GARRY MARSHALL Biography - Theater, Opera and Movie personalities

 
 

Biography » theater opera and movie personalities » garry marshall

GARRY MARSHALL

Name: Garry Kent Marshall                                                                   
Born: 13 November 1934 New York City, New York, US                                         
                                                                                           
Garry Kent Marshall (born November 13, 1934) is an American actor, director,               
writer and producer. His credits include creating Happy Days and directing                 
Pretty Woman.                                                                               
                                                                                           
Marshall was born in New York City, the son of Marjorie Irene (née Ward), a tap           
dance teacher who ran a tap dance school, and Anthony Wallace Marshall, a                   
director of industrial films and later a producer. He is the brother of                     
actress/director Penny Marshall and Ronny Hallin, a TV producer. His father was             
of Italian descent, his family having come from Abruzzo, and his mother was                 
of English and Scottish descent; his father changed his last name from "Marsciarelli"       
to "Marshall" before Garry was born. Marshall was baptized Presbyterian and                 
also raised in the Lutheran religion for a time. He attended Northwestern                   
University and is a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, where he wrote a             
sports column for The Daily Northwestern.                                                   
                                                                                           
Marshall began his career as a joke writer for such comedians as Joey Bishop and           
Phil Foster, and then became a writer for the Tonight Show with Jack Paar. In               
1961 he moved to Hollywood, where he teamed up with Jerry Belson as a writer for           
television. The pair worked on The Dick Van Dyke Show, "The Joey Bishop Show",             
The Danny Thomas Show, and The Lucy Show. They then adapted Neil Simon's play               
The Odd Couple for television. On his own, Marshall created Happy Days, Laverne             
and Shirley (starring his sister Penny), and Mork & Mindy. He was also a co-creator         
of the short-lived sitcom Makin' It.                                                       
                                                                                           
In 1984, Marshall had a movie hit as the writer of The Flamingo Kid. He went on             
to direct Nothing in Common, Overboard, Beaches, Pretty Woman, Frankie and                 
Johnny, Exit to Eden, The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal               
Engagement, Raising Helen and most recently Georgia Rule.                                   
                                                                                           
Marshall is also a comic actor who often plays wisecracking guys who tell it               
like it is[citation needed], and has appeared in the television series Murphy               
Brown and in such movies as Grand Theft Auto, Hocus Pocus, Tomcats, Lost in                 
America, Never Been Kissed, Runaway Bride, Orange County, and Jumpin' Jack Flash           
and A League of Their Own, both directed by his sister. He also acts in stage               
productions. He is now a permanent judge on FOX's filmmaking-competition reality           
TV series On the Lot.                                                                       
                                                                                           
Marshall has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His son, Scott Marshall, is             
also a director.