Don Most Says In Real Life He Was ‘Closer to Richie Cunningham’ Than Ralph Malph in “Happy Days”

Virginia ChamleeTue, August 11, 2026 at 5:50 PM UTC

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Don MostCredit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty; Rachel Luna/Getty -

Don Most revealed he was more like Happy Days’ Richie Cunningham than Ralph Malph in real life

He said in a new interview that he enjoyed playing Ralph because it allowed him to explore a character different from himself

Most reunited with Anson Williams and Henry Winkler at Fan Expo San Francisco in November 2025

Happy Days star Don Most says he didn’t relate to his character on the show — and was instead much more like Richie Cunningham, played by Ron Howard.

Most, 73, played Ralph Malph on the show, which ran from 1974 to 1984 and followed the group of friends (plus Richie’s family) living in the Midwest in the 1950s and 1960s.

Speaking to radio station Yall 106. 5 in a recent interview surfaced by Parade, Most acknowledged, “I was not like Ralph Malph.”

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Ron Howard, Donny Most in Happy DaysCredit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

“When I was in high school, I was not the class comedian,” he said. “I was more the audience for some people I knew that fancied themselves as comedians.”

He continued: “I was closer to Richie Cunningham in real life than I was Ralph. But that’s what I loved playing this part, you know, getting — there’s freedom. There’s a certain freedom in that, where it’s not yourself, you’re somebody else and you could explore that and go anywhere.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Most said his character was originally written to be “almost a little bit cool.”

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“In the very beginning, he wasn’t one of Potsie and Richie’s best friends,” Most said. “He was a friend, but he was kind of the guy, he was almost a little bit cool. He had this great car, and you know, he was showing off his hickey in the pilot, you know, and so he was in a little different vein.”

Over time, though, producers had Most “become more and more friends with Potsie and Richie.”

Most and Howard both left after season seven.

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Last January, cast member Anson Williams opened up about his relationship with Howard, Most, and Henry Winkler, saying in an episode of the 9021OMG podcast, “We have been close friends for decades.”

“It’s just been a wonderful friendship. And just to have that kind of friendship that many years? It’s pretty unique,” he said., adding of the late producer who created Happy Days, “But that has a lot to do with Garry Marshall, our mentor.”

Williams said Marshall “really cared about us, not just as a showrunner, but as young people because we didn’t know much.”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”