The Angels –
Cindy Williams, one of America’s most recognizable stars on the beloved sitcom “Laverne & Shirley” in the 1970s and 1980s for her role as Shirley opposite Benny Marshall’s Laverne, has died, her family said Monday.
Williams died Wednesday in Los Angeles at age 75 after a brief illness, her children, Jack and Emily Hudson, said in a statement issued by family spokeswoman Lisa Granis.
“The passing of our kind and hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has left us with an insurmountable sadness that truly cannot be expressed,” the statement said. “It was our joy and privilege to know and love her. She was unique, beautiful, generous, with a wonderful sense of humor and a sparkling spirit that everyone loved.”
Williams worked with some of Hollywood’s most elite directors during her film career, appearing in George Cukor’s 1972 “Travels with My Aunt,” George Lucas’s 1973 “American Graffiti,” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” before go full-time to television. «Since 1974.
But she’s best known for “Laverne & Shirley,” the “Happy Days” spin-off that aired on ABC from 1976 to 1983.
Williams played Shirley Feeney on the show about a pair of blue-collar roommates who worked on the assembly line at a Milwaukee brewery in the 1950s and 1960s, opposite Laverne DeFazio, the more free-spirited Marshall.
“They’re lovable characters,” Williams told The Associated Press in 2002.
DeFazio is quick-tempered and defensive; Feeney was naive and trusting. The actors drew on their own lives for inspiration for the plot.
“At the beginning of every season we make a list of the talents we have,” Marshall told the AP in 2002. “Cindy could touch her nose with her tongue, and we used that on the show. She did a tap dance ».
Williams told The Associated Press in 2013 that she and Marshall had “very different personalities,” but the stories of the two clashing during the making of the show were “a bit much.”
The series is a rare hit for the network about working-class characters, with its opening theme of self-empowerment: “Give us any chance, we’ll take it; teach us any rule, and we’ll break it.”
That opening would become as popular as the show itself. Williams and Marshall’s singing of “Schlimiel, Schlimazel” while skipping together became a cultural phenomenon and often evoked nostalgia.
Marshall, whose brother Garry Marshall, co-creator of the series, died in 2018.
Actress Rosario Dawson shared a video of the opening theme song on Twitter on Tuesday.
“Singing this song with so much gratitude to both girls,” Dawson tweeted. “Absolute gems. United Again’ Cindy Williams Rest in Paradise».
The show starred Michael McKean and David Lander as Lenny and Squeaky, Laverne and Shirley’s strange hangers-on. Lander died in 2020.
McKean paid tribute to Williams on Twitter in honor of the production.
Backstage Season 1: I’m waiting for a sign offstage. The script was tough so we’re giving it 110% and the audience is happy,” McKean tweeted. “Cindy slides past me as she walks in and, with a glorious laugh, she says, ‘Teach me how to cook’!” Amen. Thank you Cindy.”
Due to declining ratings in the sixth season, the characters relocated from Milwaukee to Burbank, California, trading a job as a waiter for a job at a department store.
In 1982, Williams became pregnant and wanted to reduce her work hours. As her demands were not met, she left the set and filed a lawsuit against her producer. She made an occasional appearance in the final season.
Williams was born in 1947 in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles, one of two sisters. Her family moved to Dallas shortly after her birth, but she returned to Los Angeles, where she began acting while attending Birmingham High School. Theater Arts at LA City College.
His acting career began with small roles on television in 1969, appearing in “Room 222,” “The Nanny and the Professor,” and “Love, American Style.”
His role would become a defining role in Lucas’s “American Graffiti.” The film pioneered a nostalgia boom in the 1950s and early 1960s. “Happy Days,” starring his “American Graffiti” co-star Ron Howard, is set to be released next year. Laverne and Shirley’s characters made their first television appearances as Henry Winkler’s Fonzie dates before getting their own show.
Lucas considered her for the role of Princess Leia in “Star Wars,” which went to Carrie Fisher.
Over the past three decades, Williams has made guest appearances on dozens of television series, including “7th Heaven,” “8 Simple Rules,” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” In 2013, she and Marshall appeared in the “Laverne & Shirley” tribute episode of the Nickelodeon series “Sam and Kate.”
Last year, Williams appeared in a one-woman show filled with stories from her life, “Me, Myself and Shirley,” at a theater in Palm Springs, California, near her Desert Hot Springs home.
Williams was married to Bill Hudson, lead singer of the band Hudson Brothers, from 1982 to 2000. Hudson fathered their two children. He was previously married to Goldie Hawn and is the father of actress Kate Hudson.
