Happy Days star Erin Moran dead at 56

Former Happy Days star Erin Moran has died at the age of 56.

Emergency services were called to an address in Indiana on Saturday afternoon (22Apr17) to attend to an "unresponsive female", but Moran was already dead by the time paramedics arrived, according to TMZ.com.

Her cause of death is pending an autopsy.

Moran was a child star, who began acting in commercials at the age of five. She also appeared in the 1968 movie How Sweet It Is!, opposite the late with Debbie Reynolds, but she became a household name in America in the late 1970s after landing the role of Joanie Cunningham on Garry Marshall's U.S. sitcom Happy Days. Moviemaker Ron Howard portrayed her onscreen brother.

Happy Days, which also featured Henry Winkler and Scott Baio, ran for 11 seasons until 1984. Erin also led spin-off show Joanie Loves Chachi, which followed her character's onscreen romance with her boyfriend, played by Baio. The series launched in 1982, but only lasted two seasons before ABC TV bosses cancelled the show due to poor ratings.

Moran later scored guest roles on shows like The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, and Diagnosis: Murder, and in 2007, she appeared in the independent comedy Not Another B Movie. She also appeared on TV show Daktari.

However, she struggled away from the screen, allegedly battling drinking problems, while tabloid reports in 2012 suggested she was broke and homeless after she and her husband, Steve Fleischmann, were kicked out of their trailer park home.