'pretty Woman' Filmmaker Garry Marshall Dies At Age 81

[...] it was goofy, crowd-pleasing comedy that endeared the writer and director to generations of TV viewers in hit sitcoms including Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy. Marshall also had a memorable on-screen presence, using his hometown accent and gruff delivery in colorful supporting roles that included a practical-minded casino boss untouched by Albert Brooks' disastrous luck in "Lost in America" and a crass network executive in "Soapdish." Among his final credits was "Mother's Day," a film released last April starring Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson and Roberts. Marshall, the brother of actress-director Penny Marshall, earned a degree in journalism from Northwestern University and worked at the New York Daily News. In 1970, they turned Neil Simon's Broadway hit, "The Odd Couple," into a sitcom starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall and produced by Marshall. After cranking out what Marshall once estimated to be 1,000 sitcom episodes, he switched his focus to the big screen with 1984's "The Flamingo Kid," a coming-of-age story starring Matt Dillon, which Marshall wrote and directed. Funeral services will be private but a memorial is being planned for his birthday on Nov.