Background and career
Anson Williams (born Anson William Heimlich; September 25, 1949) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as gullible, well-intentioned singer Warren "Potsie" Weber on the television series Happy Days (1974–1984), a role for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. Williams has since become a prominent television director, working on programs such as Melrose Place (1992–1999), Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990–2000), Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996–2003), Lizzie McGuire (2001–2004), and The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008–2013).
Williams was born Anson William Heimlich to a Jewish family. His father, Haskell Heimlich, legally changed the spelling of the family name to "Heimlick", unlike Williams's father's cousin, Dr. Henry Heimlich, namesake of the Heimlich maneuver for treating choking victims. Williams lived in Burbank, California and attended Burbank High School, where he was captain of the track team and acted in multiple school productions.
In 1971, Williams appeared in the Sherman Brothers' original musical, Victory Canteen, at the Ivar Theater in Los Angeles. That year he also appeared with John Amos in a commercial for McDonald's. In 1972, Williams portrayed Potsie Weber in a segment of the comedy-anthology series Love, American Style titled "Love and the Happy Days", which also introduced Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard), Richie's mother Marion (Marion Ross), and other characters who were spun off into the television series Happy Days. (Only Williams, Howard, and Ross reprised their roles). The new series' first season, during which Williams received second billing after Howard, was centered mainly on Richie and Potsie. Eventually, as breakout character Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler) and Richie's mother, father, and sister became more popular, Potsie was joined by Ralph Malph (Don Most, who was merely a side character in season one), and Potsie and Ralph became inseparable.
Unlike Howard and Most, Williams was one of the few to remain through the entire run of the series, although his appearances became less frequent in later seasons. In some episodes, Richie, Potsie, and Ralph formed a band combo that performed at Arnold's Drive-In and other places. As Potsie, Williams actually sang lead vocals for the group. Williams's first wife, Lorrie Mahaffey, portrayed Potsie's girlfriend, Jennifer, in later seasons. In 1977, during his run on "Happy Days" Williams recorded and released a single, "Deeply" which peaked at #93 on the Hot 100. After Happy Days, Williams began a much more prolific career as a television director and producer. He served as producer for the 1980 TV movie Skyward, directed by his Happy Days co-star Ron Howard and starring screen icon Bette Davis. Williams went on to direct various short programs for adolescent-age children, including afterschool specials "No Greater Gift" (1985) and "The Drug Knot" (1986), and TV-movie Lone Star Kid (1986). He has gone on to direct many episodes for a variety of television series, including The Pretender, Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, seaQuest 2032, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Charmed. He also directed several episodes of the TV series 7th Heaven. Despite his success as a director and producer, Williams has occasionally returned to his work on Happy Days in retrospective ways. He played himself in a 1996 Happy Days-themed Boy Meets World episode (which also featured former castmates Tom Bosley and Pat Morita). While directing a 2003 episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch titled "Sabrina in Wonderland", he appeared as Potsie in a fantasy sequence. He also joined his fellow Happy Days cast members for two reunion specials: The Happy Days Reunion Special (1992) and Happy Days: 30th Anniversary Reunion (2005). Williams initially objected to footage of Potsie appearing in Weezer's 1994 music video for "Buddy Holly", which is set in Arnold's Drive-In from Happy Days, but he later relented. Williams is also a businessman. In 1987, he and fellow Happy Days cast member Al Molinaro opened a chain of diners called Big Al's; however the business lasted only a short time. He founded Starmaker Products, a cosmetics company, and was a featured speaker at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's National Trademark Expo in 2008, where he discussed the importance of registered trademarks for small businesses and signed autographs for Happy Days fans. Williams is the author of Singing to a Bulldog: From Happy Days to Hollywood Director, and the Unlikely Mentor Who Got Me There. As of July 2023, Williams and his wife, memoirist Sharon MaHarry, who had married in May, were collaborating on a one woman stage play based on her book, Crazy Mama: A Memoir of Love and Madness, which depicts a character growing up with a mother who has struggled with mental illness, which won the 2014 Southwest Writers Competition and Santa Barbara Writers Conference Fiction Award.
Williams' first wife was Lorrie Mahaffey, whom he met on the set of Happy Days. They were divorced in 1986, and had one daughter. Williams then married Jackie Gerkin. He filed for divorce in 2019, but later filed a motion to have that previous filing dismissed in October of that year. He then filed again in 2020. They have four children. Around 2010, Williams met memoirist and real estate broker Sharon MaHarry, when she sold him his house in Ojai, California. Williams also helped her regain the ability to walk as she recovered from a serious back injury, and as she mourned the loss of her husband of 35 years to cancer. They subsequently began a relationship, which Williams characterized by saying, "the first few months of the relationship was healing." MaHarry commented that the relationship "first healed a body then a heart." They eventually moved into a home in Ojai, California. On May 6, 2023, the couple married in their backyard in what they called a "very untraditional" ceremony. Williams' Happy Days co-star Don Most served as best man. Commenting on getting married at age 73, Williams said, "At this age, to be able to find that kind of full connection for the first time, and what that means — it's a miracle. I would trade my stardom, notoriety, all that bologna for Sharon in a minute. There's no age limit on being loved. There's no age limit on living life fully." Williams was diagnosed with colon cancer in December 2016 and had two surgeries. He spent three weeks in the hospital but made a full recovery.
On July 7, 2022, Williams announced that he would be running for mayor of Ojai, California. He lost to incumbent mayor Betsey Stix by 42 votes, with Williams receiving 1,781 votes to Stix’s 1,823.
