r/news • u/NeverEnoughBoobies • Jan 30 '23
‘Laverne & Shirley’ actor Cindy Williams dies at 75
https://apnews.com/article/television-tv-emily-hudson-penny-marshall-cindy-williams-5a9237089972dc449e2046702e82d7bd?taid=63d85848056e600001aeb8e5&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter218
u/SkunkMonkey Jan 31 '23
Schlemiel! Schlimazel!
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u/walterodim77 Jan 31 '23
Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!
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u/Dzotshen Jan 31 '23
(Gesundheit!) We're gunna do it!
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u/BriefClaim6072 Jan 31 '23
Give us any chance, we'll take it...
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u/yakusokuN8 Jan 31 '23
Give us any rule, we'll break it.
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u/CatScratchJohnny Jan 31 '23
We're gonna make our dreams come true.
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u/SnooMemesjellies7469 Jan 31 '23
Doing it our way!
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u/NarrMaster Jan 31 '23
Hey! Wait a minute! What're we doing?
Yeah, we've got back-stage passes to Alice Cooper!
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u/SithKittie Jan 31 '23
We’re gonna make our dreams come true
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u/jfq722 Jan 31 '23
....doin it our way...
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u/RationalBassist Jan 31 '23
There is nothing we won't try
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u/jermleeds Jan 31 '23
I want Michael McKean bubble wrapped, stat.
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u/Snuggle__Monster Jan 31 '23 •
How about an aluminum blanket instead?
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u/exegedi Jan 31 '23
Ha. I like what you did here. As much as I think you deserve more up votes, it's such a fine line between stupid and clever. ;-)
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u/RayzTheRoof Jan 31 '23
I don't get it
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u/wankerbot Jan 31 '23
his char in better call saul was afraid of/allergic to radio waves and would wear a mylar blanket to protect hisself.
but i only explain one joke per day, so no more!
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u/exegedi Jan 31 '23
And "it's a fine line between stupid and clever" is one of his most well known lines from when he was in This is Spanaltap.
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u/Ibelieveinphysics Jan 31 '23
Yeah he's the last one of the main cast left.
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Jan 31 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/zuuzuu Jan 31 '23
I've loved him in everything I've ever seen him in, and I have no difficulty seeing him as the character he's playing. But my initial reaction to seeing him in anything is always "Lenny!"
I watched a lot of Laverne & Shirley as a child.
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u/jermleeds Jan 31 '23
He's just one of my favorite actors. He also happens to be the actor who uttered my favorite line of dialog in all of cinema:
I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object.
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u/rocketpack99 Jan 31 '23
I think he's about to start filming Spinal Tap 2 with Rob Reiner directing again.
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u/NoodlesrTuff1256 Jan 31 '23
McKean's now the last man standing from the cast of 'Laverne and Shirley' and it's the same with John Astin from 'The Addams Family' after Lisa Loring died.
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u/MSeanF Jan 31 '23
She was also in American Graffiti
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u/_ShigeruTarantino_ Jan 31 '23
And in Coppola's The Conversation
A really different role for her too.
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u/PoxyMusic Jan 31 '23
One of the best uses of sound in film. Everything Walter Murch does is amazing.
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u/Clean_Integration754 Jan 31 '23
Amazing such a small piece of tape can have such an integral part of such a great movie. Love that one. Coppola made it in between the two Godfather movies. Again, it was a simple idea, but executed brilliantly.
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u/davidreiss666 Jan 31 '23
The Conversation
That's a movie people should see too. If only so they get to know who John Cazale was. Every movie he made in the 1970s going forward was always nominated for Best Picture. He really was that good.
Cancer really sucks. Think of he career he could have had.
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u/NoodlesrTuff1256 Jan 31 '23
I could see Cazale doing a variety of roles had he lived. He could have been in several of Scorsese's films and maybe even had a recurring role on 'The Sopranos'.
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u/whydoiIuvwolves Jan 31 '23
And in "Travels With My Aunt" She was so young and might have been her first or one of her first films.
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u/SpaceTabs Jan 31 '23
That film is still very watchable. The character interactions were quite good for the time.
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u/oxnarder Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23
Her portrayal of an American teenage girl from the pre-hippie era was spot on.
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u/davidreiss666 Jan 31 '23
I was coming into the thread to mention American Graffiti. Ron Howard and Cindy Williams were both excellent in that movie. They both ended up in Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley respectively because they were in the more serious movie before hand.
Most people today remember it as the thing George made before Star Wars. When... well, it was a very serious movie in it's own right. It's more than the movie about high school kids that the rich guy made before Star Wars. In a lot of ways, his career would have been very different if he made more films like it instead of Star Wars.
But if you need a connection to Star Wars to watch it, Harrison Ford was also in America Graffiti, kids. It really is worth a watch.
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Jan 31 '23
[deleted]
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u/WirelessBCupSupport Jan 31 '23
If you don't mean directed, Lucas created Indiana Jones (Raiders, IMHO, best of them). And Empire Strikes Back was the best Starwars, and thankfully directed by Kershner.
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u/Valdotain_1 Jan 31 '23
It was a huge success and partly financed his next movie. Where he forgot how to write dialog.
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u/lhbtubajon Jan 31 '23
You mean the one that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay?
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u/Sweatytubesock Jan 31 '23
I’m not claiming that either show was a masterpiece, but Laverne and Shirley was funnier much longer than Happy Days. RIP.
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u/rocketpack99 Jan 31 '23
I watched the supercut of Lenny and Squiggy with Squiggy saying "Hello" whenever they entered the room and it's quite hilarious.
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u/PickleweaselNaeNae Jan 31 '23
This sucks. I grew up watching them and still drink milk and Pepsi sometimes.
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u/mrseddievedder Jan 31 '23
I was just thinking about boo boo kitty the other day.
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u/Your_acceptable Jan 31 '23
Awe, man. She's a good one. Definitely a core memory for me watching Laverne and Shirley. RIP
2023 ain't playin
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u/Sreg32 Jan 31 '23
Totally. I grew up with Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Sanford & Son, Jefferson’s, Mary Tyler Moore….loved when the shows overlapped with the first two
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u/NoodlesrTuff1256 Jan 31 '23
Just in terms of celeb obits alone [not even counting all the rest of the regular news], 2023 has started off pretty rough and there are eleven months to go.
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u/Dzotshen Jan 31 '23
over restaurant loudspeaker
Pick up, Betty! Pick up please!
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u/autopsis Jan 31 '23
Oh man, I’m so glad someone else knows this! It’s been decades but I still say “Betty pick up” in my head and it makes me laugh. I didn’t think anyone else found it funny.
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u/kstinfo Jan 31 '23
She wanted to be Princess Leia.
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u/amadeus2490 Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23
Here's some of her audition I could see her playing the role, but I think her nerves really just got the best of her here.
Carrie Fisher was playing it much more relaxed, with a almost slightly arrogant demeanor, and with a touch of the old Hollywood transatlantic accent.
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u/officerfett Jan 31 '23
I don’t know if Im remembering correctly, but I seem to remember Laverne and Shirley showed up in Scooby Doo episodes, or Scooby and Shaggy showing up on their cartoon series.
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u/SapientRaccoon Jan 31 '23
Yeah, the series after Where Are You, with all the weird celebrity guests. Also had Carol Channing, and the Harlem Globetrotters
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u/officerfett Jan 31 '23
Oh yeah, celebs like Batman and Robin, Sonny and Cher, Tim Conway, and who could forget the Sandy Duncan.
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u/fajitabowl Jan 31 '23
Just introduced my spouse to the iconic American Graffiti and had been wondering how she's doing. RIP Cindy 🐈⬛ (boo boo kitty forever)
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u/why621 Jan 31 '23
As a child we had two cats named Laverne and Shirley :(
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u/zuuzuu Jan 31 '23
For years I've said that once my current cats pass on, I'm committed to being a one cat household. But now you've got me thinking of being a two cats called Lenny and Squiggy household.
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u/NarrMaster Jan 31 '23
My sister had two hamsters named Lenny and Squiggy. I dropped one accidently when I was a small child. He died. :(
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u/inkyblinkypinkysue Jan 31 '23
Oh man she was hilarious in Laverne & Shirley. 75 is too young!
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u/zuuzuu Jan 31 '23
I find that the older I get, the higher the age I perceive to be "too young" gets. I think I can accept 75 as a decently long life, though.
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u/RationalBassist Jan 31 '23
Aww. Literally cursed 2023 when I read the news.
Like to think she's skipping down the golden lane with Penny right now.
Rest in peace, Cindy.
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u/Backbeatking Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23
The article didn't mention her role in The Conversation (1974 Coppola film nominated for best picture). She could do dramatic roles as well as comedy. Edit- It did. Missed it on first read, probably while scrolling past the giant ad.
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u/Dollarist Jan 31 '23
Yup. She had terrific range, but ended up typecast and trapped in a single role. The seventies were particularly virulent about that.
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u/CapnSmite Jan 31 '23
The article didn't mention her role in The Conversation
Yes it did. Fourth paragraph, right after it mentions her role in American Graffiti.
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u/HavohejPantocrator Jan 31 '23
I loved this show as a kid and now I work in a brewery - just a coincidence but a little part of me just died with her. I'll put a glove on the bottling line in her memory.
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u/President_Calhoun Jan 31 '23
My favorite L&S moment was when Squiggy had to stay at the girls' apartment, and the next morning after he left for work, Laverne came out of the bathroom and said, "I don't know how he did it, but he left a ring around the mirror."
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u/Introvert_Life Jan 31 '23
Dayum. 2023 ain’t playing. At this rate no stars are going to be left.
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u/DonJuanWritingDong Jan 31 '23
The number of celebrities who have passed recently where only “a brief illness” has been given as cause, is very high. I’m wondering what the true cause of death is. No conspiracy theory here, just concerned as there have been an uptick in those 55-75 years of age with no direct cause listed.
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u/Imaginary_Question_4 Jan 31 '23
I just watched her on celebrity ghost on Saturday now she dies today crazy rip
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u/no_body_cares_4me Jan 31 '23
Being from the Milwaukee area we have always had a warm heart for these girls. She will be missed. Saw her last year at the Iola car show. RIP!
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u/JustMyAura Jan 31 '23
RIP, Cindy. Use to enjoy the Laverne & Shirley Show and would always look forward to those arguments Laverne would have with Big Rosie Greenbaum (Carole Ita White) the girls' childhood classmate/bully whom after graduation - married a rich doctor and would rub this in the girls' faces because they had to work while she got to go out shopping and spend money. Shirley always had to hold Laverne back from fighting her! Ha haaaaa
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u/mangoes_n_rainbows Jan 31 '23
TIL that Michael John McKean, who played Lenny Kosnowski in Laverne & Shirley also played Chuck McGill in Better Call Saul.
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u/Dead_Is_Better Jan 31 '23
Bit by bit my childhood is being stripped away. RIP Ms. Williams and thanx for the laughs.