Cindy Williams

She was born Cynthia Williams in Van Nuys, California The brown haired, blue-eyed beauty was born the daughter of Francesca Bellini and Beachard Williams. Her family was very poor (her father was an electronic technician), and Cindy grew up not in poverty, but close. She has one sister, Carol Ann Williams, and an older half-brother, Jim from her mother's first marriage. As a child, she dreamed of being an actress. She used to create and perform her own plays and, as she grew, she wished that one day, Debbie Reynolds would see her in one of those amateur shows and whisk her away and put her in a film. Another thing that brought fame to her eyes was her father (who was an alcoholic)'s imitations of comics like Jackie Gleason and Milton Berle. She worked as a waitress, while she auditioned for commercials, television guest spots, and feature films. Her first step to fame was a movie in which she tap danced with Gene Kelly. She also stepped on Mr. Kelly's foot and was "really embarrassed" as she states. After college, Williams began her professional career by landing national commercials, which included Foster Grant sunglasses and TWA. Her first roles in television, among others, were on Room 222, Nanny and the Professor and Love, American Style. She landed important film roles early in her career. First, the famed director George Cukor cast her in Travels with My Aunt (1972). Her next big role was for George Lucas in American Graffiti (1973), as Ron Howard's girlfriend, for which she earned a BAFTA nomination as Best Supporting Actress. That led to Francis Ford Coppola casting her in The Conversation (1974). Her other early film roles include Gas-s-s-s (1970), Drive, He Said (1971), Beware! The Blob (1972), the horror film The Killing Kind (1973), Mr. Ricco (1975) with Dean Martin, The First Nudie Musical (1976) and the sequel More American Graffiti (1979). She auditioned, along with thousands of others, for Star Wars (1977), for the role of Princess Leia, but it was ultimately won by Carrie Fisher. She was set up in a writing team with Penny Marshall and the girls were called by Penny's brother, Garry Marshall, to do a stint as two fast girls on Happy Days (1974). The public received them so warmly that Cindy soon got her own show Laverne & Shirley (Along with Penny) and was referred to everywhere as "Shirley Feeney". She earned a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in 1978. The success of the TV series led to a short-lived Saturday morning animated series Laverne & Shirley in the Army (1981-82), created by Hanna-Barbera She left the show in '82 due to a pregnancy from husband Bill Hudson who had previously been married to actress Goldie Hawn. The show's various producers were not enthusiastic that Williams was pregnant, as her character Shirley was not pregnant. Williams and co-star Penny Marshall had also been feuding for quite some time on the set long before Williams became pregnant. She gave birth to daughter Emily and later gave birth to a son Zachary in 1986. In 1990, Williams returned to series TV in the short-lived sitcom Normal Life, and a couple years later, reunited with former Laverne & Shirley producers Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett to star in their family sitcom Getting By (1993–94) co-starring Telma Hopkins. Williams has performed onstage in the national tours of Grease, Deathtrap and Moon Over Buffalo, and a regional production of Nunsense. She reunited with her Laverne & Shirley co-star Eddie Mekka in a November 2008 regional production of the Renée Taylor-Joseph Bologna comedy play It Had to Be You. She has guest starred on several television shows, including two episodes of 8 Simple Rules. She made her Broadway debut as daffy Mrs. Tottendale in The Drowsy Chaperone at the Marquis Theatre on December 11, 2007, succeeding JoAnne Worley in the role originated by Georgia Engel. She was in the TV movies Perry Mason: The Case of the Poisoned Pen (1990), Menu for Murder (1990), Escape from Terror: The Teresa Stamper Story (1995) and The Stepford Husbands (1996). She was a regular on the short-lived series Strip Mall (2001) with Julie Brown and Drive (2007) with Nathan Fillion. Williams reunited with Penny Marshall on the TV series Sam & Cat (2013) She has been a guest on such shows as Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Hope & Gloria, 7th Heaven, Girlfriends and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She has gone on to make a few movies, such as Rude Awakening (1989) with Keifer Sutherland and Dennis Hopper, Bingo (1991) with David Rasche and Meet Wally Sparks (1997) with Rodney Dangerfield and helped to produce The Father of The Bride movies with husband Bill, but they later divorced in 2000. In 2015, her memoir Shirley, I Jest! (co-written with Dave Smitherman) was published. In 2000. After a brief undisclosed illness, she died in Los Angeles on January 25, 2023, at the age of 75.