Don Most on AllMovie

An actor forever associated with his portrayal of Ralph Malph, the wisecracking redheaded pal of Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and The Fonz (Henry Winkler) on Happy Days, Don Most (also occasionally credited as Donny Most) grew up in Brooklyn, as the son of a homemaker and an accountant. He bowed on-camera at the age of 16 in an advertisement for Chex cereal, then -- midway through his enrollment at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania -- impulsively dropped out and high-tailed it to Hollywood, where he promptly landed the role of Malph. Most, who harbored serious acting ambitions, remained with the program from 1974 through 1980, four years before it folded; he would later recall that the part (popular though it was) typecast him for decades and made it virtually impossible for him to score weighty dramatic roles. Though the actor certainly tried, he succeeded mainly in supporting himself via residuals from Days and modest parts on-stage and in television. He then turned to directing in the late '90s, with occasional feature efforts such as The Last Best Sunday (1999) and Moola (2006).