Penny's first recurring role was playing Myrna Turner on "The Odd Couple," which was directed by her brother [Garry Marshall]. She also appeared on "Happy Days" with Cindy Williams, and they became famous from their spin-off sitcom, "Laverne & Shirley."...
She directed Tom Hanks in "Big" in 1988. She was the first woman in history to direct a film that grossed more than $100 million. Penny also directed "A League of Their Own," and "Awakenings" starring Robin Williams.
December 18, 2018
Goodbye to Penny Marshall.
The great sitcom star was 75.
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One of my earlier childhood memories is hearing: "Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer incorporated!" blaring from the TV.
Great comedic actor and director. A funny woman.
Betty please...pick up your hash blacks!
She was married to Rob Reiner for 10 years. Hasn't she suffered enough?
I always thought Gary Marshall was her father.
Watched that clip; that was a funny show. Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams were great.
Never liked Laverne and Shirley. Really liked "Big".
That's too bad. She was a great comic actress, but also a great director.
Phil 3:14 said...
Never liked Laverne and Shirley. Really liked "Big".
Big came out at a time when there were a bunch of those "Young-Old Switcheroo" movies. Big was the only one that didn't suck.
Cindy Williams was my first identifiable crush. I would have been in 4th or 5th grade. I'm dismayed to see that she is 71 now. Time's arrow marches forward.
One of my favorite clips of Penny Marshall was when she had a cameo as herself on Taxi in which Danny Devito is attempting to move into a Manhattan co-op and is worried about being approved by the snooty (and anti-semitic) board.
A fine director. R.I.P. Ms. Marshall.
Kevin said...
"Time's arrow marches forward."
Yes time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Great talent. RIP.
@Rick, it's actually a Bojack Horseman reference. Even the character who says it gets made fun of immediately for it, which in typical Bojack Horseman style makes what happens later on even more poignant.
She was a good cookie. Never found her particularly attractive, but she was sweet and funny and quirky which counts for a lot.
Godspeed, Laverne DeFazio
"Awakenings" was a tremendous film, all the more so as it was a true story. Superb directing.
Rob Reiner really was a meathead. Still is.
Wonderful comedic actress. I have watched her very memorable movies...Big, A League of their Own and Awakenings... many times.
Sam Kinison used to tell the tale of snorting coke off her boobs. But that was a whole different era when nagging scolds weren't running the world. RIP Penny....and we miss you Sam
This bit of news made me particularly sad.
Not sure why but it struck a chord.
RIP Penny.
I will admit I loved the early Laverne and Shirley show. Funny stuff.
rehajm - holy moly that's classic. the meetoo and the racism will make SJWers pee their little pull ups.
I laughed.
We’re all going to die!
She is also known from the Halloween Disney movie Hocus Pocus.
"Sam Kinison used to tell the tale of snorting coke off her boobs."
Specifically, in a cursive "L" shaped line. I was never sure if that was real or just a joke, but I like to think she would have thought that was a funny thing to do in real life.
Awakenings was too much of.a downer. Big and League were pretty good. Laverne & Shirley was okay, but not one of the truly great great seminal sitcoms of that era.......I'm sorry to hear of her passing. She seemed like a good sport. She was my exact contemporary. I can feel the vibration of that tolling bell. It gets louder and louder.
I liked some of her movies but the one that I really loved was 1941 with John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd and others.
Most people thought it a stinker. I think it was a gem. I also freely admit that my tastes are a bit odd.
God Bless, Penny.
John Henry
1941 was Spielberg!
In Awakenings, at one point the senior doctor is showing film of the victims of this disease to the young Oliver Sachs. I don't remember it precisely, but the senior doctor says--with no evidence--that the frozen victims are not aware of their situation, they are not really conscious, something like that.
Sachs says, "But how do we know that?
Senior doctor says, "The alternative is unthinkable!"
I immediately thought, so that's why people believe in God.
So many great moments in that film. Yes, it was a downer, because it was authentic.
Laverne and Shirley was something of an off ramp pointing toward Seinfeld and similar shows: no kids, mature people were a little removed from the action, their work life didn't have to be incorporated into every episode.
Was every character in L&S supposed to be hard of hearing?
Why all the yelling?
Penny also directed "A League of Their Own,"
One of my favorite movies of all time.
I remember Laverne and Shirley, but I think my interest in it was due to early years of TV with little content to choose. I did like it better than Happy Days. I really appreciated Penny's directing ability. It is a shame we don't have people like her and her brother making movies these days. She made good solid movies which appealed to all people.
Big is weird for me. My parents got tickets for an advance showing of it. We had gotten our seats, my dad went to go get concessions, and then some woman (having just had a fight with her boyfriend) took my dad's seat. Despite my mom's protests and my dad's when he returned, she wouldn't go. So my dad went and got an usher to have her reseated, and of course the woman made a scene and had to be removed from the theater. That event ruined the evening. When the movie ended, by chance my dad was interviewed by a local TV reporter just to get a "take" from an adult about the movie. The reporter asked my dad if he would want to relive his childhood. He said "no". As a child, I thought that an odd answer. It would take decades for me to fully understand.
EDH said...
Was every character in L&S supposed to be hard of hearing?
Why all the yelling?
12/19/18, 4:04 AM
Class marker.
Today, there's crying in baseball.
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