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Penny Marshall, who became a household name as Laverne in the TV sitcom 

 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, family publicist Michelle Bega tells NPR.

In the early '70s, Marshall got her start on shows like 

. She built her fame co-starring with Cindy Williams in 

, the popular sitcom created by her older brother, Garry Marshall (as was 

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 

, based on the true story of a professional women's baseball league in the 1940s.

Then, as now, film directing was a male-dominated field. In 1992, NPR reported that women made up just 10 percent of the membership of the Directors Guild, even as successful movies like Marshall's drew attention — 

 was the first film from a female director to top $100 million at the box office.

Director Ava DuVernay remembered Marshall on Twitter on Tuesday, 

 "for the trails you blazed. The laughs you gave. The hearts you warmed."

https://twitter.com/ava/status/1075107218758918144


The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the body that awards the Oscars, also remembered Marshall on Twitter, calling her "one of the greats."

 — not even when her film Awakenings was in the running for Best Picture.

Marshall's work on Laverne & Shirley was also never recognized with an Emmy nomination, as The Hollywood Reporter 

https://twitter.com/RealRonHoward/status/1075124409038450689

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1075103810765369345

Camila Domonoske

Author

Penny Marshall, who starred in "Laverne & Shirley" before becoming one of the top-grossing female directors in Hollywood, has died. She was 75.

Penny Marshall, filmmaker and 'Laverne & Shirley' star, dies at 75

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