Tom Bosley won a Tony Award in 1958 for the lead role as New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in the Broadway musical Fiorello!. But Bosley is more often remembered for his role on the long-running TV show Happy Days (1974-1984). Bosley played Howard, the calm, good-natured father to goofy teen Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard). Bosley also starred as a mystery-solving priest in Father Dowling Mysteries (1987-1991) and played Sheriff Amos Tupper of Cabot Cove on another mystery series, Murder, She Wrote, from 1984-88. Bosley is an experienced voice actor, known mostly for his parts in the cartoons Wait Till Your Father Gets Home and David the Gnome.
Career Highlights: The World of Henry Orient, Night Gallery, Love with the Proper Stranger
First Major Screen Credit: Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)
Biography
While growing up in Chicago, Tom Bosley dreamed of becoming the star left-fielder for the Cubs. As it turned out, the closest Bosley got to organized athletics was a sportscasting class at DePauw University. After additional training at the Radio Institute of Chicago and two years' practical experience in various dramatic radio programs and stock companies, he left for New York in 1950. Five years of odd jobs and summer-theater stints later, he landed his first off-Broadway role, playing Dupont-Dufort in Jean Anouilh's Thieves' Carnival. Steadier work followed at the Arena Theatre in Washington, D.C.; then in 1959, Bosley landed the starring role in the Broadway musical Fiorello!, picking up a Tony Award, an ANTA Award, and the New York Drama Critics Award in the bargain. In 1963, he made his film bow as Natalie Wood's "safe and secure" suitor Anthony Colombo in Love With the Proper Stranger. Occasionally cast as two-bit criminals or pathetic losers (he sold his eyes to blind millionairess Joan Crawford in the Spielberg-directed Night Gallery TV movie), Bosley was most often seen as a harried suburban father. After recurring roles on such TV series as That Was the Week That Was, The Debbie Reynolds Show, and The Sandy Duncan Show, Bosley was hired by Hanna-Barbera to provide the voice of flustered patriarch Howard Boyle on the animated sitcom Wait Til Your Father Gets Home (1972-1973). This served as a dry run of sorts for his most famous series-TV assignment: Howard Cunningham, aka "Mr. C," on the immensely popular Happy Days (1974-1983). The warm, familial ambience of the Happy Days set enabled Bosley to weather the tragic death of his first wife, former dancer Jean Elliot, in 1978. In addition to his Happy Days duties, Bosley was narrator of the syndicated documentary That's Hollywood (1977-1981). From 1989 to 1991, he starred on the weekly series The Father Dowling Mysteries, and thereafter was seen on an occasional basis as down-to-earth Cabot Cove sheriff Amos Tupper on Murder, She Wrote. Reportedly as kind, generous, and giving as his Happy Days character, Tom Bosley has over the last 20 years received numerous honors for his many civic and charitable activities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Bosley's breakthrough stage role was New York mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia in the long-running Broadway musical Fiorello! in (1959), for which he won a Tony Award.[2] In 1994, he originated the role of Maurice in the Broadway version of Disney's Beauty & the Beast.
Among his early television appearances was in 1962 as Assistant District Attorney Ryan in the episode "The Man Who Wanted to Die" on James Whitmore's legal drama The Law and Mr. Jones on ABC.
Bosley's best known role is the character Howard Cunningham, Richie Cunningham's father, in the long-running sitcom Happy Days. Bosley is also known for portraying Sheriff Amos Tupper on Murder, She Wrote. He also portrayed the titular Father Frank Dowling on the TV mystery series, Father Dowling Mysteries. In 2004, Bosley guest starred as a toy maker named Ben-Ami on the series finale of the Christian video series K10C: Kids' Ten Commandments. Among myriad television appearances, one notable early performance was in the "Eyes" segment of the 1969 pilot episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Joan Crawford.
Also notable as a voice actor due to his resonant, fatherly yet expressive tone, Bosley hosted The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater, a 1977 radio drama series for children. He went on to voice many cartoon characters, including Harry Boyle in the animated series Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. He provided the voice of the title character in the 1980s cartoon The World of David the Gnome and the shop owner Mr. Winkle in the children's Christmas special The Tangerine Bear. He also narrated the movie documentary series That's Hollywood. Additionally, he played the narrator B.A.H. Humbug in the Rankin/Bass animated Christmas special The Stingiest Man In Town. Bosley was also the voice of Gepetto, Pinocchio's 'dad' in Filmation's Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, released in 1987. Bosley also starred in the 2008 Hallmark Channel television movie Charlie & Me.
In 1984, Bosley guest-hosted the "Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular" with local newscaster Pat Harper.[3]
He has endorsed Glad Trash Bags, D-Con, the IQ Computer and Sonic Drive-Ins, and currently is the spokesman for SMC (Specialty Merchandise Corporation).
