LOS ANGELES (AP) – Cindy Williams, who played Shirley alongside Penny Marshall's Laverne on the popular sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” has died, her family said Monday.
Williams died Wednesday at age 75 in Los Angeles after a brief illness, said his children, Zack and Emily Hudson, in a statement released through family spokeswoman Lisa Kranis.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of our kind hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, that can never be expressed,” the statement said. “It has been our joy and privilege to know and love him. She was kind, beautiful, generous and had a wonderful sense of humor and a wonderful soul that everyone loved.
Williams also starred in director George Lucas' 1973 film “American Graffiti” and director Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 film “The Conversation”.
But she was best known for the “Happy Days” spinoff “Lavern & Shirley,” which ran on ABC from 1976 to 1983 and was one of the most popular shows on TV during its prime.
Williams played the role of stern Shirley to Marshall's more liberal Laverne in the show about a pair of roommates working at a Milwaukee bottling factory in the 1950s and '60s.
Marshall, whose brother Garry Marshall co-produced the series, passed away in 2018,
“Lavern & Shirley” was known almost as much for its opening theme as the show itself. Williams and Marshall's chant of “Schleimazel, Schleimazel” when they left together became a cultural phenomenon and evoked repeated nostalgia.
