Penny Marshall, a popular television actress turned groundbreaking filmmaker, has passed away on December 18th at the age of seventy-five. She died in Los Angeles of complications from diabetes. With her distinctive New York honk, Marshall first gained fame as Laverne DeFazio and costarred with Cindy Williams in the hit sitcom, "Laverne & Shirley" before moving behind the camera to become a very gifted and successful director of television and film.
She was born Carole Penny Marshall in the Bronx, New York and her older brother, Garry (who passed away in 2016 at the age of eighty-one) would first become a very notable actor, director and producer in his own right. He gave his sister her first break with a small role in "How Sweet It Is", a film he had written and produced in 1968. Later, he got her cast in a supporting role in the sitcom he was producing, "The Odd Couple" and Marshall was on the show for four years.
Marshall was soon able to land a few roles on her own in films and television which included a recurring part on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". However, her brother stepped in again and cast her as Laverne and Williams as Shirley in a guest spot on an episode of "Happy Days", a show he was writer on. The characters were a hit and a spin-off was created in 1976. This popular show was on the air for eight years and became the most-watched American television program by its third season.
After the show ended, Marshall had difficulty finding acting jobs due to typecasting. She had directed a few episodes of "Laverne & Shirley" and got the opportunity to direct her first feature, "Jumping Jack Flash" in 1986 after the original director dropped out. The comedy starred Whoopi Goldberg in one of her first major film roles and while most critics did not warmly embrace the movie, it was a modest success at the box-office. But it was her follow-up feature that would be the game-changer of her directing career.
"Big", the 1988 comedy about a twelve year old boy who finds himself trapped in the body of a thirty year old man, made Tom Hanks a star and earned him his first Oscar nomination while Marshall became the first woman to direct a film that made over one hundred million dollars. Her follow-up 1990 feature, "Awakenings" was a drama about a man (Robin Williams) who was trapped in a catatonic state for years due to a rare illness until a treatment is developed by his doctor (Robert DeNiro, who earned an Oscar nom for his role). The film received a Best Picture Oscar nomination yet Marshall was overlooked for Best Director recognition.
Marshall would only direct four more feature films during her career which included the Danny DeVito 1994 comedy, "Renaissance Man"; a 1996 remake of "The Preacher's Wife" featuring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston and Marshall's last feature, "Riding In Cars With Boys", an underrated 2001 bio-pic starring Drew Barrymore.
But it is "A League of Their Own" which is considered Marshall's greatest achievement as a filmmaker and one of her most beloved movies. This 1992 sports-comedy was based on the real-life women's baseball league and follows two sisters (Geena Davis and Lori Petty) who join during WWII as most of the men were away fighting during the war and Tom Hanks plays the team's drunken manager who initially doesn't take the ladies seriously. The film became Marshall's second film to make over one hundred million dollars and in 2012 was selected to be preserved as part of the United States National Film Registry.
Marshall was married twice; she wed Michael Henry in 1963 and they had a daughter, Tracy. The marriage lasted only three years. Marshall later married, Rob Reiner, (son of the renowned comedian/producer, Carl), an actor who later became a successful film director himself after he got typecast following his role in the popular sitcom, "All In The Family". They wed in 1971 and Reiner adapted Tracy but the marriage ended after ten years.
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