Most superheroes are made when their feats of heroism become legendary. In awe, the world witnesses as they dominate their domain for the good of all. You know what that means? Superheroes come in all shapes and sizes. It also means that we get to tell you about one of our comediva superheroes: Penny Marshall.
The Laverne and Shirley star made her mark on America early on and across many artistic mediums, but it all began in The Bronx where she was born Carole Penelope Penny Masciarelli. Of Italian descent, Penny’s father, Anthony Wallace Masciarelli changed the family name to Marshall upon Penny’s birth. Penny took after her parents when it came to the arts. Her father was a director/producer and her mother was a dance teacher.
Though she spent her youth learning to tap dance her way into peoples’ hearts at her mother’s dance school, in 1960 she got the urge to get out of The Bronx quick. And so this comediva did. She headed west to New Mexico to study math and psychology at a local university, but after becoming a mother and after a failed marriage, she decided to join her brother, comedy writer Garry Marshall, and sister, TV producer Ronny Hallin, in Los Angeles.
Penny bounced from show to show, playing small roles on television favorites like The Odd Couple, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Mork and Mindy, but it was her guest role on Happy Days, a show her brother created, that gave Penny her comedy name to fame. In an episode called A Date with Fonze, which aired in 1975, Marshall introduced characters LaVerne DeFazio (played by Penny Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (played by Cindy Williams). Both characters were an instant sensation. Penny’s depiction of a freewheeling brewery worker and her whacky relationship with her friend is classic, and it was further made iconic by the characters’ spin-off show that followed — Laverne and Shirley. Her performance on the series ran a span of seven years and her character continued to be priceless throughout.
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If that weren’t enough, our super comediva then decided to take the comedy reigns and put on her Boss Lady hat, meaning she decided to go down a road few women at that time (and even today) had gone: directing. Though her first film, Jumpin’ Jack Flash starring Whoopi Goldberg, wasn’t a huge success, it opened the door to her directing films like Big (1988), Awakenings (1990) and A League of Their Own (1992) — a personal favorite of mine, starring Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Rosie O’Donnell and Madonna.
What Penny did with these films was super. With Big she became the first woman to direct a film that grossed more than $100 million, and with A League of Their Own she became the only female director to have two films gross more than $100 million. A large feat for a woman making comedy magic in a territory predominantly run by men. But Penny persevered and rose to the top, proving that she belonged in the big leagues with the boys.
And so, Penny Marshall is a female comedy superhero and if we should hope to have any superpowers she has, they should be her powers of confidence and courage. Because it takes just that to do what you love in this business.
