page_title: Marion Ross
section_title: Recent roles, 1996–2018
hierarchical_section_title: Marion Ross / Career / Recent roles, 1996–2018
caption_attribution_description: Marion Ross on the red carpet at the 1992 Emmy Awards - Permission granted to copy, publish, broadcast or post but please credit "photo by Alan Light" if you can
context_page_description: Marion Eileen Ross is a retired American actress. Her best-known role is that of Marion Cunningham on the ABC television sitcom Happy Days, on which she starred from 1974 to 1984 and received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Before her success on Happy Days, Ross appeared in a variety of film roles, appearing in The Glenn Miller Story, Sabrina, Lust for Life, Teacher's Pet, Some Came Running, Operation Petticoat, and Honky, as well as several minor television roles, one of which was on television’s The Lone Ranger. Ross also starred in The Evening Star, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.
  Since the 1990s, Ross has been known for voice-over work on animated television series such as King of the Hill and SpongeBob SquarePants among others and recurring roles on The Drew Carey Show, Gilmore Girls and Brothers & Sisters and guest spots.
context_section_description: In 1996, she starred as housekeeper Rosie Dunlop opposite Shirley MacLaine in The Evening Star, a sequel to Terms of Endearment. Despite panning the film, New York Times critic Janet Maslin enthused that, "Marion Ross does a warm, sturdy job as the devoted housekeeper who has been kept too long under Aurora's wing." She went on to be nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
  Ross had a recurring role on Touched by an Angel as a homeless woman and was in the final two episodes which closed the series. Additionally, she played a secretly ill mother  in "The Cat", an episode of Early Edition that first aired in April 1997. She had recurring roles as Drew Carey's mother on The Drew Carey Show (during one episode of which she was referred to as her Happy Days character Mrs. Cunningham, a deliberate error for a contest the show was running); as mean grandmother Bernice Forman on That '70s Show; and as Lorelai "Trix" Gilmore and Marilyn Gilmore on Gilmore Girls. She also frequently appeared on Hollywood Squares.
  During the 1990s, Ross became active in voice-over work. She played Ms. Wakefield on the Fox animated series King of the Hill, Grandma SquarePants on Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, Crane's mother on Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness and Mrs. Lopart on Handy Manny. She also guest-starred on The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, The Wild Thornberrys, and Generator Rex.
  In 2007, Ross appeared in Music Within. In 2007 and 2010, she played Ida Holden on ABC's Brothers & Sisters. In June 2008, the Albert Lea Civic Theater in Albert Lea, Minnesota changed its name to the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center. That year, Ross played Aunt Lucille in the film Superhero Movie, and in 2009 she appeared in a guest spot on The New Adventures of Old Christine.
  In 2010, Ross guest-starred on Nurse Jackie and Grey's Anatomy, and appeared in the Cartoon Network television film Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster as Mrs. Trowburg. In 2013, she guest-starred on both Major Crimes and The Middle, and in 2014 on Two and a Half Men. In September 2015, she began making brief appearances on MeTV to share her memories of her Happy Days co-stars.
  In 2018, Ross announced that she had officially retired from acting.
caption: Ross at the 1992 Emmy Awards
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