Cindy Williams is most famous for her performance as Shirley Feeney in the long-running television sitcom “Laverne & Shirley.” Her family claims that she had been dealing with health problems for a considerable time before she died, but the official reason for her death has not been determined. This article will provide an overview of Cindy Williams’ life and career, as well as details about her cause of death.
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Cindy Williams Cause of Death
Cindy Williams Cause of Death: Sadly, on January 4th, 2019, at 75, beloved actress Cindy Williams left us. She was best known to American viewers as half of the famous 1970s sitcom Laverne & Shirley. According to a statement published by Williams’ family on Monday night, she had gone away the previous Wednesday.
She released the following statement on behalf of her children, Zak Hudson and Emily Hudson: “The departure of our loving, humorous mother, Cindy Williams, has given us overwhelming pain that could never be thoroughly articulated. It’s been an honor, and a pleasure to know and care for her. She was one-of-a-kind—beautiful, sweet, and generous with a dazzling personality and infectious sense of humor.
Super Sky Point to Cindy Williams, who brought to life one of my first childhood crushes, the adorably innocent girl next door, Shirley Feeney. Say hi to Laverne for all of us, funny lady. Schlemiel, schlimazel. #RIP pic.twitter.com/KOD0QXMjlt
— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) January 31, 2023
Starred in George Lucas’s blockbuster American Graffiti in 1973 and then in Francis Ford Coppola’s critically acclaimed The Conversation the following year, skyrocketing to stardom worldwide. But it was in the Happy Days spinoff Laverne & Shirley, which ran from 1976 to 1983, that she genuinely earned fame.
Williams portrayed the more conventional Shirley Feeney, the roommate of Penny Marshall’s more outgoing Laverne DeFazio, in a 1950s television sitcom set in a Milwaukee brewery. Meeting Marshall’s brother, producer Gary Marshall, at an audition for the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars, she was inspired to chant “Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated” while bouncing down the sidewalk. Her loved ones have said the actress was sick for a while, but they haven’t said what it was.
Cindy Williams’s Career
Williams kicked off her professional career with spots in national ads for brands like Foster Grant sunglasses and TWA shortly after graduating from college. Her first television roles were in the series Room 222, Nanny and the Professor, and Love, American Style.
Williams went to the audition with a fellow Los Angeles City College actor who was also admitted to The Actors Studio West but rarely attended because of performing commitments and needed a scene partner. Early on in her career, Williams appeared in several critically acclaimed films, including George Cukor’s Travels with My Aunt (1972), George Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973), for which she received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1975).
She was among the thousands of hopefuls who tried out for Princess Leia in George Lucas’s Star Wars, but ultimately Carrie Fisher got the part. Williams and Penny Marshall initially met on a double date, and then again when they were both employed as comedy writers by Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope firm for a potential TV satire for the Bicentennial because “they needed two women.”
Penny Marshall’s brother Garry Marshall contacted them while they were working on an episode of Happy Days at Zoetrope and asked if they would want to appear in an attack. In 1975, Williams starred alongside Penny as Laverne De Fazio’s best friend and roommate Shirley Feeney on Happy Days.
Richie and Fonzie’s “sure-thing” dates were the girl’s (Henry Winkler). After the success of their cameo, Happy Days creator Garry Marshall ordered a spin-off series starring Shirley and Laverne. From 1976 to 1982, Williams remained a mainstay of the hit TV show Laverne & Shirley. During some points in its history, the show had the highest ratings of any program on television.
Williams’s performance as Shirley Feeney garnered acclaim. She became pregnant with her first child during the show’s eighth and final season. Thus, she quit after the second episode. Since Williams’s character, Shirley was not pregnant, the show’s numerous producers were not thrilled to learn of her pregnancy.
Williams and her co-star Penny Marshall were feuding for some time at work before Williams became pregnant. A reconciliation would follow a long period of silence. Due to the show’s popularity, Hanna-Barbera made the animated Laverne & Shirley in the Army (1981-82) for Saturday mornings.
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