Penny Marshall ( October 15, 1943 - December 17, 2018) was an American actor, writer, and producer. Penny guest starred as Laverne de Fazio along with Henry Winkler as Fonzie from Happy Days, in the one-hour Mork and Mindy pilot, "The Mork & Mindy Special".
Biography[]
Born Carole Penny Marshall in the Bronx, New York in 1943, the daughter of Marjorie (Ward), a tap dance teacher, and Anthony "Tony" Marshall, an industrial film director. She was the younger sister of filmmakers Garry Marshall and Ronny Hallin. Her father was of Italian descent, originally surnamed "Masciarelli," and her mother was of German, Scottish, English, and Irish ancestry.
Known in her family as "the bad one"... walking on the ledge of her family's apartment building, sneaking into movies and even dating a guy named "Lefty." She attended a private girls' high school in New York and then went to the University of New Mexico for two and a half years. There, Penny got pregnant with daughter, Tracy Reiner, and soon after married the father, Michael Henry, in 1961. The couple divorcing two years later in 1963.
During that period she worked as a secretary for awhile, before moving back towards the family 'business', entertainment. She, married actor and future director Rob Reiner, son of TV legend Carl Reiner on April 10, 1971. Creating a kind of TV legendary dynasty between the Reiner's and the Marshalls. Rob later adopted her daughter Tracy, giving her his surname. Her marriage to Reiner ended in 1981; the couple had five grandchildren together.
Marshall had a brief relationship with singer Art Garfunkel in the mid-1980s, and he credits her with helping him through his depression.
In 2010, it was reported that Marshall had been diagnosed with lung cancer that had metastasized to her brain, but two years later she was 'fine now'. Following her recovery she published a memoir, My Mother Was Nuts.
Marshall died in Los Angeles on December 17, 2018, at the age of 75. According to her death certificate, the causes were cardiopulmonary failure, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus type 1.
Career[]
Penny like her brother Garry and sister Ronnie came from a family with a showbusiness bent. Her dry, New York, nasal delivery instantly recognizable. Able to move between wit and slapstick effortlessly she became the big hit of the family in front of the cameras, and a force in her own right behind it.
Trained as a dancer by her mother, her first (uncredited) appearance on screen came on the Jackie Gleason Show, aged 10. She also did a dandruff commercial with Farrah Fawcett - the casting people, of course, giving Farrah the part of the "beautiful girl" and Penny the part of the "plain girl." Which added to Penny's insecurity with her looks. However she got her big television break as Oscar Madison's secretary, Myrna Turner, on the Garry Marshall run The Odd Couple (1972-74). She also had a recurring role as Mary Richards' neighbor, Paula Kovacks, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (thru 1974-76), and landed a role as Janice Dreyfus alongside Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers (1974-75). At the end of this busy period, her star making turn, came when her brother needed two women to play "fast girls" who were friends of Arthur Fonzarelli and would date Fonzie and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days (co-created by Garry Marshall) Happy Days (1974). Penny had been working on miscellaneous writing projects ("My Country Tis Of Thee", a bicentennial spoof for Francis Ford Coppola and "Paper Hands" about the Salem Witch Trials) with writing partner Cindy Williams. Cindy happened to be a friend and ex-girlfriend of Henry Winkler's, so Garry asked the two to play the parts of these girls. Penny was cast as Laverne DeFazio with Cindy Williams as Shirley Feeney in the episode entitled "A Date with Fonzie".
Both their performances and chemistry were very well received by the audience, resulting in an equally popular spinoff sitcom, the Garry Marshall produced Laverne & Shirley. Penny was nominated for a Golden Globe three times for her performance, [1] and would play the role of Laverne for the show's entire run from 1976 until 1983, even in the wake of Cindy Williams departure. She would in fact take the character of Laverne into 7 different shows. In addition to her role on Laverne & Shirley she also directed four episodes of Laverne & Shirley; Season 4's "Squiggy in Love" (episode #20),Season 5's]] "The Duke of Squigman" (episode #23), Season 6's "The Dating Game" (episode #6), and "But Seriously, Folks" (episode #14). She would later reunite with Cindy on a November 2013 episode of Sam & Cat.[2][3][4]) .
Branching out into directing and producing, Penny has directed box-office blockbuster films such as Big (1988, starring Tom Hanks), the first film directed by a woman to gross in excess of $100 million at the U.S. box office; Awakenings (1990, starring Robin Williams), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture; and the much loved, possibly best known (outside of the US) baseball movie, A League of Their Own (1992),starring Geena Davis, Tom Hanks and Madonna. She also produced Cinderella Man (2005) and Bewitched (2005), as well as several episodes of the ABC-TV sitcom series According to Jim (2009).
Mork & Mindy[]
In an effort to help launch Mork & Mindy, which had the most tenuous of pilot pitches (if you could even call it that). Garry Marshall, his production team and writers, called upon his established shows to help settle the new show in, bringing in Henry Winkler's Fonz, and Penny Marshall's Laverne to support Robin Williams and Pam Dawber, tying the new show again into Happy Days by having Mork relay to Mindy, a second adventure of his in the 1950s (there would be a third in Mork Returns). In it, Mork returns to speak to Fonzie as a 'known authority' on dating, throughout the galaxy. To help Mork discover 'why' Men date women, and trying to find someone who would be open enough to going on a date with a weird alien. Fonz calls on Laverne, and coaxes her into it, while he hangs out upstairs (in case). Mork's weirdness puts Laverne off, but when he curls up like a baby due to his failure, feeling sorry for him, she sits beside him, and unaware of the bizarre Orkan pleasurable practice of 'Gang Neb' takes hold of Mork by his wrist. Unable to resist the urge that sets off in him, Mork makes a lunge for her earlobes, and the 'date' descends into chaos with both individuals kicking and wrestling each other until Laverne runs screaming upstairs for Fonzie.
References[]
- ↑ Laverne and Shirley (TV series) awards at IMDb
- ↑ Bibel, Sara (June 26, 2013). Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams to Reunite on Nickelodeon's 'Sam & Cat'. TVbytheNumbers. Retrieved on June 26, 2013.
- ↑ 'Laverne & Shirley' stars reunite on Nick comedy. Yahoo.com (June 26, 2013).
- ↑ Laverne & Shirley Stars Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams To Reunite on Nickelodeon's Sam & Cat. Yahoo!TV (June 26, 2013).
External links[]
Penny Marshall at the internet Movie Database (IMDb)- Penny Marshall article at Wikipedia
