Cindy Williams passed away on January 25 in Los Angeles. She was most known for her long-running television role as Shirley opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the sitcom “Laverne & Shirley.” She was 75.
Her relatives made the announcement of her passing without mentioning the cause of death.
Early in her career, Ms. Williams had important supporting parts in Francis Ford Coppola’s paranoid thriller “The Conversation” and George Lucas’s nostalgic comedy-drama “American Graffiti” (1973). (1974).
She was most well-known for “Laverne & Shirley,” a “Happy Days” spinoff that aired on ABC from 1976 to 1983 and was, during its heyday, one of the most watched television programs.
Ms. Williams portrayed the strict Shirley Feeney in the comedy about two blue-collar housemates who worked on the brewer’s assembly line in Milwaukee in the 1950s and 1960s to Marshall’s more loose-lipped Laverne DeFazio.
Feeney was trusting and innocent, while DeFazio had a short fuse and was protective. The plot was inspired by the actors’ personal life.
“We’d make up a list at the start of each season of what talents we had,” Marshall told the Associated Press in 2002. “Cindy could touch her tongue to her nose, and we used it in the show. I did tap dance.”
The opening song of the series, “Give us any chance, we’ll take it, read us any rule, we’ll break it,” was powerful and self-aware, making it a rare network hit about characters from the working class.
As well-known as the show itself would turn out to be that opening. The “schlemiel, schlimazel” chant that Ms. Williams and Marshall used when skipping together became well-known and frequently used as a source of nostalgia.
Marshall passed away in 2018. His brother, Garry Marshall, co-created the series with him.
Lenny and Squiggy, the eccentric sidekicks of Laverne and Shirley, were also portrayed on the show by Michael McKean and David Lander. 2020 saw Lander’s passing.
