What Happened to This Young Actress From ‘Happy Days’ Is Just So Sad

When Kathy O’Dare appeared alongside her Happy Days costar Ron Howard on the cover of TV Guide Magazine in 1974, it was a pretty darn big deal for the then-16-year-old actress.

Opening up the magazine and looking at the original description of the Happy Days series premiere episode, it’s hard to tell whether or not Kathy’s character, the blonde bombshell Mary Lou Mulligan, was going to recur on the show. But given her TV Guide Magazine cover, along her stellar performance during that very first episode, you’ve got to think that Kathy was hopeful that she might have a future on the program.