Cindy Williams, one of America’s most recognizable stars in the 1970s and 1980s for her role as Shirley opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the hit sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” has died, according to her family.
Williams died on Wednesday at 75 in Los Angeles after a brief illness, according to her children, Zak and Emily Hudson, in a statement released through family spokeswoman Liza Cranis.
“The death of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has left us with insurmountable sadness that can never truly be expressed,” the statement said. “Knowing and loving her has been both a joy and a privilege for us. She was one of a kind, beautiful, and generous, with a brilliant sense of humor and a sparkling spirit that everyone adored.”
Williams appeared in George Cukor’s 1972 “Travels With My Aunt,” George Lucas’ 1973 “American Graffiti,” and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 “The Conversation” in a film career that preceded her full-time move to television.
But she was best known for “Laverne & Shirley,” a “Happy Days” spinoff that aired on ABC from 1976 to 1983 and was one of the most popular shows on television at the time.
On the show about a pair of blue-collar roommates who worked on the assembly line of a Milwaukee brewery in the 1950s and 1960s, Williams played the stern Shirley Feeney to Marshall’s more libertine Laverne DeFazio.
“They were well-liked characters,” Williams said to The Associated Press in 2002.
Feeney was naive and trusting, while DeFazio was quick-tempered and defensive. For plot inspiration, the actors looked to their own lives.
“At the start of each season, we’d make a list of what talents we had,” Marshall told the Associated Press in 2002. “We used Cindy’s ability to touch her tongue to her nose in the show. “I did some tap dancing.”
Williams told The Associated Press in 2013 that she and Marshall had “very different personalities” but that stories about the two clashing on set were “a bit overblown.”
With its self-empowering opening song, “Give us any chance, we’ll take it, read us any rule, we’ll break it,” the series was a rare network hit about working-class characters.
That scene would become as well-known as the show itself. Williams’ and Marshall’s chant of “schlemiel, schlimazel” as they skipped along became a cultural phenomenon and a source of nostalgia for many.
Penny Marshall died in 2018, along with his brother, Garry Marshall, who co-created the series.
Singing this song with so much gratitude for both of you ladies. Absolute gems. United again… Rest in Paradise Cindy Williams https://t.co/G9LVZfym0s
— Rosario Dawson (@rosariodawson) January 31, 2023
On Tuesday, actress Rosario Dawson tweeted a video of the opening theme.
“Singing this song with so much love for both of you ladies,” Dawson wrote on Twitter. “These are absolute gems. Reunited once more… Cindy Williams, rest in peace.”
Lenny and Squiggy, Laverne and Shirley’s oddball hangers-on, were also played by Michael McKean and David Lander. Lander died in the year 2020.
McKean paid tribute to Cindy Williams on Twitter with a production memory.
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“Season 1 Backstage: I’m offstage waiting for a cue. “The script was challenging, so we’re giving it our all, and the audience is having a great time,” McKean tweeted. “Cindy scoots past me to make her entrance and exclaims, ‘Show’s cookin’!’ Amen. Cindy, thank you.”
As the show’s ratings fell in the sixth season, the characters relocated from Milwaukee to Burbank, California, trading their brewery jobs for jobs at a department store.
Cindy Williams became pregnant in 1982 and requested that her working hours be reduced. She walked off the set when her demands were unmet and sued the production company. During the final season, she made only a few appearances.
Williams was born in 1947 as one of two sisters in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Van Nuys. Her family relocated to Dallas shortly after her birth, but she later returned to Los Angeles, where she pursued acting while attending Birmingham High School and majoring in theatre arts at LA City College.
Her television acting career began in 1969, with appearances on “Room 222,” “Nanny and the Professor,” and “Love, American Style.”
Her performance in George Lucas’ “American Graffiti” would become a defining role for her. The film foreshadowed the subsequent nostalgia boom for the 1950s and early 1960s. The following year, “Happy Days,” starring her “American Graffiti” co-star Ron Howard, would be released. Before they had their show, the characters of Laverne and Shirley appeared on TV as dates for Henry Winkler’s Fonzie.
Lucas also considered her for the role of Princess Leia in “Star Wars,” which was eventually filled by Carrie Fisher.
Williams has appeared in dozens of TV shows over the last three decades, including “7th Heaven,” “8 Simple Rules,” and “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” She and Marshall appeared in a “Laverne & Shirley” tribute episode of the Nickelodeon show “Sam and Cat” in 2013.
Last year, Williams performed “Me, Myself, and Shirley,” a one-woman stage show filled with stories from her career, at a theatre in Palm Springs, California, near her home in Desert Hot Springs.
From 1982 to 2000, Williams married singer Bill Hudson of the Hudson Brothers. Hudson raised her two children. He previously married Goldie Hawn and is the father of actress Kate Hudson.
