Tom Bosley of "Happy Days" and "Murder She Wrote" is Dead at 83

LOS ANGELES (CBS/ AP) Updated 3:46 p.m. EST

Tom Bosley, whose long acting career was highlighted by his hugely popular role as the understanding father on the top-rated 1970s comedy series "Happy Days" and his portrayal of Sheriff Amos Tucker on "Murder, She Wrote," died Tuesday. He was 83.

Bosley died of heart failure at a hospital near his Palm Springs home. Bosley's agent, Sheryl Abrams, said he was also battling lung cancer.

TV Guide ranked Bosley's patient, understanding father on "Happy Days,'' as No. 9 on its list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" in 2004. The show debuted in 1974 and ran for 11 seasons.

When he was first offered the costarring role in "Happy Days," a series about teenage life in the 1950s, he turned it down.

"After rereading the pilot script," he recalled in a 1986 interview, "I changed my mind because of a scene between Howard Cunningham and Richie. The father/son situation was written so movingly, I fell in love with the project."

Bosley and Henry Winkler, who played Arthur "Fonzi" Fonzarelli, were the only two characters who appeared in every episode of the series. Bosley was nominated for an Emmy for the role in 1978.

After "Happy Days" ended, Bosley went on to a recurring role in "Murder, She Wrote" as Sheriff Amos Tucker, who was often outsmarted by Angela Lansbury's mystery writer, Jessica Fletcher.

His own series, "The Father Dowling Mysteries," ran from 1989 to 1991. The avuncular Father Frank Dowling was assisted in his detective work by nun Sister Steve, played by Tracy Nelson.

Although "Happy Days" brought him his widest fame, Bosley was also trained as a stage actor and won the 1960 Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Musical) for playing the title role of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in "Fiorello!"

For two years, Bosley stopped the show every night when he sang in several languages, depicting La Guardia during the years the future mayor worked at New York's Ellis Island, aiding arriving immigrants.

After failing to duplicate his success in "Fiorello!," Bosley moved to Hollywood in 1968. He would not return to Broadway until 1994 when he originated the role of Belle's father, Maurice, in Disney's production of "Beauty and the Beast."

In Hollywood, the rotund character actor found steady work appearing in the occasional movie and as a regular on weekly TV shows starring Debbie Reynolds, Dean Martin, Sandy Duncan and others.

During the 1990s, Bosley toured in "Beauty and the Beast" and "Show Boat," playing Captain Andy in the latter.

Bosley made only a handful of theatrical movies. Among them: "Love With the Proper Stranger," ''Divorce American Style," ''The Secret War of Henry Frigg," ''Yours, Mine and Ours."

Born in Chicago on Oct. 1, 1927, Bosley served in the Navy before returning to his hometown to study at De Paul University. Intrigued with acting, he enrolled at the Radio Institute of Chicago and began appearing in radio dramas. He made his theatrical debut in a production of "Golden Boy."

After moving to New York, he studied at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg.

After making his off-Broadway debut in "Thieves Highway" in 1955, he struggled to find other acting jobs, supporting himself as a temporary office worker, a doorman at Central Park's Tavern on the Green and a hat checker at Lindy's deli.

Then came "Fiorello!" in 1959.

Bosley married dancer Jean Eliot in 1962 and the couple had one child, Amy. Two years after his wife's death in 1978, Bosley married actress-producer Patricia Carr, who had three daughters from a previous marriage.