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Penny Marshall- Carole Penny Masciarelli (born October 15, 1942) is an Italian American actress, producer and director. After playing several small roles for television, she was cast as Laverne DeFazio in the sitcom Laverne and Shirley. A ratings success, the show ran from 1976 until 1983, during which Marshall was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her performance three times. She progressed to directing films such as Big (1988), the first film directed by a woman to gross in excess of $100 million at the U.S. box office, Awakenings (1990), which was nominated for an Academy Award for... MORE

Penny Marshall- Carole Penny Masciarelli (born October 15, 1942) is an Italian American actress, producer and director. After playing several small roles for television, she was cast as Laverne DeFazio in the sitcom Laverne and Shirley. A ratings success, the show ran from 1976 until 1983, during which Marshall was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her performance three times. She progressed to directing films such as Big (1988), the first film directed by a woman to gross in excess of $100 million at the U.S. box office, Awakenings (1990), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and A League of Their Own (1992). In more recent years, she has produced Cinderella Man (2005) and Bewitched (2005), as well as episodes of According to Jim (2009). She most recently directed two episodes of the Showtime original series United States of Tara. Marshall was born Carole Penelope Penny Masciarelli in The Bronx, New York City, the daughter of Marjorie Irene (née Ward), a tap dance teacher who ran a dance school, and Anthony Wallace Marshall, a director of industrial films and later a producer. She is the sister of actor/director/TV producer Garry Marshall and Ronny LESS