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Writer-director Garry Marshall dies at 81

By LYNN ELBER, Associated Press
Published: July 19, 2016, 8:54pm

LOS ANGELES — Writer-director Garry Marshall, whose deft touch with comedy and romance led to a string of TV hits that included “Happy Days” and “Laverne & Shirley” and the box-office successes “Pretty Woman” and “Runaway Bride,” has died. He was 81.

Marshall died Tuesday in at a hospital in Burbank, Calif., of complications from pneumonia after having a stroke, his publicist Michelle Bega said in a statement.

The director also had an on-screen presence, using his New York accent and gruff delivery in colorful supporting roles that included a practical-minded casino boss unswayed by Albert Brooks’ disastrous luck in “Lost in America” and a crass network executive in “Soapdish.”

“In the neighborhood where we grew up in, the Bronx, you only had a few choices,” Marshall said in a 1980s interview. “You were either an athlete or a gangster, or you were funny.”

Sitcoms quickly proved to be Marshall’s forte. He and writing partner Jerry Belson turned out scripts for the most popular comedies of the ’60s, including “The Lucy Show” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

Marshall and his wife, Barbara, had three children, Lori, Kathleen and Scott.

Funeral services will be private, but a memorial is being planned for his birthday on Nov. 13, the statement said.

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