“I’m very satisfied with the settlement. And that’s all I can say.” – Anson Williams commenting on the settlement of a lawsuit in which he and four other Happy Days cast members sued CBS for breach of contract on merchandising revenues.
Anson William Heimlich (later Heimlick) was born to Rosalind and Haskell Heimlich. His father later changed the family name to Heimlick. Haskell’s brother is Dr. Henry, Heimlich who developed the Heimlich maneuver, a method for treating choking victims.
On the 1950 census of Los Angeles, the Heimlick family lived at 377 N. Chicago St., in a neighborhood full of people “not at home.” In working on this project, I’ve come to the conclusion that Los Angeles must have always been undercounted in the census, because “not at home” is a rare result except in LA.
Anson’s father was an industrial designer at an oil company. Other occupations listed for neighbors who were at home include nurse, painter, and junk dealer.
Like most California censuses I’ve seen, there are few native Californians, two in this case including 6 month old Anson. There are five immigrants from Russia, two from Poland, and one each from Germany and Lithuania. There are only 22 names on the list.
Later life
Anson was captain of the track team at Burbank High School. He got his start in musical theater and appeared in a McDonalds commercial with John Amos. In 1972, he first appeared as his Potsie character in a Love American Style episode titled Love and the Happy Days which also featured Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham and Marion Ross as Marion Cunningham, and other characters. This was spun off into the show Happy Days, but Williams, Howard, and Ross were the only actors from the episode to move into the show.
More information about Happy Days
After Happy Days ended, Williams continued acting at times, but mainly switched to directing. He directed episodes in shows such as:
- Star trek – Deep Space 9
- Love Boat The Next Wave
- Beverly Hills 90210
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch
- Charmed
- Baywatch
- 7th Heaven
- Melrose Place
- The Profiler
He has more than twice as many directing credits than he has acting credits.
He opened a short-lived chain of diners with Happy Days cast member Al Molinaro Big Al’s, started a cosmetics company, and has written two books. He ran for mayor of Ojai, California, and lost by 42 votes out of over 3600 cast.
Other happenings on September 25, 1949:
- Moscow radio broadcast a statement by TASS acknowledging for the first time that the USSR had an atomic weapon. The statement added that “despite the existence in this country of an atomic weapon, this country adopts and intends to adopt in the future its former position in favor of prohibition of the atomic weapon.”
- During the early hours of the morning at the El Morocco nightclub in Manhattan, actor Humphrey Bogart allegedly shoved a woman to the floor for trying to snatch a 3-foot-high stuffed toy panda bear that he had bought for his son. Bogart later told the press that he had merely wrestled the panda back from the woman and that while she may have fallen down, “she looked as if she’d been drinking too many Coca-Colas.” An assault charge against Bogart was later dismissed.
- Born: Pedro Almodóvar, filmmaker, in Calzada de Calatrava, Spain
Tomorrow – A man who could never die because it would ruin his image
Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive each day’s entry in your email box.
Sources
- Wikipedia.org
- Ancestry.com
- Onthisday.com
- Picryl.com
- Youtube.com
Famous People and Their First Census 