Celebrity Nooz: Don Most

Don Most (Actor) - Happy Days

Updated: 8/16/23

Name: Don Most

Birth Name: Donald Most

Born: August 8, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, USA

Nickname: Ralph Malph

Claim To Fame: Don Most is an American actor and singer, best known for his role as Ralph Malph on the television series Happy Days.

Family Life: Most married actress Morgan Hart in 1982. They have two daughters.

Info: Born to a Jewish family.

Graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in 1970.

He attended Lehigh University for three years from 1970 to 1973, intending to study engineering, but did not graduate. Instead, he landed the Ralph Malph role on his third audition and moved to California to pursue acting full-time.

Was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity.

Friends with Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, and Anson Williams.

In 2011, Williams and four of his Happy Days co-stars, Erin Moran, Don Most, Marion Ross and the estate of Tom Bosley, who died in 2010, filed a $10 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS, which owns the show, claiming they had not been paid for merchandising revenues owed under their contracts. In July 2012, the actors settled their lawsuit with CBS. Each received a payment of $65,000 and a promise by CBS to continue honoring the terms of their contracts.

Trivia: He is sometimes credited as "Donny Most".

Most appeared on the 113th and final filmed but never aired episode of Room 222, entitled "Jason and Big Mo", in the role of Louie, the red-headed class wisecracker.

Most's most memorable role was that of jokester Ralph Malph on Happy Days, regularly appearing up until the show's 7th season and returned in the final season as a guest star.

During the first season Most was more of a secondary character, billed only in the end credits, but by the second season he was front billed, as a primary character. Most has appeared in other film and television work.

During his time on the show, Marion Ross become his acing mentor when he was 20. He credits her with his success as an actor.

Most also performed vocals in several episodes of Happy Days, where Ralph was part of a band with Potsie Weber (Anson Williams) and Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard), and later Chachi Arcola (Scott Baio). Although Most primarily sang backup vocals (with Williams handling lead), he did sing solo on several occasions, most notably the episodes "They Shoot Fonzies, Don't They" and "Be My Valentine."

At one point it was discussed that he and Anson Williams would have their own spin-off series centering on their Happy Days (1974) characters Ralph and Potsie, but it never materialized.

United Artists released Most's only pop album, Donny Most, in the fall of 1976; it did not chart. A single from the album, "All Roads (Lead Back to You)" b/w "Better to Forget Her" (aided by Most performing it on an episode of Happy Days) spent three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1976, peaking at #97; a second single, "One of These Days", was released as a promo to record stations only.

He also sang the song "Devil Take Me" in the episode "Rock Devil Rock" (Season 6 Episode 4) of the TV Show CHiP's.

Most released two other pop singles, "Here's Some Love" b/w "I'm Gonna Love Loving You" on the Venture label in 1978 and "I Only Want What's Mine", from the soundtrack of the film Leo and Loree (which starred Most and occasional Happy Days co-star Linda Purl) on Casablanca Records in 1980; neither record charted.

Most performed as a voice actor on several Saturday morning cartoon series. Among these roles were: Ralph Malph on The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang (1980); Eric the Cavalier in Dungeons & Dragons (1983); and Stiles on Teen Wolf (1986-1989).

As of 2016, Most has switched to swing music, and released a Christmas CD, Swinging Down The Chimney Tonight on Summit Records; as of 2017, he was touring the U.S. in a show called "Donny Most Sings and Swings", performing a set of 1950s songs with a seven-piece backing band.

In 2017, Most has also made stage appearances in plays like The Sunshine Boys with Robert Wuhl at Judson Theatre Company.

The songs "Ooo Baby Baby" and "Smoke from a Distant Fire" were released in 2021, with plans to release a new, full length album sometime in the near future.

In 2021, Most had a hand in both directing and producing the TV Series Viral Vignettes.

Where Are They Now: Most is quite busy these days. He has several projects in the works which include the television series Puckheads, the family drama Unsung Hero (in post-production), the crime film The Criminal Kind, the western Six Bullets to White Rock, the sci-fi film Horizon, and the action-drama Harsens Island Revenge; the last four are all in pre-production.

View other 'Where Are They Now' celebrities

Read the latest issue of Celebrity Nooz

Subscribe!