Penny Marshall: 15 facts about the actress and director

Penny Marshall has unfortunately passed away , leaving the movie industry even poorer!

Penny Marshall’s publicist announced that the actress and director  passed away, on December 17, 2018, at the age of 75 at her home in the Hollywood Hills, California, on Monday due to complications from diabetes.

These are some facts you should know about her:

1. Carole Penny Marshall was born on October 15, 1943.
2. She was born in the Bronx, New York City, New York.
3. She was the sister of actor/director/TV producer Garry Marshall and Ronny Hallin, a television producer.
4. She started tap dancing at age three, and later taught tap at her mother’s dance school.
5. Her father was of Italian descent, his family having come from Abruzzo, and her mother was of German, English, and Scottish descent.
6. She graduated from Walton High School, a public girls’ high school in New York and then went to University of New Mexico for two and a half years where she studied math and psychology.
7. While at UNM, Marshall became pregnant with daughter, Tracy Reiner (née Tracy Henry), and soon after married the father, Michael Henry, in 1963.
8. In 1967,she moved to Los Angeles to join her older brother Garry Marshall, a writer whose credits at the time included TV’s The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966).
9. Penny Marshall first appeared on a television commercial for Head and Shoulders beautifying shampoo.
10. After her divorce from Michael Henry, Marshall worked as a secretary, and raised her daughter alone.
11. She played small roles in TV movies such as Evil Roy Slade (1972), starring Mickey Rooney (and produced by brother Garry); The Crooked Hearts (1972) starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., in which she played a waitress; The Couple Takes a Wife, starring Bill Bixby and others.
12. She lent her voice to Ms. Botz aka Ms. Botzcowski, the “babysitter bandit”, on the first produced episode of The Simpsons, and played a cameo role as herself on the HBO series Entourage.
13. After her brother encouraged her she started getting interested in directing.
14. While starring on Laverne and Shirley, she made her debut as a director and directed four episodes of that show as well as other TV assignments.
15. The actress and director had directed several successful feature films such as Big (1988) starring Tom Hanks, Awakenings (1990) starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, A League of Their Own (1992) with Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell, and The Preacher’s Wife (1996) starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston.