'Laverne & Shirley' Actor Cindy Williams Dies at 75
By: WSJ
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Cindy Williams, who played the character Shirley opposite Penny Marshall's Laverne on the popular television 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 Hudson and Emily Hudson, said in a statement released through family spokeswoman Liza Cranis.
“The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed,” the statement said. “Knowing and loving her has been our joy and privilege. She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possessed a brilliant sense of humor and a glittering spirit that everyone loved.”
Williams also starred in director George Lucas’s 1973 film “American Graffiti” and director 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 straight-laced Shirley to Marshall’s more libertine Laverne on the show about a pair of roommates that worked at a Milwaukee bottling factory in the 1950s and ’60s.
Marshall—whose brother, Garry Marshall, co-created the series— died in 2018 .
“Laverne & Shirley” was known almost as much for its opening theme as the show itself. Williams’ and Marshall’s chant of “schlemiel, schlimazel” as they skipped together became a cultural phenomenon and oft-invoked piece of nostalgia.
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Remember how much happier we were then?
I liked her, but was not really a big fan of the show. The writing was a little subpar and the two male characters, Lenny and Squiggy, were nothing but annoying.
I did like the fact that Laverne and Shirley was filled with slapstick though, it is my favorite form of comedy. In that sense Laverne and Shirley were following in the footsteps of Lucy and Ethel.
never giving opie a chance to lay some pipe after the sock hop in american graffiti stunted her career ...
Lol...Let's just say the theme song may have been the best part of it!