Carole Penny Marshall (October 15, 1943 - December 17, 2018) was an American actress, producer and director. After playing several small roles for television, she was cast as Laverne DeFazio in the sitcom Laverne & Shirley. A ratings success, the show ran from 1976 until 1983, and Marshall received three Golden Globe award nominations for her performance. She progressed to directing films such as Big (1988), the first film directed by a woman to gross in excess of $100 million at the U.S. box office, Awakenings (1990), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and A League of …