As a writer, director, producer and actor, few in Hollywood made audiences laugh, fall in love, and cry across both television and film quite like Garry Marshall. With a career that spanned multiple generations of fans, he’s left plenty of memories behind, but sadly the man himself is no longer with us — Garry Marshall has passed away at the age of 81.
Cutting his teeth as a joke writer, and scribe for “The Tonight Show” during the Jack Paar era, Marshall made his way to Hollywood, and put his pen to a number of notable series including “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Lucy Show,” but it wasn’t long before he’d made a big impression. In 1974, “Happy Days” hit the air, created and executive produced by Marshall, and he pretty much didn’t look back. There series spawned “Laverne and Shirley,” and in 1978, Marshall would launch another massive hit with “Mork & Mindy.”
On the film front, Marshall directed his first feature with the 1982 spoof “Young Doctors In Love,” but it was 1984’s “The Flamingo Kid” where he made his mark, and again, it was just the start of big things to come. “Beaches,” “Pretty Woman,” “Runaway Bride,” and “The Princess Diaries,” were all commercial hits for Marshall that have also endured with critical and audience favor as well. The filmmaker’s style was largely wholesome, largely eschewing the more mean-spirited or raunchy comedy that has become the current flavor. It may have left Marshall out of step in recent years, but it also wasn’t so long ago that “Valentine’s Day” and “New Year’s Eve” were big hits.
Marshall’s imprint on the film and television industry can’t be understated. He launched the careers of many, from Henry Winkler to Julia Roberts, created a catalog of television shows and films that are beloved, and perhaps most importantly, he simply entertained. For over four decades, Marshall has been in our homes and movie theaters, and he will be missed.
