Lynda Goodfriend

Lynda Goodfriend is an American actress, director, and acting educator whose career has spanned stage, television, and film. A graduate of Coral Gables High School in Coral Gables, Florida, she earned a BFA in drama from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She furthered her training by studying acting with Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner and attending the Harvey Lembeck comedy workshop.

Goodfriend launched her professional career as a dancer and singer performing Off Broadway, where she worked alongside John Travolta. Her Broadway career ran from 1973 to 1974 and included a role in the musical Good News. She subsequently built a substantial television résumé, beginning with the short-lived series Blansky's Beauties in 1977, on which she played Ethel "Sunshine" Akalino. When that series ended, she and co-star Scott Baio transitioned to the sitcom Happy Days, also in 1977. Goodfriend had initially appeared in the fourth season of Happy Days in a guest capacity, playing Kim in the episodes "Time Capsule" and "Graduation (Part 1)," before returning in season five as Lori Beth Cunningham, née Allen, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Richie Cunningham. She continued in that role through 1984, and it became the most prominent credit of her acting career.

Her television work extended beyond Happy Days to include appearances on The Love Boat in 1981 and 1983 and Fantasy Island in 1982. On the film side, Goodfriend appeared in Beaches in 1988, took a tourist role in Pretty Woman in 1990, and had cameo and guest appearances in Exit to Eden, Nothing in Common, and Beaches. During the mid to late 1980s she also worked on independent projects, among them An All Consuming Passion, a film written and directed by Kathryn Nesmith. She directed the teleplay pilot Four Stars, which was financed by Garry Marshall and starred actor Bert Kramer and actress Julie Paris, and in 2009 she directed the short film The Perfect Crime.

In addition to her performing and directing work, Goodfriend established The Actors Workout in North Hollywood's Theatre District, developing two schools and one theatre under that enterprise. She also served as head of Young Artists Management for a period, working with acting talent. In 2006 she joined the New York Film Academy as an acting instructor and was appointed Chair of the Acting Department in 2011.

Goodfriend married Giora Litwak in 1982, and the couple had a daughter named Peri. By 1986 she was raising Peri as a single parent.