Hollywood is mourning the loss of Cindy Williams, the optimistic foil to Penny Marshall’s Laverne in the hit 1970s sitcom Laverne & Shirley. Williams died in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a brief illness, her family told The Associated Press.
“The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed,” reads the statement from her children, Emily and Zak Hudson.
After news of Williams’ death, Hollywood shared their thoughts on social media remembering the star.
Larry Karaszewski reacted on Twitter pointing out that although Williams was best known in comedic roles on TV, she had range.
“A few years back at the Cinematheque we celebrated her feature work in two Best Picture nominees American Graffiti and The Conversation,” Karaszewski tweeted. “Cindy’s great first ‘Conversation’: ‘Every time I see one of those old guys, I always think that he was once somebody’s baby boy. He had a mother and a father who loved him and now there he is, half dead on a park bench, and where are his mother, his father, all his uncles now?’”
Bruce Kimmel (producer, Sami): “Cindy was really looking forward to promoting her new project, the short form musical series, “Sami,” which will premiere in April on Amazon Prime Video. I’ve known her since we began at LACC in 1965, have loved her from the moment I laid eyes on her, and have had so many incredible adventures with her. We were as close as close can be, from then until now. And I’ve been watching her constantly as we’ve been editing the web series we just did and wrapped only two months ago. I’m so grateful to have had her be such an important part of my life for close to sixty years. I will miss her like crazy, but I’m just so happy we got to work together one final time and I can’t wait for the show to air – she was funny, charming, and brilliant right up to the end. I’ve never known anyone like her.”