Another great has left us in 2016. Actor, director, writer and producer Garry Marshall has past away at the age of 81. He reportedly died of complications from pneumonia.
Garry Marshall was born in New York City on November 13, 1934 and his credits included creating “Happy Days” and developing “The Odd Couple” for television. He directed the movies Young Doctors in Love, The Flamingo Kid, Nothing In Common, Overboard, Beaches, Pretty Woman, Frankie and Johnny, Exit to Eden, Dear God, The Other Sister, Runaway Bride, The Princess Diaries, Raising Helen, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Georgia Rule, Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, and most recently, Mother’s Day.
He was also behind many TV shows, such as “Mork & Mindy” and “Laverne & Shirley.”
“Garry Marshall’s filmography – from ‘The Joey Bishop Show’ to ‘Happy Days’ – is a virtual history of American television comedy. Both of-their-time and timeless, his shows are a gentle, generous, comic mirror held up to late mid-century America. And no one is a finer or funnier chronicler of friendship – male or female (or alien) – than Garry Marshall. Beloved both for his iconic work and the warmth of his spirit, today we rightly place him on the short list of the best of our best,” said WGAW President Christopher Keyser in 2014 when Marshall would receive the WGAW Television Laurel Award.
Marshall earned five Emmy Award nominations and was the recipient of the Producers Guild of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Television in 1998. He was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Science’s Hall of Fame in 1997.
Marshall is survived by his wife Barbara, whom he married in 1963, his sisters Penny Marshall and Ronny Hallin, his children Kathleen, Scott, and Lori, as well as six grandchildren.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)