Cindy Williams, who was among the most recognizable stars in America. The 1970s and 1980s for her role as Shirley opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the belove sitcom „Laverne & Shirley,” has died, her family said Monday.
Williams died in Los Angeles at age 75 on Wednesday after a brief illness. Her children, Zak and Emily Hudson, said in a statement release through family spokeswoman Liza Cranis.
„The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expresse. The statement said. „Knowing and loving her has been our joy and privilege. She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possesse a brilliant sense of humor and a glittering spirit that everyone love.
’Laverne & Shirley’ star Cindy Williams dies at 75
Williams worked with some of Hollywood’s most elite directors in a film career that precede. Full-time move to television, appearing in George Cukor’s 1972 „Travels With My Aunt. George Lucas’ 1973 „American Graffiti” and Francis Ford Coppola’s „The Conversation” from 1974.
But she was by far best known for „Laverne & Shirley,” the. Happy Days” spinoff that ran on ABC from 1976 to 1983 that in its prime was among the most popular shows on TV.
Williams played the straitlaced Shirley Feeney to Marshall’s more libertine Laverne DeFazio. The show about a pair of blue-collar roommates who toile on the assembly line of a Milwaukee brewery in the 1950s and 1960s.
’Laverne & Shirley’ star Cindy Williams dies at 75
„They were beloved characters,” Williams told The Associated Press in 2002.
DeFazio was quick-tempered and defensive. Feeney was naive and trusting. The actors drew upon their own lives for plot inspiration.
„We’d make up a list at the start of each season of what talents we had. Marshall told the AP in 2002. „Cindy could touch her tongue to her nose and we used it in the show. I did tap dance.”
Williams told The Associated Press in 2013 that she and Marshall had.
’Laverne & Shirley’ star Cindy Williams dies at 75
The series was the rare network hit about working-class characters. With its self-empowering opening song: „Give us any chance, we’ll take it, read us any rule, we’ll break it.”
That opening would become as popular as the show itself. Williams’ and Marshall’s chant of „schlemiel. Schlimazel” as they skipped along together became a cultural phenomenon and oft-invoked piece of nostalgia.
Marshall, whose brother, Garry Marshall, co-created the series, died in 2018.
Actor Rosario Dawson shared a video of the opening theme on Twitter on Tuesday.
McKean paid tribute to Williams on Twitter with a memory from the production.
„Backstage, Season 1: I’m offstage waiting for a cue. The script’s been a tough one, so we’re giving it 110% and the audience is having a great time,” McKean tweete. „Cindy scoots by me to make her entrance and with a glorious grin, says: ‘Show’s cookin’!’ Amen. Thank you, Cindy.”
As ratings dropped in the sixth season, the characters moved from Milwaukee to Burbank, California, trading their brewery jobs for work at a department store.
In 1982, Williams became pregnant and wanted her working hours curtaile.
Williams was born one of two sisters in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles in 1947.The film was a forerunner to a nostalgia boom for the 1950s and early 1960s that would follow.
In the past three decades, Williams made guest appearances on dozens of TV series including „7th Heaven,” „8 Simple Rules” and „Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” In 2013, she and Marshall appeared in a „Laverne & Shirley” tribute episode of the Nickelodeon series „Sam and Cat.”
