Tom Bosley dead at 83

The actor played a lovable father figure on Happy Days for 11 seasons.

In recent months Bosley had been battling lung cancer, and he died at 4 am this morning of heart failure. He was best known for playing Howard Cunningham on the hit 1970s sitcom Happy Days, but also portrayed Sherriff Amos Tucker on Murder, She Wrote and a crime-solving priest on the Father Dowling Mysteries. Despite playing a Catholic priest and a protestant patriarch, Bosley was Jewish. He was born in Chicago in 1927. His last major role was in the Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy the Back-up Plan. He’s survived by his wife Patricia and his daughter Amy.