Laverne & Shirley star Cindy Williams died on Wednesday, January 25, 2023, at her home after a brief illness. She was 75 years old.

Her children Zak and Emily Hudson released a statement, “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.”

In Laverne & Shirley, Williams played the straitlaced factory worker Shirley Feeney who worked as a bottle capper at a brewery alongside her best friend and roommate Laverne De Fazio (Penny Marshall). The beloved sitcom, which showed off the comedic talents of its leads, ran for eight seasons from 1976 to 1983. The charming characters were introduced on Happy Days and their chemistry was so good that series creator Garry Marshall created the spinoff.

Williams was born on August 22, 1947, in Los Angeles. She began acting as a child, appearing in productions at church and in high school, then she studied theater at LA City College. Her onscreen debut was in 1970 in My World and Welcome to It and Barefoot in the Park. She was very active in the ‘70s, appearing in Room 222, Beware! The Blob, The Killing Kind, she played Laurie in American Graffiti, was in Love, American Style, Hawaii Five-O, Police Story, and Laugh-In.

In addition to being a talented comedic performer, she was also a comedy writer. She met future costar Penny Marshall while the pair were working at Francis Ford Coppola’s production company, American Zoetrope. Penny introduced Williams to her brother Garry and the pair were cast for their guest spot in Happy Days.

After Laverne & Shirley, she worked mainly on stage in touring productions of Grease, Deathtrap, the female version of The Odd Couple, and Steel Magnolias, as the grumpy Ouiser Boudreaux. Her Broadway debut was in 2007 in The Drowsy Chaperone, then she was in the one-woman show, Me, Myself, and Shirley.

Her later onscreen roles were in Rude Awakening, Bingo, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Touched by an Angel, 8 Simple Rules, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Canaan Land.

Williams co-wrote her memoir, Shirley, I Jest! in 2015.