NEED TO KNOW
Happy Days star Anson Williams is shedding light on how the show helped propel the success of the Heimlich maneuver — which was created by his second cousin.
Williams, who played Potsie Weber on the series, took to Facebook in January to share a link to a news article about a teacher whose life was saved due to someone performing the Heimlich maneuver when she was choking.
The technique was created by thoracic surgeon Dr. Henry J. Heimlich — Williams’ second cousin, to whom he refers as his “uncle” — in 1974 as a technique to save choking victims. The maneuver uses abdominal thrusts to clear the airway of the person choking.
“My Uncle, Dr. Heimlich, created the Heimlich Maneuver,” Williams, 76, wrote in his post. “Happy Days is a major reason for its success. It’s a long story, but the creators and cast of Happy Days have helped save more lives than any other program in history!”
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Heimlich died in 2016, at the age of 96. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Heimlich was the director of surgery at Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati in 1974 when he devised his eponymous technique.
It was his second cousin Williams who used his connections in the world of entertainment to secure Heimlich an appearance on The Merv Griffin Show in the 1970s — and help make the technique one known by millions the world over.
ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty; Al Berman/AP
Williams was a cast member for all 11 seasons of Happy Days, which followed a group of friends living in the Midwest in the 1950s and 1960s.
In January 2025, Williams opened up about his relationship with fellow Happy Days cast members Henry Winkler, Ron Howard and Don Most on an episode of the 9021OMG podcast. `
“We have been close friends for decades,” he said, adding his costars are “literally a text away.”
“It’s just been a wonderful friendship. And just to have that kind of friendship that many years? It’s pretty unique,” he said. “But that has a lot to do with Garry Marshall, our mentor.”
Williams said that the late producer— who created Happy Days — “really cared about us, not just as a showrunner, but as young people because we didn’t know much.”
