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 today 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 onetime 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.