Before she was a star on "Laverne & Shirley," Penny Marshall made her debut as her wise-cracking character, Laverne DeFazio, on "Happy Days." The actor appeared in five episodes of the ABC sitcom, playing the sassy Shotz brewery worker, from 1975 to 1979, per IMDb. The character was popular enough to spawn the long-running "Laverne & Shirley" spinoff with co-star Cindy Williams, but it's hard to forget Marshall's start on her brother Garry's sitcom in the 1976 "Happy Days" episode, "A Date With Fonzie". Marshall also played Laverne in the "Happy Days" spinoffs "Mork & Mindy" and "Blansky's Beauties," and later voiced the character in the ABC Saturday morning cartoon series "Laverne & Shirley in the Army."
Marshall passed away in her Hollywood Hills home on December 17, 2018 due to complications from diabetes, her publicist told The Hollywood Reporter. Marshall, who was 75 when she died, had been diagnosed with brain and lung cancer nearly a decade before her passing.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7XCpKCsr5mbwW%2BvzqZmbW1nbYB3e8eap6mxXZmuur%2BMmpqtp6Koerq71GakmrFdo7y1ecqnprBllJ6ypXs%3D