Laverne (Penny Marshall) to write memoirs
Most Americans think of Penny Marshall as Laverne DeFazio, the title character of the popular TV show Laverne and Shirley. I think of her as the first female director to make a movie (Big, A League of Their Own) that grossed over $100 million.
Laverne (Penny Marshall) to write memoirs
Carrie Rickey
Most Americans think of Penny Marshall as Laverne DeFazio, the title character of the popular TV show Laverne and Shirley. I think of her as the first female director to make movies (Big, A League of Their Own) that grossed over $100 million.
From her modest beginnings as an extra in television commercials (she played the stringy-haired one in an ad where Farrah Fawcett had the shiny, bouncy locks) to her unofficial role as Hollywood godmother of comedy (and official godmother to Carrie Fisher's daughter, Billie), the Bronx-born Marshall was present at the creation of entertainment classics. On TV she worked with James L. Brooks and her brother Gary; she was married to Rob Reiner and produced a movie by Ron Howard. She directed Whoopi, Madonna and Tom Hanks.
She was cast in many defining TV shows, starred in one of her own (and directed many of its episodes). In the movies she directed, Marshall hit a sweet spot between slapstick and emotionalism. She saw qualities in actors not apparent to male directors.
Has Tom Hanks ever been better than he was in Marshall's Big? Has Denzel Washington ever been suaver than in A Preacher's Wife? Madonna ever been as easygoing and unselfconscious as in A League of Their Own?
Those three features are my favorite Marshall movies. They are in the category that Glen Macnow calls "click and stick movies" -- if you're cable-surfing you inevitably stop and watch them. Besides those three films, I'm also fond of Awakenings, which she directed, and Cinderella Man, which she produced.
Your thoughts?
I'd be curious to read Laverne's memoir. I suspect she'd be a bit unfiltered in discussing her experiences as an actress and as a female director. I will agree she's good at directing actors, but her movies are hit and miss for me. BIG is amusing, and perhaps her best. But I do like them more than her brother Garry's.— gmk- It's funny about taste and how it can wildly differ among people. I'm sort of fond of Awakenings, but not at all an admirer of the other Marshall-directed works you mention. And I think Laverne & Shirley is terrible. I do love Penny Marshall's performance in Albert Brooks' Searching For Comedy In The Muslim World, however.— ccjroberts
- Watching "Laverne & Shirley," who would have guessed that Laverne would become a prominent director, and Lenny (Michael McKean) would have a pretty good film career as well? I liked "Big," which came out at about the same time as three other old-young-switcheroo comedies ("Like Father Like Son," "18 Again," and "Vice Versa") but had more heart than the other three put together. Meanwhile, why is there a photo of Ozzy Osbourne on this page?— J H
