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      Cindy Williams’s 6 Best Moments Onscreen

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      Her comedic work in “Laverne & Shirley” was career-defining. But the actress had other chops, too. Here’s a look at some of her best work and where to see it.To most people, the actress Cindy Williams, who died on Wednesday at age 75, was synonymous with Shirley Feeney of the hit 1970s and ’80s sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” a spinoff of “Happy Days” about two unattached women in the 1950s and ’60s. But Williams was much more than that character. She had serious dramatic chops, as evidenced in her early film work. And as a comic actor, she demonstrated a Lucille Ball-like ability to combine sweetness and slapstick.Still, Shirley was a career-defining role — a lively, sometimes demure, sometimes daring bottle-capper at Shotz Brewery, in Milwaukee. The show resurrected a vintage style of zany comedy that freed up Williams and her co-star, Penny Marshall, to act both more adult and more childish at the same time. Audiences ate it up, and the show ran for eight seasons.Of the two lead characters, Shirley was the more relatable, restrained of the two, which made her moments of cutting loose just that much more memorable: Watch her hungry and diving for food on the floor in “Guinea Pigs” (Season 2, Episode 14); going agro in “Tag Team Wrestling” (Season 3, Episode 2); drunk-crawling across the dinner table in “Shirley and the Older Man” (Season 4, Episode 24); or panicking while chained to a giant computer, in protest of the local power company, in “The Right to Light” (Season 5, Episode 17).Since much of her best work was steeped in nostalgia, it seems only fitting to look back at a few career highlights, with some tips on where to stream them.‘American Graffiti’ (1973)In this hit boys-coming-of-age movie from George Lucas that set off a wave of 1950s and ’60s nostalgia (see “Happy Days,” two years later), Cindy Williams pulled off the difficult trick of standing out in a stardom-bound cast that includes Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford and Ron Howard. In it, Williams plays a high-school head cheerleader who is losing her class-president boyfriend (Howard) as he heads off to college. In one great scene, he proposes that they see other people while he’s away; in an even better one, set at a school dance, she breaks the news to him that she has always been the controlling force in their relationship. You might be tempted to follow this memorable pair into adulthood in the sequel “More American Graffiti,” but don’t bother — it’s better if they stay 17 forever. (Read the original review of “American Graffiti” here.)Rent it on Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube and other major platforms.‘The Conversation’ (1974)In her earliest roles, Williams was often cast as a best friend or ingénue — a sweet slip of a girl and not much more. But in this paranoid thriller from Francis Ford Coppola, she showed us something darker. Playing one half of a young couple being covertly recorded by Gene Hackman’s security pro Harry Caul, Williams sounds at first — on audio tape — like the embodiment of innocence. But as Harry applies filters to clean up his recordings, the carefully nuanced nature of Williams’s line readings slowly becomes clear, and we’re left wondering whether her character might be the spider in this web of deceit. (Read the original review here.)Stream it on Showtime; rent it on most major platforms.‘Happy Days’ (1975)Season 3, Episode 10: ‘A Date With Fonzie’Following her dramatic turn in “The Conversation,” Williams was tapped to join her comedy-writing partner, Penny Marshall, in what was intended to be a one-time guest appearance on this popular sitcom set in the 1950s. In the episode’s story line, Fonzie (Henry Winkler) enlists Laverne (Marshall) and Shirley (Williams) to go on a double date with him and Richie (Howard), for whom Shirley was thought to be an easy conquest. Williams had a relaxed chemistry with Howard (who played her boyfriend in “American Graffiti”), but this time, her character got to enjoy herself. The Shirley persona freed Williams up: She was funny, cute and sexy, and she had a mean right hook. Naturally, Richie — and the audience — wanted to see more of her and her bestie, which in TV-world meant a spinoff featuring the twosome was in order.Stream it on Paramount+.‘Laverne & Shirley’Season 5, Episode 25 (‘The Diner’)“Laverne & Shirley” helped fine-tune a certain type of sitcom convention — the female duo, the “hangout” comedy — but if you want to do a deep dive, stick with Seasons 1 to 5. Once Laverne and Shirley move from Milwaukee to California in Season 6, the quality declines.For one of the funniest episodes, head over to “The Diner,” where the gals (briefly) take over the diner left to Lenny (Michael McKean) by his late uncle Lazlo (renamed Dead Lazlo’s Place, where you can get a Dead Lazlo Burger). It’s got the physical comedy: Laverne cooks and Shirley serves, resorting to carrying items to tables with her mouth. It’s also got some of the best lines, especially when the customers don’t even have the decency to call Shirley by her right name. You’ll want to plead, along with Laverne, “Please don’t harass Betty, please!”Stream much of Season 1 to 5 free on Pluto; bootlegs of individual episodes are easy to find online.Season 4, Episode 3: ‘Playing the Roxy’One of the best things about Season 4 is how many Shirley-centric episodes there are. In “Playing the Roxy,” the gal pals were reading a trashy story about a stripper before Shirley hits her head; suddenly, she believes she is that stripper, the best exotic dancer in North America. If Shirley’s body is a temple, Roxy’s is an amusement park — and Williams throws herself into the role with gusto, practicing bumps and grinds against a doorframe before staging an elaborate burlesque performance. If anything signaled that Williams wasn’t content to play it safe, it was this.Season 4, Episode 7: ‘A Date With Eraserhead’Granted, some of the sitcom’s plots are outlandish and require a suspension of disbelief. But then, occasionally, some are incredibly realistic. What would your best friend do if she believed your boyfriend was cheating on you? In “A Date With Eraserhead,” Laverne confronts Shirley’s beau, Carmine (Eddie Mekka), on her friend’s behalf (“I’ll hold him, you hit him”), only to learn that the couple has “an understanding” — that’s to say, an open relationship. This episode may not have the usual comic centerpiece, but it feels more true to the relationships at the core of the series, and Williams gets to show a few sides of Shirley that we might not have suspected were there, including heartbreak, jealousy and perhaps even love. More

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      ‘Schoolhouse Rock!’ at 50: Those Are Magic Numbers

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      The educational snippets are the ultimate font of Gen X nostalgia. But what is it we’re nostalgic for?When I was in second grade, my teacher held a contest: The first students to memorize their multiplication tables would get dinner at McDonald’s. I was one of them. I’d like to credit hard work or the motivation of those golden fries, but in truth it was easy. I learned it from “Schoolhouse Rock.”It was not the last time that watching too much TV would pay off for me, but it was perhaps the sweetest.If you were an American kid around when I was (nineteen-seventy-cough), you probably have “Schoolhouse Rock” hard-wired into your brain too. The musical shorts, which began airing on ABC in 1973, taught Generation X multiplication, grammar, history and, eventually, nostalgia.That last lesson stuck best. Winona Ryder and company crooned “Conjunction Junction” and “I’m Just a Bill” in the 1994 generational-statement film “Reality Bites.” De La Soul borrowed “Three Is a Magic Number” as the backbone for their buoyant self-introduction, “The Magic Number,” in 1989. Nostalgia for “Schoolhouse Rock” is now itself old enough to be nostalgic for.On Wednesday, ABC will tap into that spirit with a prime time “50th Anniversary Singalong,” in which the Black Eyed Peas, the Muppets, Shaquille O’Neal and others will hook up the words, phrases and clauses of the Saturday-morning favorites.The Muppets are among the many guest stars who will appear in the ABC special “Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong.”Christopher Willard/ABCThe special promises wholesome family fun, and I can think of worse things to do on a weeknight than musically unpacking my adjectives in the judgment-free zone of my living room. But nostalgia is not just a fun emotion. Like some of the best “Schoolhouse Rock” songs, it carries a note of wistfulness.More on U.S. Schools and EducationHeavy Losses: A new global analysis suggests that children experienced learning deficits during the Covid-19 pandemic that amounted to about one-third of a school year’s worth of knowledge and skills.Police in Schools: Footage of a student’s violent arrest by a school resource officer has raised questions about the role of armed officers on campuses.Transgender Youth: Educators are facing new tensions over whether they should tell parents when students change their name, pronouns or gender expression at school.In Florida: The state will not allow a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies to be offered in its high schools, citing examples of what it calls “woke indoctrination.”In this case, it’s a reminder of a time when network TV gave us a common culture, language and lyrics, before we were sliced into subcultures and demographics. Pre-internet, pre-cable, pre-DVD — pre-VHS, even — “Schoolhouse Rock” convened a classroom of millions for three-minute servings of revolutionary art alongside installments of “The Great Grape Ape Show.”Like much classic kids’ TV, “Schoolhouse Rock” was brought to you by Madison Avenue. The ad executive David McCall, who noticed that his son could memorize pop songs but struggled with arithmetic, suggested to George Newall, a creative director, and Thomas Yohe, an art director, that they figure out how to set math to music.As Newell told the Times in 1994, they pitched the idea to Michael Eisner, then the director of children’s programming at ABC, who happened to be meeting with the legendary Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones. “I think you should buy it right away,” Jones said.Unlike the dutiful news interstitials that vitamin-fortified other Saturday-morning cartoon lineups, “Schoolhouse Rock” harnessed the power of comedy and ear worms. The facts and figures made it educational. But they weren’t what made it art.That was the animation, psychedelically colorful and chock-full of rapid-fire slapstick gags. Above all, there was the sophisticated music. The jazz composer Bob Dorough wrote the banger-filled first season, “Multiplication Rock,” surveying a range of styles from the duodecimal prog-rock of “Little Twelvetoes” to the spiraling lullaby of “Figure Eight.”The lyrics were sly and funny but could also detour, like a fidgety schoolkid sitting by the window, into daydreams. The blissful “Three Is a Magic Number” isn’t just a primer on multiples; it’s a rumination on the triad foundations of the universe, from geometry to love. (If your voice does not break singing, “A man and a woman had a little baby,” you’re doing something wrong.)The following seasons, about grammar, American history and science, added other contributors, including Lynn Ahrens, the future Broadway songwriter thanks to whom an entire generation cannot recite the preamble to the Constitution without breaking into song.The short “Conjunction Junction” was referenced in the 1994 film “Reality Bites,” a sign that nostalgia for “Schoolhouse Rock” is now itself old enough to be nostalgic for.ABC, via Everett CollectionThe words and numbers in “Schoolhouse Rock” were never just words and numbers. Like the early years of “Sesame Street,” the shorts had an anarchic spirit and a pluralistic sensibility. “I Got Six” is a funk explosion whose Afrocentric animation includes a dashiki-ed African prince with six rings on all 10 fingers. “Verb: That’s What’s Happening” — imagine if Curtis Mayfield taught your English class — depicts a Black superhero long before Black Panther made it to the movie screen.When my kids were school-aged, I got the full “Schoolhouse Rock” DVD set for them, which is to say, I got it for me. (You can now stream the ’70s seasons, plus a brief 1980s series about computers and a clunky 1990s revival, “Money Rock,” through Disney+.)Rewatching the series taught me about a new subject: Time.The songs are as catchy as ever. But to screen “Schoolhouse Rock” as an adult is to visit a different period in cultural history, and not just because of the bell-bottoms. The America of “Schoolhouse Rock” was divided by Vietnam and Watergate, but it could at least subscribe to basic common facts and civic principles.Consider Bill, the underdog paper hero of “I’m Just a Bill,” longing to become a law that would keep that cartoon school bus safe at railroad crossings. Now he’s a time traveler, from a pre-Reagan age when government activism, however imperfect, was considered a force for good.Today, with culture-warring politicians like the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, red-penciling school curriculums, weaponizing pronouns and hammering history teachers for “indoctrination,” the potential land mines add up. “The Great American Melting Pot” did not imagine a future president telling asylum seekers, “Our country is full.” When “Interjections” depicted a doctor giving a child a shot, it did not anticipate legislators denouncing Big Bird for advocating childhood vaccination.A scene from the anniversary special. Whatever its flaws, “Schoolhouse Rock” told children that they counted with the same numbers and were entitled to the same rights.Christopher Willard/ABC(Likewise, when “Elementary, My Dear” taught counting by twos with a gospel-style Noah’s Ark song, it didn’t fear repercussions for bringing religion into kids’ TV.)And that’s before you even get to “Science Rock.” “The Energy Blues” makes a matter-of-fact pitch for conservation that would cause smoke eruptions today. (In 2009, a climate-focused season, “Earth Rock” went straight to DVD.) When “Schoolhouse Rock” showed kids a three-minute video on how the body worked, there was no internet algorithm to suggest a rebuttal by someone who “did his own research.”That said, I wouldn’t romanticize the “Schoolhouse Rock” era as a paradise of educational consensus. In 1974, the year before the “America Rock” season began, protesters against desegregation in Boston threw rocks at buses carrying Black students. And the series had its own blind spots, which historians and educators have since pointed out.In particular, “America Rock,” an upbeat celebration of the bicentennial, covers the American Revolution and women’s suffrage but skips over the Civil War and slavery. (The Roots filled in this hole in a 2017 episode of “black-ish” with “I Am a Slave,” about Juneteenth.) “Elbow Room” is a jaunty story of westward expansion from the point of view of white settlers, with little note of who got elbowed out. (One scene shows a settler taking a toy arrow through his hat.) America’s unflattering history didn’t make the cut because mass broadcasting meant not alienating the masses.But whatever its limits, “Schoolhouse Rock” at least told us we were equal: We counted with the same numbers, our hearts pumped the same blood, we were entitled to the same inalienable rights.And it operated in a period when people saw the same media and accepted the same facts. Months after its premiere, the Watergate hearings also aired on national TV. They were able eventually to turn even many Republicans against President Nixon, in part because Americans watched the same story together, without a partisan cable and internet ecosystem to spin the investigation as a witch hunt.It’s tempting to say that you couldn’t make “Schoolhouse Rock” again today. But I’m sure you could, even if it would be slightly different. Current kids’ shows like Netflix’s “We the People” are in a way exactly that. What you couldn’t create again today is the mass audience, or the context in which we assembled, one nation, sitting cross-legged in front of our cathode-ray teacher.Instead, we have “Schoolhouse Rock” binge-watches and sing-alongs, which, like all exercises in nostalgia, offer the tantalizing pleasure of stretching to touch yesterday, though we know we can’t. The past is like infinity, a concept that “Schoolhouse Rock” also introduced to my generation. “No one ever gets there,” as “My Hero, Zero” taught us. “But you could try.” More

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      Why Gina Rodriguez Put Mumford & Sons on Her Birth Playlist

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      The actress spent her pregnancy making a new TV series, “Not Dead Yet,” and watching “WandaVision.”In the ABC sitcom “Not Dead Yet,” premiering Feb. 8, Nell Serrano is an obituary writer who, according to the subject of one of her assignments — yes, she’s visited by the dead — envies other people’s happiness.Gina Rodriguez, who is expecting her first child, spoke with us last month, saying that she’s in a different, happier place than Nell, whom she plays, but she knows things could change at any time. “I’m learning at every single turn,” she said.Previously the star of the CW television series “Jane the Virgin” and heard in the title role of the Netflix animated series “Carmen Sandiego,” Rodriguez shared some of the music on her birth playlist, as well as other things that have been helping her get by, including “WandaVision” and “Be Here Now.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. “WandaVision” I started watching the show during my pregnancy. At first I was like, what is this show? It’s a take on “I Love Lucy”? And then I saw that it’s all wrapped up in her grief. The power of human emotion and the unconscious decisions that we make when we’re in these spaces of love and longing and grief are just wild and awesome. Its portrayal of a human journey through the possibility of action based on an unconscious emotion is really interesting to me.2. Ram Dass My husband discovered Ram Dass and brought him into our relationship. I find the way he viewed the world and the journey he went on to be very helpful to me. We have, like, 14 copies of his book “Be Here Now,” because it’s our No. 1 present we give people. Every time I listen to the audiobook “Becoming Nobody,” I learn something new, and I’m reminded that I fall right back into things, such as feeling like my identity is my everything and my ego gets attached to the identity.3. Failure In my production company, we want to create a safe space for failure because it’s only in failure that you learn. And if you don’t get another chance after failure, it is such an unfortunate missed opportunity for growth. When you have a space where you can fail, you do better, you get stronger and you say, “OK, I’m not going to do it like this, I’m going to try it like this. Or that path didn’t work, let’s try this next path.”4. “The Dawn of Everything” I have always been interested in the history of humankind. It’s so interesting that every time we personify people of the past, they’re not as intelligent and not as civilized. I picked up David Graeber and David Wengrow’s “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” on a Barnes & Noble shopping spree. It’s riveting. It presents such an interesting perspective on the history of humanity, and it makes me think about everything just a little bit more.5. Bidet When we remodeled our home, we had a combination toilet/bidet put in our primary bedroom. It is a game changer. When we go overseas and the bidet is a separate unit, I’m like, this is fabulous. It should be like this everywhere.6. “My Brilliant Friend” After we shot “Annihilation,” Natalie Portman gave me Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels series as a wrap gift. I have read each of them multiple times. Starting with “My Brilliant Friend,” they are the most whisk-you-away, escape-into-another-person’s-world books. I love them so much. It was the best wrap gift I’ve ever gotten. And I always think about Natalie when I read them.7. Mumford & Sons I have a playlist of songs to listen to when I give birth. Several Mumford & Sons songs are on the playlist, including “Little Lion Man,” “Awake My Soul” and “I Will Wait.” They sing like they’re connected to the center of the universe. It makes me feel a sense of closeness to my ancestors, even though it’s not the kind of music my ancestors listened to. There’s just a spirituality to their music. Whether they were writing that or not, that’s what I respond to.8. Bad Bunny My fellow Puerto Rican artist is definitely the music of my ancestors. I think he is super innovative. He’s been able to introduce styles of music, such as merengue, that haven’t been popular in the United States. Bad Bunny makes me feel every nostalgia under the sun of my childhood. And I just think he’s super, super talented.9. Oregon After we started visiting friends in Bend, we fell in love with Oregon, which is now our second home. We try and spend half the year there. It’s such a beautiful state. There are so many different climates and things to see — the mountains, the coast, the woods. I saw my first owl in Oregon. I grew up in Chicago and Puerto Rico. We weren’t seeing owls.10. Oahu Hawaii feels like home. It feels like Puerto Rico. There is a oneness of Mother Nature there that feels like the center of the forest, but it’s beach, and it’s jungle, and it’s water and ocean. Oddly, you find a lot of people who vacation in Hawaii in Oregon, and vice versa. They feel like polar opposites, but they tend to draw people with the same kind of yearning for Mother Nature. More

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      Jimmy Kimmel Takes on Trump’s ‘Sad’ Return to the Campaign Trail

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      Kimmel called Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign “the political equivalent of when Michael Jordan went to play for the Wizards.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.‘Diet Trump’Former President Trump is back on the stump, kicking off his 2024 presidential campaign over the weekend with events in New Hampshire and South Carolina.Jimmy Kimmel said watching Trump return to campaigning was “sad,” calling it “the political equivalent of when Michael Jordan went to play for the Wizards.”“Former President Trump kicked off his 2024 campaign on Saturday at the New Hampshire Republican Party’s annual meeting and said, ‘I’m more angry now, and I’m more committed now than I ever was’ — though it’s never a good sign when your opening pitch is, ‘I’m blind with rage.’” — SETH MEYERS“Trump also warned that if Ron DeSantis runs for president, he would consider it a great act of disloyalty. And, you know, loyalty means everything to the guy who cheated on his third wife with a porn star and thought it might be cool to hang his vice president.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Speaking of DeSantis, I saw that he’s actively preparing for a possible presidential run, and he hasn’t landed on an official slogan yet, but he’s trying a few out. First, there’s ‘DeSantis 2024: Diet Trump.’ Next, there’s ‘DeSantis 2024: DeAmerica DeTruly DeDeServes DeDeSantis.’ And finally, ‘DeSantis 2024: Make America Florida Again.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Brotherly Love Edition)“Guys, I want to say congrats to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles on advancing to Super Bowl LVII. Yeah, to all the Chiefs fans, I want to say, ‘Congratulations.’ To all the Eagles fans, I want to say, ‘Good morning.’” — JIMMY FALLON“You can tell Philly partied hard last night because today the Rocky statue is holding up Tylenol and a Gatorade.” — JIMMY FALLON“Of course, everyone in Kansas City is just as pumped. This is the Chiefs’ third Super Bowl appearance in the last four years. Even Tom Brady is like, ‘Hey, give someone else a chance.’” — JIMMY FALLON“This is interesting, Travis Kelce is going to be playing against his brother in the Super Bowl. His older brother, Jason, plays center for the Eagles. It’s the first time two brothers have ever competed in the Super Bowl against each other, which, that has got to be tough for their parents. I mean, no matter who wins, they’ve gotta take them both to Disneyland, right?” — JIMMY KIMMEL“It’s already a history-making game because Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce will become the first brothers to face off against each other in a Super Bowl. But not the first time family members have played each other. Who can forget the dramatic playoffs matchup between Joe and Hannah Montana?” — STEPHEN COLBERT“This is really high stakes because they’re playing for who gets the top bunk.” — JAMES CORDEN“Maybe this is how Prince William and Prince Harry should sort out their issues.” — JAMES CORDEN“I would tell them, I would sit them down and say, ‘Boys, whoever wins is the son we love more and that’s that.’ That’s how Trump does it.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingThis week’s “Daily Show” guest host, D.L. Hughley, spoke with Ibram X. Kendi and Nic Stone, co-authors of “How to Be a (Young) Antiracist,” on Monday night.What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightThe actress Jessica Chastain, who stars in Showtime’s “George and Tammy,” will chat with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutJennifer Coolidge and her character’s rant about murderous “gays” are featured in a popular dance mash-up of the theme song from the show “The White Lotus.”Fabio Lovino/HBODanceable remixes of “The White Lotus” theme song have become a hit in music venues and dance clubs. More

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      Cindy Williams, Star of ‘Laverne & Shirley,’ Dies at 75

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      The show, in which Ms. Williams and Penny Marshall played roommates who worked in a Milwaukee brewery, was a spinoff of “Happy Days” and became a staple of 1970s television.Cindy Williams, an actress best known for her role on the 1970s slapstick sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 75.Her death followed a brief illness, her assistant, Liza Cranis, said by phone on Monday, adding that she had died “peacefully.” No cause was given.With Penny Marshall, Ms. Williams starred in the sitcom, which ran from 1976 to 1983 and was a spinoff of the television show “Happy Days.” It followed two young single women working at a Milwaukee brewery in the 1950s. Ms. Williams played Shirley Feeney, an upbeat and demure complement to Ms. Marshall’s brash Laverne DeFazio.“Laverne & Shirley” ran for eight seasons and, for several years, was among the highest-rated shows in the country. Ms. Williams appeared in more than 150 episodes but left in the final season of the show, after considerable on-set tension between her and Ms. Marshall. Ms. Marshall died in 2018, also at age 75.Ms. Williams is survived by her children, Emily and Zak Hudson, who, in a statement on Monday, described their mother as “one of a kind,” noting her sense of humor and “glittering spirit.” Her marriage to the musician Bill Hudson ended in divorce.Ms. Williams signing copies of her book “Shirley, I Jest! A Storied Life” in 2015.Beck Starr/Getty ImagesBefore Ms. Williams debuted in the role that would most define her career, she was cast in the George Lucas film “American Graffiti,” released in 1973. For her portrayal of Laurie in the film, she earned a nomination for best supporting actress from the British Academy Film Awards. The next year, she was in the Francis Ford Coppola film “The Conversation.” American Graffiti” and “The Conversation” garnered best picture nominations at the Academy Awards.Ms. Williams also auditioned for the role of Princess Leia in the “Star Wars” franchise, a part that eventually went to Carrie Fisher.Later in her career, Ms. Williams was a guest star on well-known television shows such as “Law and Order: SVU” and “7th Heaven” and earned several stage credits including the Broadway production of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” in which she briefly played Mrs. Tottendale.But she was best known as Shirley.“She was sort of an optimist, kindhearted, repressed, temperamental, fun-loving person,” Ms. Williams once said of her character. “I always saw her as having this fear,” she added, noting that while Shirley’s desires were never explicitly played out onscreen, both Laverne and Shirley strove for the comforts of modern life.“That was the sadness of those characters to me,” Ms. Williams added. “What if that never happens, then where are we? And that was sort of my life, too.”Born in Van Nuys, Calif., a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, on Aug. 22, 1947, Cynthia Jane Williams became interested in acting during high school and attended Los Angeles City College, where she majored in theater arts, according to biographies provided by Ms. Cranis. “I’m what you might call a ‘Valley Girl,’” Ms. Williams wrote in her 2015 memoir, “Shirley, I Jest! A Storied Life.”She worked at a pancake house, as well at the Whisky a Go Go nightclub in Hollywood, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Ms. Williams went on to perform in commercials for deodorant and sunglasses, some of which never aired, she said in an interview with the Television Academy. Her early television roles included parts on “Room 222,” “Nanny and the Professor” and “Love, American Style.”“I always played the lead’s best friend, always,” she said.Then known for her seemingly guileless American sweetheart presence, Ms. Williams turned that expectation inside out with an exceptionally sly performance in “The Conversation.” In the film, the viewer pieces together her words from a surreptitiously recorded conversation, expecting her to be a helpless victim, not the calculating femme fatale that she is. More dramatic roles might have followed, but she turned to situation comedy instead.Ms. Williams and Ms. Marshall were writing partners at Zoetrope, a production company founded by Mr. Coppola, where they were working on a prospective TV spoof for the bicentennial, when Garry Marshall, Ms. Marshall’s brother, asked if the two women would guest star on his show “Happy Days” as easy dates for Fonzie (Henry Winkler) and Richie (Ron Howard). Fonzie claimed Laverne for himself, while Shirley was meant for Richie, reuniting Ms. Williams with her “American Graffiti” co-star, Mr. Howard, who had played her boyfriend in that film.The episode of “Happy Days,” which aired in 1975, was so popular that Mr. Marshall pitched Fred Silverman, a top executive at ABC, about doing a comedy starring the two, arguing that there were no other shows about blue-collar women.The opening credits of “Laverne and Shirley” featured a school rhyme and a heartwarming mission statement that summed up the duo’s playful, hopeful ethic that anyone could relate to: They might just be young working-class women in the big city, but they are going to make their dreams come true.Laverne and Shirley’s high jinks were reminiscent of those of Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” but, for this classic comedy duo, Shirley was (usually) the calmer and dreamier of the pair. With her breezy personality, Ms. Williams demonstrated an easy flair for portraying the awkwardness of youth in broad physical comedy.In a review of “Laverne & Shirley” in 1976, John J. O’Connor, the television critic for The New York Times, wrote: “Both title roles are played to a splendid noncondescending turn. Miss Williams and Miss Marshall touch all the best bases, a bit of Barbara Stanwyck in “Stella Dallas” here, a bit of Giùlietta Masina in “La Strada’ there, touches of Lucille Ball, Eve Arden and that crowd all over the place.”Though the actresses shared the screen, Ms. Williams sometimes felt that her co-star got preferential treatment because of her connection to Mr. Marshall. For her part, Ms. Marshall felt that Ms. Williams’s husband at the time, Mr. Hudson, who wanted to be a producer, was too demanding.At the beginning of the show’s final season, viewers watched Ms. Williams marry Walter Meeney — and become Shirley Feeney Meeney. Soon afterward, however, her long run had an ignominious end, with the plot claiming Shirley had followed her new husband overseas, leaving only a note to say goodbye. In reality, the actress had hoped to work with the show to hide and accommodate her pregnancy. She later sued for $20 million; the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.“‘Laverne & Shirley’” ended abruptly for me,” Ms. Williams wrote in her memoir. “When we shot the first episode, I was four months pregnant. But when it came time to sign the contract for that season I realized that the studio had scheduled me to work on my delivery due date.”“In the wink of an eye, I found myself off the show,” she wrote. “It was so abrupt that I didn’t even have time to gather my personal things.”In 2013, Ms. Williams and Ms. Marshall reunited for an appearance on the Nickelodeon series “Sam & Cat,” a modern show that riffed on the themes of “Laverne & Shirley” and starred Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande.Ms. Williams published her memoir two years later, and last year she completed a national theater tour of a one-woman show, “Me, Myself and Shirley.” In the show, she chronicled her life in Hollywood as well as her relationship with Ms. Marshall.“You couldn’t slip a playing card in between us because we just were in rhythm,” she said last year in an interview with NBC. “I couldn’t have done it with anyone else.”Sheelagh McNeill More

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      Lisa Loring, Wednesday Addams in ‘The Addams Family,’ Dies at 64

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      With her dark clothes and pigtailed hair framing a pale face, Ms. Loring played Wednesday as a young girl obsessed with death on the ABC series, which ran from 1964 to 1966.Lisa Loring, whose creepy yet cherubic portrayal of Wednesday Addams in the 1960s television series “The Addams Family” originated a role that has been revived in films and, most recently, a popular Netflix series, died on Saturday in Burbank, Calif. She was 64.Her death, in a hospital, was confirmed by her daughter Vanessa Callies Dominguez, who said Ms. Loring had been removed from a ventilator after a stroke.Ms. Loring auditioned for the role of Wednesday when she was 5. Her grandmother owned a Mexican restaurant on Ventura Boulevard in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles that was popular with people in the movie industry, Ms. Dominguez said. Through those connections, Ms. Loring did some child modeling work before she was offered the role on “The Addams Family” in 1964.“I got it because of my pout,” Ms. Loring said in an interview with Daytimers, a soap opera magazine, in 1980.In one episode that has become a fan favorite, she teaches the family’s butler, Lurch, how to dance.“Loosen up a little,” Wednesday says, all sliding feet and wobbly knees as she encourages her zombielike sidekick. “Let yourself go.”Ms. Loring as Wednesday Addams in 1964. She auditioned for the role when she was 5.Filmways/Album, via AlamyMs. Loring and Ted Cassidy, as Lurch, in an episode of “The Addams Family” from 1964.ABC Photo Archives/Getty ImagesLisa Ann DeCinces was born on Feb. 16, 1958, on Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands, the only child of James P. DeCinces, who was stationed there with the U.S. Navy, and Judith Ann (Callies) DeCinces. Her parents divorced not long after the family moved to Los Angeles when she was a toddler.“The Addams Family,” which premiered on ABC in 1964, was based on spooky but harmless characters that Charles Addams created for a series of cartoons that first appeared in The New Yorker in 1938. The television series focused mostly on Wednesday’s parents, Gomez and Morticia (John Astin and Carolyn Jones), as heads of a zany household that included Uncle Fester; Grandmama; Wednesday’s brother, Pugsley; and a disembodied hand, known as Thing, that popped out of a box.Addams did not give his characters names until they were developed for television in the mid-1960s. He said he named Wednesday after a line in the nursery rhyme “Monday’s Child,” which noted that “Wednesday’s child is full of woe.”With her dark clothes and pigtailed hair framing a pale face, Ms. Loring played Wednesday as a young girl obsessed with death, who talked about chopping off her doll’s head or feeding her pet spider.The cast of “The Addams Family,” clockwise from top left: Jackie Coogan, John Astin, Blossom Rock, Ted Cassidy, Ken Weatherwax, Carolyn Jones and Ms. Loring.Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesMs. Loring returned to school after “The Addams Family” was canceled in 1966. She married for the first time when she was 15, gave birth to her first child and then divorced a year later, her daughter said.She reprised the Wednesday Addams role for a 1977 reunion special, “Halloween with the New Addams Family.” Her other television credits include “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.,” “Fantasy Island” and “Barnaby Jones.” Her film credits include “Savage Harbor” (1987), “Way Down in Chinatown” (2014) and “Doctor Spine” (2015).In 1980, she was cast as Cricket Montgomery in the CBS soap opera “As the World Turns.”Ms. Dominguez said her mother thought of acting as a way of supporting her family as a single mother. Acting “was not her love,” Ms. Dominguez said. “It was something that happened to her in her life.”In addition to Ms. Dominguez, Ms. Loring is survived by another daughter, Marianne Stevenson Keller, and two grandchildren. Ms. Loring’s first three marriages ended in divorce. Her husband, Graham Ritch, died last year, Ms. Dominguez said.The role of Wednesday Addams has been reinvented many times for television, film and the stage. The latest incarnation is “Wednesday,” a Netflix series starring Jenna Ortega, 20, as a teenage version of the character who is sent to a boarding school for outcasts, vampires and werewolves. Ms. Ortega has cited Ms. Loring among the inspirations for her iteration of Wednesday’s dance moves, which became a sensation on TikTok and in dance clubs.In an interview at Silicon Valley Comic Con in 2018, Ms. Loring said she was so young when she auditioned to play Wednesday that she had not yet learned to read, much less dance.“Who taught me to dance like that?” she said. “I can’t dance like that!” More

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      Stream These 8 Movies Before They Leave Netflix in February

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      A handful of great titles are leaving the service for U.S. subscribers soon, including a bona fide comedy classic. See them while you can.This month’s selection of titles leaving Netflix in the United States are a typical esoteric assortment of big-budget studio flicks and indie dramas, but the comedies are what really make this one stand out — including an anticapitalist satire and one of the very first stand-up spotlights the service ever funded. Let’s start there. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available):‘Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion’ (Feb. 25)There’s something vaguely end-of-an-era-ish about seeing Netflix finally bid farewell to this top-tier 2006 stand-up special from the magnificently absurd Galifianakis — one of a handful of original films and specials created at the time for its “Red Envelope Entertainment” imprint as exclusives for the service, which now rolls out an original comedy special nearly every week. So catch it while you can; it’s Galifianakis at his peak, and the special’s structure (interspersing his wildly funny live act with tortured interviews with his straight-arrow brother, also played by the comedian) is genuinely inspired.Stream it here.‘Air Force One’ (Feb. 28)Throughout the 1990s, multiplexes were positively deluged by “Like ‘Die Hard,’ but on a _____” movies, with airplane and airport settings proving especially popular (“Executive Decision,” “Passenger 57” and “Die Hard 2” among them). This 1997 thriller from the director Wolfgang Petersen got hyper-specific, imagining “Die Hard” on the president’s plane. And the venerable formula works: Harrison Ford is a credible man-of-action commander in chief, Gary Oldman chews plenty of scenery as the villain, and the silly but effective catchphrase “Get off my plane!” still demands cheers.Stream it here.‘Cake’ (Feb. 28)Back in 2014, Jennifer Aniston nearly snagged an Oscar nomination for her against-type turn in this indie drama, in which the typically light comedian went very heavy as a grieving mother attempting to piece back together her broken life. To be fair, she deserved the recognition; Aniston plays the breezy ingénue so well that it’s easy to underestimate her considerable gifts as an actor of genuine gravitas. And she’s in good company here — the stellar supporting cast includes Felicity Huffman, Anna Kendrick, William H. Macy and Sam Worthington.Stream it here.‘Coach Carter’ (Feb. 28)It’s forgivable if you assume you’ve already seen “Coach Carter,” even if you haven’t; the formula of the underdog sports movie is, to put it mildly, well-established. (Oh, so the tough-as-nails new coach meets resistance at first from the unruly, poorly performing team but slowly earns the players’ respect? And translates that camaraderie to the court? And it’s all based on a true story?!) But the filmmakers here know that you know how these movies are supposed to go, gracefully subverting those expectations, and Samuel L. Jackson is cast perfectly in the title role.Stream it here.‘Margin Call’ (Feb. 28)The writer and director J.C. Chandor’s 2011 feature debut was a high-profile affair — one of the first films to directly address the 2008 financial crisis — and it did so with offhand intelligence and admirable nuance. Chandor’s gripping script telescopes the action to a 24-hour period and the setting to a single Wall Street investment bank, as the implications and consequences of the impending crisis become clear, and the firm’s strong personalities bounce and collide. A tiptop ensemble cast brings verve to the key players, with fine performances Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto (who was also a producer), Kevin Spacey and Stanley Tucci.Stream it here.‘Scream 4’ (Feb. 28)The 2022 reboot of the “Scream” slasher-satire franchise was commercially successful enough to warrant a follow-up, due in theaters this March. But critically speaking, the magic simply wasn’t there — and probably couldn’t be, given the passing of the series’s original director, Wes Craven, and the noninvolvement of the original screenwriter, Kevin Williamson. From that perspective, the original series truly concluded with this 2011 installment, reuniting Craven, Williamson and the franchise stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, alongside a host of new and noteworthy stars (including Kristen Bell, Alison Brie, Hayden Panettiere and Emma Roberts) for a typically self-referential bouillabaisse of horror, comedy and movie mania.Stream it here.‘Shutter Island’ (Feb. 28)Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have released five feature films collaborations to date, but this 2010 thriller tends to be overlooked in that filmography — perhaps because it is the only one not nominated for the best picture Academy Award. That’s unsurprising, as this adaptation of the best-selling novel by Dennis Lehane is a thick slice of Gothic horror, and Oscar voters are famously adverse to honoring genre material. But it’s a crackerjack example of the form; DiCaprio is hauntingly good as a U.S. Marshal investigating a mysterious disappearance on the titular psychiatric facility.Stream it here.‘Sorry to Bother You’ (Feb. 28)The hip-hop provocateur Boots Riley, best known for his work fronting the politically conscious Oakland crew the Coup, made a loud splash in his crossover to feature filmmaking with this debut effort, starring Lakeith Stanfield as a telemarketer who discovers the secret to success in the corporate world. The satire is razor-sharp (Riley’s debt to “Putney Swope” is crystal clear), and the picture’s politics are delightfully unapologetic; it is exhilarating to watch a novice filmmaker marshal the tools of the medium to craft something genuinely, gleefully subversive.Stream it here. More

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      Annie Wersching, Star of ‘Star Trek: Picard,’ Dies at 45

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      Ms. Wersching was best known for playing the Borg Queen on the Paramount+ “Star Trek” series. She was also on the television series “24,” “Bosch” and “Timeless.”The actress Annie Wersching, best known for her roles on the television series “Star Trek: Picard,” “24,” “Bosch” and “Timeless,” died on Sunday morning in Los Angeles. She was 45.Ms. Wersching’s death was confirmed by her publicist, Craig Schneider. The cause was cancer, Mr. Schneider said in a statement released on Sunday. He noted that Ms. Wersching was diagnosed in 2020 but had continued her acting work, playing the Borg Queen on the second season of “Picard,” a “Star Trek” spinoff on Paramount+, as well as the serial killer Rosalind Dyer on the ABC crime series “The Rookie.”Ms. Wersching was also known for playing Julia Brasher, a police officer on the Amazon series “Bosch,” and Emma Whitmore, an engineer, on the NBC series “Timeless.” On Fox’s “24,” she played the special F.B.I. agent Renee Walker.Ms. Wersching, with Kiefer Sutherland, starred in two seasons of “24” on Fox.FoxMs. Wersching also provided the voice for the character Tess in The Last of Us, a 2013 video game that has recently been adapted into a television series on HBO.“There is a cavernous hole in the soul of this family today,” Ms. Wersching’s husband, the actor Stephen Full, said in a statement. “But she left us the tools to fill it. She found wonder in the simplest moment. She didn’t require music to dance. She taught us not to wait for adventure to find you.”Mr. Full noted that whenever he and his sons left their house, Ms. Wersching would shout “Bye!” until they were out of earshot.“I can still hear it ringing,” he added. “Bye, my Buddie.”In an interview with the Paramount+ show “The Ready Room,” Ms. Wersching described playing the Borg Queen as “certainly a little intimidating.” She noted that she had familiarized herself with the role and those who had previously played it before going forward with her own interpretation and performance. “It’s such an iconic role,” she said. “I’m incredibly excited to have everyone see.”Ms. Wersching starred as the Borg Queen on “Star Trek: Picard.”Paramount+In a statement released on Sunday, Akiva Goldsman, an executive producer of “Picard,” described Ms. Wersching as a “gift” and an “utter joy” to work with. “Her entire ‘Star Trek’ family is heartbroken,” he said.Jon Cassar, director and producer of “24,” said in a statement that he mourned the loss of a colleague and a friend. “Annie came into my world with an open heart and a contagious smile,” he said. “Brandishing such talent, she took my breath away.” He added, “She’ll be truly missed.”Ms. Wersching was born and raised by her parents, Sandy and Frank Wersching, in St. Louis. She is survived by her husband and their three children, Freddie, Ozzie and Archie Full. More