She always said her goal was to make viewers laugh and cry in equal measure, and that’s what friends and fans alike are doing today.
Penny Marshall, who found Hollywood fame as Laverne DeFazio on the sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” and went on to become one of the most successful women film directors in town, died Monday at her home in the Hollywood Hills of complications from diabetes. She was 75.
Marshall, whose voice never lost the Bronx lilt of her childhood, was born to parents who worked in the entertainment industry — her mother a tap dance instructor, her father a film director and producer — and she and both of her siblings, brother Garry Marshall and sister Ronny Hallin, all eventually made their way to the West Coast and careers in film and television.
Marshall got her foot in the door in the ’60s with small parts in movies and TV series, often projects her writer-producer brother was making, and landed her first recurring role when Garry Marshall cast her in “The Odd Couple” as Myrna, secretary to the sportswriter Oscar played by Jack Klugman.
Actor-director Rob Reiner, who married Marshall in 1971, just before she joined “The Odd Couple” TV series, and was with her for the next decade, expressed sorrow on Tuesday at her passing.
After Garry Marshall created “Happy Days,” he eventually cast her and Cindy Williams as Shotz Brewery bottle-cappers Laverne and Shirley. Introduced as friends of Fonzie’s, the characters proved popular enough that a spin-off starring them was launched in 1976 and ran through 1983.
