The Irish actor who portrayed Ron Howard's onscreen brother Chuck Cunningham on the Garry Marshall-created sitcom has recently passed away at the age of 70.
- November 13, 2021
AceShowbiz - "Happy Days" actor Gavan O'Herlihy has died, aged 70.
The Irish actor played big brother Chuck Cunningham on the hit TV show.
He died on 15 September in Bath, England, according to his brother, Cormac, who tells The Hollywood Reporter the actor's death was not related to COVID-19.
O'Herlihy kicked off his acting career in Robert Altman's 1978 film "A Wedding" and his credits include "Death Wish 3", mini-series "Lonesome Dove", and James Bond film "Never Say Never Again", in which he played bad guy Jack Petachi.
He also appeared in 1988's "Willow", the fantasy film directed by his TV brother Ron Howard.
Gavan appeared in seven episodes of "Happy Days" during the first season of the show. He replaced Ric Carrott, who played the character in the pilot.
"I pulled out of it, I didn't want to do it," he once said. "They had me at college, I was going to grunt and bounce a basketball once every couple of weeks for probably three or four years. And at 20 years old, that's not the gig you want to be doing. But that was my big break; that got me established around town as a kid who got hot in a hurry."
He was replaced by Randolph Roberts for two episodes of season two.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Gavan was a champion tennis player as a teenager, raised in Malibu, California and Dublin, where he attended Trinity College and the Abbey Theatre School.
His TV credits in the U.S. and U.K. included "The Bionic Woman", "Matt Houston", "Star Trek: Voyager", "Rich Man, Poor Man", "We'll Meet Again", and "Twin Peaks".
