Garry Marshall Has Died

Garry Marshall, the ball of sunshine who seemed to be one of the rare non-assholes in Hollywood, is now in heaven, making the angels laugh while giving them Werther’s Originals. (In my mind, Garry Marshall was the kind of pepaw who always had a pocketful of Werther’s.) Garry’s publicist tells Deadline that he died from complications of pneumonia following a stroke at a hospital in Burbank, CA today. Garry was 81. His family gave this statement to TMZ:

“He loved telling stories, making people laugh, and playing softball, winning numerous championships.  Even at age 81, he had a record this year of 6 – 1 pitching for his team.”

Garry’s IMDB is a treasure trove of YES. Your eyeballs have probably spent approximately 5,000 hours of your life watching something Garry was a part of. Garry started off as a joke writer for comedians and that led to him writing on The Tonight Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show, which led to him creating (or co-creating) and producing television jewels like The Odd Couple, Happy Days, Mork & Mindy and Laverne & Shirley, which as everyone knows co-starred his sister Penny Marshall.

In the early 80s, Garry started directing movies and his first big hit was The Flamingo Kid. Through the 80s, Garry gave us gifts like Overboard and Beaches, and in the 90s, he gave us Pretty Woman, Frankie and Johnny, The Other Sister, Runaway Bride and Exit to Eden. In the 00s, Garry directed The Princess Diaries 1 & 2, Raising Helen, Georgia Rule and all those holiday movies.

Since Garry did it all, he also acted in a bunch of TV shows and movies like Soapdish, A League Of Their Own, Murphy Brown and Never Been Kissed.

There are a million Garry Marshall-made clips to choose from to end this post with, but I’m going to go with one of the best scenes from the 1987 masterpiece Overboard featuring the iconic Tofutti Klein!

Rest in peace, Garry.

Pic: Wenn.com