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In sad news for today, Cindy Williams from the beloved ABC sitcom Laverne & Shirley passed away at 75.
While we at Disney Fanatic pride ourselves on sharing all the latest news from the mega-verse of Disney and all its properties, today, we bring some tragic tidings. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the energetic Cindy Williams has passed away. The actress died in Los Angeles after a brief illness, as shared by her children, Zak and Emily Hudson.
Cindy Williams who played straitlaced Shirley Feeney in Laverne & Shirley/Courtesy of Variety
Below is the statement released on Cindy Williams’ death by her children,
“The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed,” the statement said. “Knowing and loving her has been our joy and privilege. She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possessed a brilliant sense of humor and a glittering spirit that everyone loved.”
A still from Laverne & Shirley, featuring the late Cindy Williams/Courtesy of ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection
Williams is most famously known for her role as Shirley Feeney on the beloved Disney-owned ABC popular sitcom, Happy Days spinoff Laverne & Shirley, featuring the protagonists Shirley Feeney and libertine Laverne DeFazio. The television show debuted at number 1 in the ratings on January 26, 1976. William’s character was the straitlaced Shirley Feeney, compared to Penny Marshall’s Laverne, which was about a pair of roommates who worked at a Milwaukee bottling factory in the 1950s and ’60s.
Williams earned a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a comedy series in 1978 for her work on Laverne & Shirley.
Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams at the 1979 Emmy Awards/Courtesy of AP Images (a division of Associated Press).
The show also aired on Tuesdays, post Happy Days—the show that started it all when Williams was hired by Garry Marshall for the popular sitcom—Happy Days at 8:30 p.m., and when it occupied that spot, as per the Hollywood Reporter, it “went on to become the highest-rated series for the 1977-78 and 1978-79 seasons.” The actress is also known to have starred in George Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973) and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 The Conversation.
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