Laverne & Shirley star Cindy Williams has died at 75

Last Updated on February 8, 2023

Sad news today as it was announced that Cindy Williams, best known for starring in Happy Days spin-off Laverne & Shirley, has died at the age of 75 after a brief illness.

In a statement released through a family spokesperson, Cindy Williams’ children Zak and Emily Hudson said, “The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed. 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.“

Cindy Williams first appeared as Shirley Feeney on Happy Days alongside Penny Marshall as Laverne DeFazio, and the choice was soon made to spin the characters off into their own series. Laverne & Shirley found the pals sharing a basement apartment in Milwaukee and working as bottle cappers for the Schotz brewery. The series debuted in the #1 slot upon its release and went on to last eight seasons, but Cindy Williams didn’t make it to the end. Toward the end of the seventh season, Williams was pregnant with her first child but wasn’t anticipating that anything would change. “I thought I was going to come back and they’d hide [her baby bump] behind benches, couches, pillows, and that wasn’t it,” Williams said in 2015. When it came time for Williams to sign her contract, she noticed that they had her working on her due date. “I said, ‘You know, I can’t sign this.’ And it went back and forth and back and forth, and it just never got worked out,” Williams said. “Right after that, [shows] would build nurseries on sets.” She sued Paramount for $20 million, and after reaching a settlement, she was written out of the series just two episodes into the eighth season. Williams’s co-star, Penny Marshall, passed away in 2018.

Cindy Williams is also known for playing Laurie Henderson in George Lucas‘ American Graffiti, but she almost didn’t take the role, only agreeing to do so after producer Francis Ford Coppola convinced her to. “I said, ‘This is not going to be fun, I’m going to cry during this whole 28-night shoot,’ and I did,” Williams recalled. “But after two weeks, George Lucas took [the whole cast] into the editing bay, and he showed us a 20-minute assemblage of the film with music. I remember Harrison Ford standing next to me and saying, ‘This is [bleeping] great.’” She would reprise the role for More American Graffiti and also appeared in movies such as Beware! The Blob, The Conversation, Mr. Ricco, Bingo, Meet Wally Sparks, and more. She also appeared in TV shows like Love, American Style, Hawaii Five-O, Cannon, Police Story, CHiPs, Getting By, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Touched by an Angel, 7th Heaven, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and more.