Cindy Williams

Cynthia Jane Williams (born August 22, 1947) is an American actress known for her role as Shirley Feeney on the television sitcom Laverne & Shirley (1976–1982).

Williams was born in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California to Francesca (née Bellini) and Beachard Williams,an electronic technician. The family moved to Dallas, Texas when she was a year old and returned to the San Fernando Valley, when she was 10. She has one sibling, a sister, Carol Ann.

Williams wrote and acted, during childhood, at a Church and later acted at Birmingham High School, graduating in 1965.She attended Los Angeles City College with a theater major.

After college, Williams began her professional career by landing national commercials, which included Foster Grant sunglasses and TWA. Her first roles in television, among others, were on Room 222, Nanny and the Professor and Love, American Style.

Williams accompanied an actor-friend from Los Angeles City College who needed a scene partner for the audition and was also accepted at The Actors Studio West, but rarely attended due to acting commitments Williams picked up important film roles early in her career: George Cukor's Travels with My Aunt (1972); as Laurie Henderson, Ron Howard's character's high school sweetheart in George Lucas's American Graffiti (1973) for which she earned a BAFTA nomination as Best Supporting Actress; and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974). She auditioned for Lucas's next project, Star Wars, but lost the role of Princess Leia to Carrie Fisher.

Williams met Penny Marshall, first on a double date, later, at Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope company, both hired as comedy writers, because "they wanted two women", on a prospective TV spoof for the Bicentennial. While writing at Zoetrope, Penny’s brother, Garry, called to ask if they would like to make a guest appearance on, Happy Days, his TV series.

In 1975, Williams was cast as a fun-loving brewery bottle capper, Shirley Feeney, in an episode of Happy Days with Penny Marshall, who played her best friend and roommate Laverne De Fazio. The girls were cast as "sure-thing" dates of Richie and Fonzie (Henry Winkler), and their appearance proved so popular that Garry Marshall, producer of Happy Days and Penny Marshall's brother, commissioned a spin-off for the characters. Williams continued her role on the very successful Laverne & Shirley from 1976 until 1982. Although praised for her portrayal of Shirley, Williams left the show after the second episode of the show's eighth and final season, after she became pregnant with her first child. Williams and co-star Marshall had been feuding for quite some time, and this had also spurred her decision to leave.They would reconcile a few years later. The success of the Garry Marshall series led to a Saturday morning animated series Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour, created by Hanna-Barbera.

In 1990, Williams returned to series TV in the short-lived sitcom Normal Life, and a couple years later, reunited with former Laverne & Shirley producers Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett to star in their family sitcom Getting By (1993–94). She has guest starred on several television shows, including two episodes of 8 Simple Rules.

Williams has performed onstage in the national tours of Grease, Deathtrap and Moon Over Buffalo, and a regional production of Nunsense. She reunited with her Laverne & Shirley co-star Eddie Mekka in a November 2008 regional production of the Renée Taylor-Joseph Bologna comedy play It Had to Be You.

She made her Broadway debut as daffy Mrs. Tottendale inThe Drowsy Chaperone at the Marquis Theatre on December 11, 2007, succeeding JoAnne Worley in the role originated by Georgia Engel.

Williams reunited with her Laverne & Shirley co-star Penny Marshall on Sam & Cat in the episode "#SalmonCat" (2013).

In 2015, her memoir Shirley, I Jest! (co-written with Dave Smitherman) was published. In the same year, Williams engaged in celebrity branding for the senior citizen service Visiting Angels.

Williams was married to Bill Hudson of the musical trio Hudson Brothers in 1982. The marriage ended in divorce in 2000. Together they have two children: a daughter, Emily (born 1982) and a son, Zachary (born 1986). Williams is a practicing Catholic.