American actress and filmmaker Penny Marshall has passed away aged 75, after suffering complications from diabetes.
Marshall began her acting career in the 1960s and rose to fame the following decade as the star of the hit ABC sitcom Laverne & Shirley, a spinoff of Happy Days which ran between 1976 and 1983 and saw her appearing alongside Cindy Williams.
After helming several episodes of the show, Marshall made her feature directorial debut in 1986 with the Whoopi Goldberg comedy Jumpin’ Jack Flash. She followed that in 1988 with the smash hit Big starring Tom Hanks, which grossed $151 million worldwide, making her the first woman to direct a movie that earned over $100 million.
Marshall’s third film Awakenings was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, while her subsequent features included A League of Their Own (1992), Renaissance Man (1994), The Preacher’s Wife (1996) and her final film Riding in Cars with Boys (2001). Her last directing credits came in 2010 and 2011 on Showtime’s United States of Tara.
