1. Al Molinaro played Al Delvecchio on Happy Days and Officer Murray Greshler on The Odd Couple.
22 Facts About Al Molinaro
1. 2.
Al Molinaro appeared in many television commercials, including On-Cor frozen dinners.
3.
Umberto Francesco Al Molinaro was born and raised in the Columbus Park neighborhood of Kenosha, Wisconsin, the second-youngest of ten children of Raffaele and Teresa Al Molinaro, who had emigrated from Marano Principato in the province of Cosenza, Calabria, Italy.
4.
In 1948, Al Molinaro married Jacquelin Martin, with whom he had a son, Michael.
5.
Al Molinaro moved to California working in odd jobs on the edge of the television industry, finally saving enough money to start his own collection agency.
6.
Al Molinaro eventually sold his business and became interested in southern California real estate speculation.
7.
Al Molinaro's investments paid off when one of his properties were purchased by a conglomerate which used the land to build a shopping mall which provided a windfall to launch a career in acting.
8.
Al Molinaro took an improvisation class, in which Penny Marshall was one of the other students.
9.
Al Molinaro did not merely play a cop walking the beat on 'The Odd Couple'.
10.
Al Molinaro used to walk the streets of New York City and loved it.
11.
In 1976, Garry Marshall hired Al Molinaro to replace Pat Morita on another sitcom he produced, Happy Days.
12.
For one episode, "My Favorite Orkan", it was Al Molinaro who suggested Robin Williams be cast when the original guest player, John Byner, declined the role and thus gave the young comedian his major opportunity to display his talent and become a major star.
13.
Al Molinaro left Happy Days in 1982, when tapped by Garry Marshall to play the Al Delvecchio role on the short-lived Happy Days spin-off Joanie Loves Chachi.
14.
Al Molinaro starred in a failed TV pilot called The Ugily Family as the patriarch of an unattractive clan who is constantly correcting mispronunciations of his surname as "ugly".
15.
Al Molinaro revealed in 1990 that he declined acting roles in movies offered to him by Garry Marshall.
16.
Al Molinaro was proud of his role on Happy Days and defended its anachronistic look as authentic and a genuine show that did not sentimentalize the past.
17.
Al Molinaro was a frequent guest on the Don and Mike Show, a nationally syndicated radio show that aired from 1985 to 2008.
18.
Al Molinaro reprised his role as Al Delvecchio from Happy Days in Weezer's 1994 music video of the song "Buddy Holly", which was set in Arnold's diner.
19.
Al Molinaro retired from acting in television and films in the early 1990s, but has appeared in TV commercials until the early 2000s.
20.
Al Molinaro appeared in 42 commercials for On-Cor frozen foods between 1987 and 2003.
21.
Al Molinaro starred in television advertisements for Cortaid hydrocortisone cream and Mr Big paper products.
22.
Al Molinaro died of complications from an infected gallbladder at a hospital in Glendale, California on October 30,2015, at the age of 96.