Penny Marshall, who became a household name playing Laverne in Laverne & Shirley and went on to direct several popular movies, has died at the age of 75.
Marshall died Monday night at her Los Angeles home from complications of diabetes, a family publicist Michelle Bega tells NPR.
Marshall built her fame as Laverne in Laverne & Shirley, the popular sitcom created by her older brother, Garry Marshall.
The Happy Days spinoff series was also where she began her directing career, directing several episodes of the show.
In the late '80s, Marshall made the leap from small-screen actress to big-screen director.
She directed Big, starring Tom Hanks as a boy in a man's body, and A League of Their Own, based on the true story of a professional women's baseball league in the 1940s.