Cindy Williams, who played Shirley opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the popular sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” died on Wednesday, Jan. 25, in Los Angeles. She was 75. Her death was confirmed by a family spokesperson, Liza Cranis.
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Williams’ credits included the films “American Graffiti” and “The Conversation.” But she was by far best known for playing Shirley Feeney on the ABC sitcom “Laverne & Shirley.” The show, a spinoff of “Happy Days,” was one of the most popular shows on television in its prime. It ran from 1976 to 1983.
“Laverne & Shirley” was known almost as much for its opening theme as the show itself. Williams’ and Marshall’s chant of “schlemiel, schlimazel” as they skipped together became a cultural phenomenon and oft-invoked piece of nostalgia.
Williams played the straitlaced Shirley to Marshall’s more libertine Laverne on the show about a pair of roommates that worked at a Milwaukee bottling factory in the 1950s and 60s.
Marshall, whose brother, Garry Marshall, co-created the series, died in 2018.
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