Laverne & Shirley and Happy Days star Cindy Williams has died after a “short illness,” her family confirmed on Monday. She was 75. The actress was best known for playing Shirley Feeney opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the beloved sitcoms.
“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.”
Williams also starred in director George Lucas’s 1973 film American Graffiti and director Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation from 1974.
Williams was still entertaining audiences prior to her death. Last year, she completed a national theater tour of her one-woman show: Me, Myself and Shirley.
Tributes are pouring in from Williams’s peers on Monday night as news of her death made headlines.
