She also portrayed Mary Richards’ neighbour, Paula Kovacks, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) for a handful of episodes. She then married Rob Reiner on April 10, 1971, soon after gaining her big television debut as Oscar Madison’s secretary, Myrna Turner, on The Odd Couple (1970). She also performed a dandruff ad with Farrah Fawcett – the casting folks, of course, assigning Farrah the role of the “beautiful girl” and Penny the part of the “simple girl.” This further increased to Penny’s uneasiness about her appearance. Her cinematic debut came from her brother Garry Marshall, who placed her in the movie How Sweet It Is! (1968) alongside the great Debbie Reynolds and James Garner. The couple divorced two years later in 1963. There, Penny became pregnant with daughter, Tracy Reiner, and shortly after married the father, Michael Henry, in 1961.

Penny was known in her family as “the bad one”… because not only did she stroll on the ledge of her family’s apartment building, but she stole into the cinema as a youngster and even dated a man dubbed “Lefty.” She attended a private girls’ high school in New York and then proceeded to the University of New Mexico for two and a half years. Her father was of Italian heritage, originally surnamed “Masciarelli,” while her mother was of German, Scottish, English, and Irish lineage. She was the younger sister of directors Garry Marshall and Ronny Hallin. She was the daughter of Marjorie (Ward), a tap dance instructor, and Anthony “Tony” Marshall, an industrial film director. The Libra was 5′ 6 1/2″, with brown hair and green eyes. Penny Marshall was born Carole Penny Marshall on Octoin Manhattan.

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