‘Laverne & Shirley’ Actor Eddie Mekka Dies at 69

American actor, Eddie Mekka, star of the 1970s-80s sitcom Laverne & Shirley, died at the age of 69, media outlets reported on Thursday.

Mekka died Saturday at his home in Newhall, California, according to the actor’s official Facebook page. The cause of death wasn’t revealed.

Mekka made his Broadway debut in the 1975 rock opera The Lieutenant. Although the show closed after only nine performances, it earned four Tony nominations, including one for Mekka as best actor in a musical.

In 1976, he played the role of Carmine “The Big Ragoo” Ragusa, Shirley’s (Cindy Williams) boyfriend, on Laverne & Shirley and remained with the series throughout its eight-season run on ABC.

Williams remembered Mekka as “a world-class talent who could do it all.” Williams tweeted, “I love you dearly. I’ll miss you so much. But oh the marvelous memories …”

https://twitter.com/Cindy_Williams1/status/1466446494366642184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1466446494366642184%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsee.news%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost-new.php

Moreover, the actor worked with the other title star of 'Laverne & Shirley', Penny Marshall, in a brief role in Marshall’s film A League of Their Own as a guy Mae (Madonna) dances with at a bar.

“I got to do a great jitterbug number with Madonna in A League of Their Own,” he recalled in a 2014 interview with The Boston Globe. “And on Laverne & Shirley, because I love to sing Tony Bennett, we worked in a recurring bit where, whenever Laverne is mad at Carmine, all he has to do is sing the line from the Tony Bennett song, ‘You know I’d go from rags to riches …’ and she forgives him.”

Mekka made appearances on a number of TV series, including "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia", and daytime dramas "The Young and the Restless" and "The Bold and the Beautiful".