Garry Marshall
Garry Marshall made his name in network television comedy, where he created the hit series “Happy Days,” “Laverne & Shirley” (starring his sister, Penny) and “Mork & Mindy,” before moving to the big screen where he directed the hit films “Beaches,” “Pretty Woman” and “The Princess Diaries,” among others. He died on July 19, 2016.
Marshall worked as a joke writer in New York for “The Tonight Show” with Jack Paar before coming to Hollywood in the early 1960s where he and co-writer Jerry Belson worked on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Joey Bishop Show,” “The Danny Thomas Show,” “The Lucy Show” and did the television adaptation of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple.”
He launched the careers of several little-known actors into the stratosphere. On “Happy Days,” Marshall helped to make Henry Winkler a TV icon as Fonzie, with his leather jacket and thumbs up “Heyyyyy” catchphrase. He later gave rising comedian Robin Williams his first starring role as the bizarre alien Mork from Ork in “Mork & Mindy.”
In 1990, Marshall directed Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy “Pretty Woman” opposite Richard Gere. The film became Marshall’s biggest hit, grossing $463 million worldwide and turned Roberts into a superstar. He also hired an unknown Anne Hathaway to star opposite Julie Andrews in “The Princess Diaries,” which became a box office hit and made Hathaway a marquee name.
Marshall also occasionally acted, with notable appearances in his sister Penny’s film “A League of Their Own” and on the CBS sitcom “Murphy Brown.”
Marshall died July 19, 2016, of complications from pneumonia after having a stroke at a hospital in Burbank. He was 81
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