Laverne & Shirley star Eddie Mekka dead at 69

Laverne & Shirley star Eddie Mekka dead at 69: Actor who played Carmine on the hit show passes away at his home in California

  • His brother Warren Mekjian confirmed the news on Thursday
  • The actor is said to have been found dead at his home in Newhall, California , on Saturday 
  • Per the report, friends and neighbors have become concerned over Mekka, after they hadn’t heard from in a few days 
  • After neighbors decided to call the police, officers arrived at his home to check on him 
  • His brother also said that Mekka had been hospitalized for blood cots and could barely walk prior to his death
  • Mekka’s Laverne & Shirley co-star Cindy Williams tweeted: ‘I’ll miss you so much’ 

Laverne & Shirley star has Eddie Mekka died at the age of 69.

The actor was most famous for playing Carmine Ragusa on the hit television sitcom.

His brother Warren Mekjian confirmed the news to TMZ on Thursday. The actor is said to have been found dead at his home in Newhall, California, on Saturday.

Per the report, friends and neighbors have become concerned over Mekka, after they hadn’t heard from him in a few days.

Dearly departed: Laverne & Shirley star has Eddie Mekka died at the age of 69; pictured 2003

After neighbors decided to call the police, officers arrived at his home to check on him. 

His brother also said that Mekka had been hospitalized for blood cots and could barely walk prior to his death, and there is no indication that his death was suspicious or that foul play was involved. 

Mekka is survived by his daughter Mia, whom he shared with his second wife Yvonne Marie Grace. 

In a Facebook statement his friend Pat Benti requested that ‘inquiries’ about his death ‘be withheld during his family’s time of grief and mourning.’ 

‘Marvelous memories’: His old co-star Cindy Williams, Shirley of Laverne & Shirley, tweeted: ‘My darling Eddie, A world-class talent who could do it all

What a pair: On the sitcom Mekka played Shirley’s on-off boyfriend Carmine, whom she first became involved with as a high school sweetheart

‘She helped me over the hurdles’: Garry’s sister Penny Marshall, who played Laverne, become ‘like a mentor’ to Mekka, he revealed; Mekka and Marshall are pictured on the series 

His old co-star Cindy Williams, Shirley of Laverne & Shirley, tweeted: ‘My darling Eddie, A world-class talent who could do it all. I love you dearly. I’ll miss you so much. But oh the marvelous memories…,’ with a video of him on the show.

On the sitcom Mekka played Shirley’s on-off boyfriend Carmine, whom she first became involved with as a high school sweetheart. 

Carmine is a boxer nicknamed ‘The Big Ragoo’ who adores Tony Bennett, dreams of being a singer and eventually lands a gig in Hair on Broadway.

As well as appearing on that program, Mekka also featured on TV hits such as Fantasy Island and The Love Boat, and then later on the ABC hit Family Matters.  

TV stardom: Mekka appeared throughout the eight-season run of Laverne & Shirley which premiered in 1976 and was canceled in 1983

Mekka was perfectly primed to play a song-and-dance man himself, having been educated at the Boston Conservatory.

He grew up in a Massachusetts town near Boston with an Italian mother and an Armenian father. ‘I’ll make you a rug you can’t refuse,’ he joked.

Mekka told Broadway.com he ‘got the bug’ as a teenager when he was enlisted to compere his high school’s variety show and got a standing ovation.

Eventually he made it onto Broadway and earned a Tony nod in The Lieutenant, a 1975 rock opera about a soldier court martialed over the My Lai massacre. 

Remember when: The series was a spin-off of Happy Days, and while he was on it Mekka also featured on a flop Happy Days spin-off called Blansky’s Beauties (pictured)

Years later he told the Boston Globe that ‘I’m glad I was trained in the theater because I think TV makes you lazy. You can always do another take in a film or on TV, while onstage you have to deliver 100 percent all the time.’

However he did acknowledge that ‘It was harder to adjust from stage to TV’ and that Laverne & Shirley’s co-creator and director Garry Marshall had to help him. 

‘I was acting for the back row, and Garry Marshall told me to pull it back to Cleveland,’ Mekka explained.

Mekka appeared throughout the eight-season run of Laverne & Shirley which premiered in 1976 and was canceled in 1983. 

Iconic: A decade after Laverne & Shirley ended he reunited with Penny Marshall when she directed A League Of There Own where he jitterbugged with Madonna (right)

Garry’s sister Penny Marshall, who played Laverne, become ‘like a mentor’ to Mekka, he revealed after her death.

‘Sitcoms are completely different from Broadway. She helped me over the hurdles. She told me there were three cameras, and that meant three audiences,’ he said.

He told the New York Daily News: ‘She taught me how to not look in the camera because that would kill the whole concept. She taught me how to be on my mark. She told me: “You don’t have to be so animated. Pull it back to Cleveland!”‘

The series was a spin-off of Happy Days, and while he was on it Mekka also featured as another character on a flop Happy Days spin-off called Blansky’s Beauties.

Suited up: Mekka, who at one point had a Vegas club act called Eddie Mekka, With A Little Ragoo On The Side, is pictured at the TV Land Awards in 2006

After his years of TV stardom Mekka returned to the stage, even reuniting with Cindy Williams for a touring revival of Grease at the turn of the century.

He cut his teeth as a cabaret performer as well, doing a Vegas club act called Eddie Mekka, With A Little Ragoo On The Side.

A decade after the end of Laverne & Shirley he also appeared as a dancer in Penny Marshall’s film A League Of Their Own starring Madonna and Tom Hanks.

Mekka performed a jitterbug with Madonna’s character Mae in one of the film’s most memorable scenes – and apparently had to finagle his way into the sequence.  

Back to his sitcom days: Mekka is pictured in a portrait taken 1979

‘Penny wanted me to be the dancer, but Madonna wanted to use the other guy. I have to admit, he was better at the jitterbug. But I was a better acrobat and dancer,’ Mekka remembered while discussing the movie later.

‘I said to Penny: “I got an idea. Rosie and Madonna’s characters are in competition all the time. Why don’t I do the same number with Mae and have Rosie pull me away to do a combo with her?”‘

Madonna would then be able to ‘have her way too’ by using the other dancer, and Penny Marshall accepted the idea. 

He continued acting as the years went by, including with guest roles on TV shows such as The Young And The Restless and Childrens Hospital. 

Who’s who: On Laverne & Shirley he played Shirley’s on-off boyfriend Carmine, whom she first became involved with as a high school sweetheart

His final screen role was in the 2018 comedy Hail Mary! about a group of Sumo wrestlers hired to be lineman in an American football team.

However Mekka’s first love as an actor remained the theater, where he spent over a decade playing Tevye in productions of Fiddler On The Roof.

‘Theater is very forgiving,’ he said. ‘Television, you’re only as good as the last thing you did. In theater, you know, you play this theater, that theater, they love you, they bring you back. And that’s what I like about theater.’

He added: ‘I had theater before I had TV and now I have theater after TV. I’ll have theater until I die, you know. Theater is honest. That’s what it is. It’s honest.’

Stagestruck: Before his days of TV stardom Mekka starred on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony in the Vietnam War rock opera The Lieutenant

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