“Forgotten Hollywood”- Making Our Dreams Come True…
Manny P here…
“`Penny Marshall was the trailblazing director of big-screen comedies, who starred in the top-rated sitcom Laverne and Shirley. She was the first female director to direct a $100 million box-office hit. Her older brother was filmmaker-producer Garry Marshall. For a brief time, she was married to Rob Reiner. Penny was a courtside regular at Los Angeles Lakers games.
“`Born in the Bronx, she was perfection in Laverne and Shirley, among television’s top-rate hits for much of its seven-season 1976-1983 run. The nasal-voiced actress starred as Laverne DeFazio alongside Cindy Williams as a pair of blue-collar roommates working on the assembly line of a Milwaukee brewery. A blue-collar setting totally resonated with middle America, and the sitcom inspired a creation of similar fare, including Roseanne and Home Improvement.
“`On television, Penny appeared in That Girl, The Odd Couple, Mork and Mindy, Taxi, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Happy Days (her first appearance as Laverne). This led to the highly-successful spinoff.
“`After directing a few episodes, Penny was given the chance to direct big screen productions. Her work was met with enormous success, with credits such as Big, A League of Their Own, The Preacher’s Wife, and Awakenings; the latter movie earned her an Oscar nod for Best Director. It was only the second time a female filmmaker was honored with the accolade. Her collaborators included Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Robin Williams, Madonna, Danny DeVito, Denzel Washington, Drew Barrymore, Robert De Niro, and Whitney Houston.
“`Penny Marshall leaves a legacy of very approachable comedy. She was seventy-five.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2018 at 2:59 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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