Are Happy Days finally ahead for Pinky Tuscadero?
Actress Roz Kelly, who achieved everlasting rerun fame as
Fonzie’s car-rally love in a very special guest spot on the
1970s sitcom, was sentenced in Southern California to
three years' probation for spraying her neighborhood with
bullets in a car alarm-inspired rampage.
Thus brought an end to a painful (and bizarre) episode that
threatened to put the one time tube icon in prison for more than
one year if convicted on the felony charge.
As it is, Kelly, 56, has been in one form of custody
(police) or the other (psychiatric care) since being arrested
last November 29 on charges she, um, shot up a house and a
couple of cars near her North Hollywood, California, home with
a 12-gauge shotgun. It was not immediately known if the
erstwhile Pinky had finally been set free.
In addition to probation, Kelly was ordered to undergo
psychiatric counseling and make good financially with the
neighbor whose home she pumped full of lead. (No word yet on
the dollar amount there.)
Kelly pleaded no contest to the house-shooting count last
July 22. It was part of a plea-bargain deal with prosecutors
who, in turn, agreed to drop the car-shooting charge.
In the courtroom, Kelly was as much a spitfire as she was in
her neighborhood. During one pretrial hearing, the ex-TV star
demanded to be named her own legal counsel--she wound up being
ordered to undergo a competency hearing instead.
In an interview with the Star tabloid, Kelly sounded regret
that she went "Annie Oakley" (her words) with her shotgun, but
said a really annoying car alarm, not to mention chronic knee
pain, pushed her over the edge.
Kelly played Pinky Tuscadero in just three 1976 episodes of
Happy Days. The episodes remain, however, her most memorable
work. Recent TV appearances include a 1996 bit on Judge Judy as
herself: Roz Kelly, plaintiff. The actress complained a leaky
silicone breast implant was ruining her career.
Not unlike a really annoying car alarm.
