Tom Bosley
Bosley in September 1960
Born	Thomas Edward Bosley (1927-10-01)October 1, 1927 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	October 19, 2010(2010-10-19) (aged 83) Rancho Mirage, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Lake View High School
Alma mater	DePaul University
Occupations	Actor TV personality entertainer
Years active	1955–2010
Known for	Fiorello!
Television	Happy Days Murder, She Wrote Father Dowling Mysteries
Spouses	Jean Eliot ​ ​ (m. 1962; died 1978)​ Patricia Carr ​ (m. 1980)​
Children	1
Awards	Tony Award
Signature

Thomas Edward Bosley (October 1, 1927 – October 19, 2010) was an American actor, television personality and entertainer. Bosley is best known for portraying Howard Cunningham on the ABC sitcom Happy Days (1974–1984) for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series nomination. Bosley also did a variety of voiceover work such as playing the lead character in the animated series Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, and the narrator of the syndicated film history documentary series That's Hollywood. He's also known for his role as Sheriff Amos Tupper in the Angela Lansbury lead CBS mystery series Murder, She Wrote (1984–1988), and as the title character in the NBC/ABC series Father Dowling Mysteries (1989–1991).

Known for his work on stage, he originated the role of Fiorello La Guardia in the Broadway musical Fiorello!,^[1] earning the 1960 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. He's also known for his film appearances in Love with the Proper Stranger (1963), The World of Henry Orient (1964), Divorce American Style (1967), Yours, Mine and Ours, The Secret War of Harry Frigg (both 1968), Gus (1976), and The Back-up Plan (2010).

Bosley made his television debut as the Knave of Hearts in the NBC adaptation of Alice in Wonderland in 1955. He gained attention as a character actor performing various roles in shows such as Naked City, Profiles in Courage, The Defenders, Night Gallery, Get Smart, Bewitched, and Mission: Impossible.

Early life

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Bosley was the son of Dora (née Heyman) and Benjamin Bosley.^[2] Although well known for playing a Catholic priest and Protestant patriarchs, Bosley was actually Jewish.^[3][4]

He attended Lake View High School in Chicago, and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. While attending DePaul University in Chicago in 1947, he made his stage debut in Our Town with the Canterbury Players at the Fine Arts Theatre. Bosley performed at the Woodstock Opera House in Woodstock, Illinois, in 1949 and 1950 alongside Paul Newman.

Career

Early roles and stage roles

Bosley played the Knave of Hearts in a Hallmark Hall of Fame telecast of Eva Le Gallienne's production of Alice in Wonderland in 1955. But his breakthrough stage role was New York mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia in the long-running Broadway musical Fiorello! (1959),^[1] for which he won a Tony Award.^[5]

Bosley as George W. Norris in the television anthology Profiles in Courage, 1965

Among his early television appearances was in 1960 on the CBS summer replacement series, Diagnosis: Unknown, with Patrick O'Neal. In 1962, he portrayed Assistant District Attorney Ryan in the episode "The Man Who Wanted to Die" on James Whitmore's ABC legal drama The Law and Mr. Jones. Also in 1962, Bosley played Teddy opposite Tony Randall and Boris Karloff in Arsenic & Old Lace for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. About this time, he was a guest star on the NBC police sitcom, Car 54, Where Are You?. In June 1964, he appeared on the satirical television comedy revue, That Was the Week That Was.^[6]

He also appeared on episodes of Bonanza, Bewitched, Get Smart, The Silent Force, The Streets of San Francisco, Night Gallery, A Touch of Grace, and The Love Boat. In 1969, Bosley appeared in a comical episode of The Virginian, titled "Crime Wave in Buffalo Springs," appearing alongside fellow guest-stars James Brolin, Yvonne De Carlo, Carrie Snodgress, Gary Vinson, with Virginian regulars David Hartman and Doug McClure.

Bosley's first motion picture role was in 1963, as the would-be suitor of Natalie Wood in Love with the Proper Stranger. Other films include The World of Henry Orient; Divorce American Style; Yours, Mine and Ours; Gus and the made-for-television The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal. Bosley shared a heartfelt story about his own experience with the Holocaust in the documentary film Paper Clips.

In 1994, he originated the role of Maurice in the Broadway version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Bosley toured as Cap'n Andy in Harold Prince's 1994 revival of Show Boat.^[5]

Endorsements

Tom Bosley as Benjamin Franklin in 1979

From the 1950s through the 1990s, Bosley appeared in numerous television commercials including Studebaker automobiles(1956), and Glad sandwich and garbage bags. He appeared in radio commercials for the new Saturn car company, a "different kind of car company," in 1990. Later in life, he was the television spokesman for SMC (Specialty Merchandise Corporation), a national wholesaler and drop shipper.^[8]

Bosley was a spokesman for YES Entertainment Network, Inc., a fraudulent internet firm scheme that defrauded $13 million from investors around the country in the late 1990s. ^[9]

Death

Bosley died from complications of a staph infection on October 19, 2010, at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, near his home in Palm Springs, California.^[10] His agent, Sheryl Abrams, said Bosley had been battling lung cancer.^[10][11] He was survived by his wife, former actress Patricia Carr, and daughter Amy Bosley Baer, who married Matthew Baer, son of Richard Baer.^[12]

Happy Days lawsuit

On April 19, 2011, Bosley's estate and four of his Happy Days co-stars, Erin Moran, Don Most, Marion Ross, and Anson Williams, filed a $10 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS, which owns the show, claiming they had not been paid for merchandising revenues owed under their contracts. The cast members claimed they had not received revenues from show-related items, including comic books, T-shirts, scrapbooks, trading cards, games, lunchboxes, dolls, toy cars, magnets, greeting cards, and DVDs where their images appear on the box covers. Under their contracts, they were supposed to be paid five percent from the net proceeds of merchandising if their sole image were used, and half that amount if they were in a group. CBS said it owed the actors $8,500 and $9,000 each, most of it from slot machine revenues, but the group said they were owed millions. The lawsuit was initiated after Ross was informed by a friend playing slots at a casino of a "Happy Days" machine on which players win the jackpot when five Marion Cunninghams (Ross's character on Happy Days) are rolled.^[13]

In October 2011, a judge rejected the group's fraud claim, which if proved could have garnered them millions of dollars in punitive damages, above and beyond any actual damages proven.^[14] On June 5, 2012, a judge denied a motion filed by CBS to have the case thrown out, which meant it would go to trial on July 17 if the matter was not settled by then.^[15] In July 2012, the actors settled their lawsuit with CBS. Each received a payment of $65,000 and a promise by CBS to continue honoring the terms of their contracts.^[16][17]

Filmography and stage roles

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Tom Bosley at IMDb
• Tom Bosley at the TCM Movie Database
• Tom Bosley at the Internet Broadway Database
• Tom Bosley at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Tom Bosley at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Tom Bosley at Find a Grave