Skip to main content

‘A League Of Their Own’ and ‘Big’ director Penny Marshall has died

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Penny Marshall, who rose to fame in the long-running sitcom Laverne and Shirley and later directed popular films such as A League Of Their Own and Big, has died at age 75.

Recommended Videos

A spokesperson for Marshall’s family indicated that complications from diabetes were the cause of the actress and filmmaker’s death, according to The Washington Post.

The first woman to direct a film that made more than $100 million domestically — 1988’s body-swapping Tom Hanks comedy Big — Marshall paved the way for female filmmakers in an industry with a well-documented bias against female directors.

Marshall was born in October 1943 and first gained audiences’ attention with her portrayal of Laverne DeFazio in the popular sitcom Happy Days, created by her brother Garry Marshall. Her debut as Laverne alongside actress Cindy Williams as Shirley Feeney was so well-received by fans that their characters were given their own spin-off show, Laverne and Shirley.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Over the course of its eight-season run, Laverne and Shirley earned multiple Primetime Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards, chronicling the titular pair’s adventures while sharing an apartment and working together at a Milwaukee beer-bottling plant. By the time its third season aired, Lavern and Shirley was the most-watched American television show in production, and Marshall was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards.

After Laverne and Shirley ended its run, Marshall moved to the other side of the camera and parlayed her success as an actress into directing feature-length films.

Marshall’s directorial debut, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, premiered in 1986 and cast Whoopie Goldberg as a bank data analyst who becomes caught up with a British spy’s attempts to evade the KGB while trapped in a foreign country. The modest success of that film led her to direct Big, which went on to earn more than $115 million in U.S. theaters and received two Academy Award nominations — one for Hanks’ performance and one for the film’s screenplay.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The success of Big put Marshall in the spotlight, and she went on to make a long list of well-received films, including 1990’s Oscar-nominated drama Awakenings with Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, 1994’s Renaissance Man with Danny DeVito, and 1996’s The Preacher’s Wife with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston.

One of Marshall’s most popular films, however, would turn out to be 1992’s A League of Their Own, which offered a fictionalized story about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the 1940s. The female-led cast featured Madonna, Geena Davis, Lori Petty, and Rosie O’Donnell, with Hanks playing a supporting role as the manager of a rag-tag team of women baseball players. The film earned more than $108 million and remains the highest-grossing baseball movie of all time.

Marshall’s most recent projects include directing an upcoming biopic of former NBA star Dennis Rodman, as well as an appearance on the re-imagined The Odd Couple series for CBS in 2016. Marshall’s long career includes more than 70 acting credits and 15 directing credits, along with a long list of awards and other accolades that honor her contributions to television and film, and her role as a trail-blazing female filmmaker in Hollywood.

Rick Marshall
Former Contributing Editor, Entertainment
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
We’ll never see a movie like Jaws ever again. Here’s why
Roy Scheider as Brody looking at the camera with a shark behind him in "Jaws."

Jaws premiered in theaters on June 20, 1975, and the film industry was never the same. Essentially a slasher movie set on the high seas, many filmmakers wouldn't dare to shoot such a movie, knowing the challenges that came with it. However, a young, up-and-coming director named Steven Spielberg boldly helmed this adaptation of Peter Benchley's novel, presenting a suspenseful but heartfelt motion picture unlike anything seen before.

Although Jaws faced numerous challenges from script to screen, Spielberg and his team overcame the odds and delivered the world's first summer blockbuster. After fifty years, three sequels, and several imitators, no one has come close to replicating the extraordinary magic and success of Spielberg's oceanic horror adventure. Although stories likeĀ AlienĀ and Stranger Things have thrived from drawing influence from Jaws, audiences may never experience another blockbuster quite like Spielberg's breakout hit.

Read more
3 underrated HBO Max movies you should watch this weekend (June 20-22)
Karl Urban in Dredd.

Fans of documentaries will notice several high-profile ones on the HBO homepage. One of the latest offerings is Surviving Ohio State, an in-depth look into the Ohio State sexual abuse scandal that went unnoticed for two decades. The other docuseries involves Karen Read's murder case, which is fresh in the news after the stunning verdict.

Documentaries are not the only projects on HBO Max. There is an abundance of underrated movies ready to stream with the click of a button. One of those movies is Cleaner, a new action thriller about a former soldier thrust into a hostage situation. Stream Cleaner and two more movies below.

Read more
3 underrated Amazon Prime Video movies you should watch this weekend (June 20-22)
Two men stand next to each other and stare.

In addition to being a central hub for many people's shopping, Amazon also has a pretty impressive library of streaming titles. If you're looking for something to watch, you might be overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices available.

If you're looking for a way to hone in on what you'd actually like to watch, we've got you covered. We've pulled together three great, underrated movies that are all available on Prime Video and are all well worth your time:

Read more