Penny Marshall, who rose to fame on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley, and later achieved success as a director has died. She was 75.

Her publicist, Michelle Bega, told The Associated Press that Marshall passed away Monday at her home in Los Angeles due to complications from diabetes.

“Our family is heartbroken,” the Marshall family said in a statement.

Marshall shot to stardom in the 1970s as one of the stars of Laverne & Shirley. The long running sitcom co-starring Cindy Williams aired on ABC from 1976 to 1983.

A spinoff of Happy Days, the series stood out because it focused on working-class Americans, which was rare in Hollywood at the time.

“Almost everyone had a theory about why Laverne & Shirley took off,” Marshall wrote in her 2012 memoir My Mother Was Nuts.

"I thought it was simply because Laverne and Shirley were poor and there were no poor people on TV, but there were plenty of them sitting at home and watching TV,” she said.

Marshall directed several episodes of the series, which her older brother, the late director-producer Garry Marshall, created.

Directing those episodes helped prepare Marshall for a successful career as a filmmaker. When Whoopi Goldberg clashed with director Howard Zieff, she enlisted Marshall to direct the 1986 comedy Jumpin’ Jack Flash.

Jumpin’ Jack Flash only earned $30 million at the domestic box office, but Marshall’s next film made her the first woman to direct a movie that grossed more than $100 million.

Her 1988 comedy Big, starring Tom Hanks, centered on a 12-year-old boy who wakes up in the body of a 30-year-old man. The film earned Hanks an Oscar nomination and grossed $151 million worldwide, or about $320 million accounting for inflation.

Marshall and Hanks teamed up again for A League of Their Own, the 1992 comedy about the women’s professional baseball league begun during World War II, co-starred Geena Davis, Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell.

The film made $107.5 million domestically.

She also directed the 1996 film, The Preacher’s Wife, starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston. Her last movie as a director was 2001′s Riding in Cars With Boys, with Drew Barrymore.

Marshall continued to helm episodes of television series, including ABC’s According to Jim and Showtime’s United States of Tara.

A native of the Bronx, Marshall was born on Oct. 15, 1943.

She attended the University of New Mexico, where she met Michael Henry, whom she married briefly and had a daughter, Tracy.

Marshall later married director Rob Reiner in a union that lasted from 1971 to 1981. Her daughter Tracy adopted the last name Reiner, and became an actress.

Penny Marshall is survived by her sister, Ronny Hallin, her daughter Tracy and three grandchildren.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.