleischmann, and was subsequently living out of a motel, the Holiday Inn, in Corydon, battling substance abuse.
"On April 22, 2017 at approximately 4.07pm, the Harrison County Sheriffs Department received a 911 call that referenced an unresponsive female," the Harrison County Sheriffs Department in Harrison County told E! News in a statement.
"Upon the arrival of first responders, it was determined that Erin Marie Moran Fleischmann was deceased and an autopsy is pending."
Erin was going through marital troubles and told to leave the trailer by her mother-in-law, who was tired of her "hard-partying ways", reported RadarOnline.com.
She had already lost her Californian house to foreclosure and was reportedly living on a dwindling sum of money from her lawsuit against CBS.
Moran was 14 years old when she signed on to play Ron Howard's sister and eventually Scott Baio's love interest on Happy Days, which aired from 1974 to 1984.
According to Variety, Moran and three of her Happy Days co-stars – Anson Williams (Potsie), Marion Ross (Richie's mother Marion), Don Most (Ralph) – and the widow of Tom Bosley filed a $US10 million lawsuit against CBS, claiming they never received merchandise royalties owed under their contracts.
The 2012 case was later settled out of court. Henry Winkler, who played the Fonz, and Howard were never part of the lawsuit.
She went on to make smaller television appearances on Murder, She Wrote, The Bold and The Beautiful and The Love Boat.
