Garry Marshall, the beloved Pretty Woman filmmaker who was also responsible for 70s and 80s television hits like Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, and Laverne & Shirley, died on Tuesday from complications from pneumonia following a stroke. He was 81.

“He loved telling stories, making people laugh, and playing softball, winning numerous championships,” Marshall’s family said in a statement released Tuesday evening. “Even at age 81, he had a record this year of 6–1 pitching for his team.”

Born in the Bronx, New York, to an industrial film director and a tap-dance instructor, Marshall was the eldest of three children. Marshall would later credit his mother, Marjorie, for coaxing him and sister Penny Marshall into comedy.

“She was very, very funny, my mother,” the director said this past April, while promoting his latest ensemble picture, Mother’s Day. The film re-united him with his Pretty Woman muse Julia Roberts and was made as a tribute to Marshall’s late mother.

“She said the worst thing is to be boring,” he recalled. Marshall, always with a punchline, said that at six years old, he responded, “What means boring, Mom?” Her reply: “Your father.” Marshall, who made the 1986 father-son film Nothing in Common in unofficial homage to his dad, diplomatically added of his father, “He was great, but he wasn’t so funny.”

After majoring in journalism at Northwestern University, Marshall moved to Los Angeles, where he started his Hollywood career writing jokes for Joey Bishop and then Jack Paar on The Tonight Show. With writing partner Jerry Belson, Marshall worked on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Lucy Show. He produced The Odd Couple, and famously cast his sister in Laverne & Shirley, which he created, launching her career.

In the 1980s, Marshall moved to film, where he proved just as successful as he was in television. He wrote and directed his first feature film, 1984’s The Flamingo Kid, which was also his first collaboration with one of his most famous screen partners—Hector Elizondo. Over the years, Marshall directed 18 films, including such blockbuster hits as Pretty Woman, Beaches, and The Princess Diaries.

Marshall was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 2011. After receiving radiation treatment, his wife insisted he return to work, directing 2011’s New Year’s Eve—the first of a run of ensemble, holiday-themed films that re-united him with beloved actors, crew members, and even relatives. In Mother’s Day alone, he re-united with Roberts, Kate Hudson (whom he had known since directing her parents, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, in 1987’s Overboard), and Elizondo. His sister Penny provided narration; his son, Scott, helped direct; his grandchildren appeared as extras; and his wife of more than 50 years, Barbara, a nurse, plays a nurse in the film. (“She has her own costume,” Marshall joked in his interview with VF.com this spring.)

Although a prolific filmmaker, Marshall was also actively family-oriented—a rarity among Hollywood heavy hitters. In 2001, the filmmaker explained that he wanted to direct The Princess Diaries for two reasons that seemed to guide his career—the comedy and his family: “I go from the basic assumption that if people give you a lot of money, you should do it,” he joked to The New York Times. “And I thought maybe I should do one for the granddaughters.”

Marshall was so beloved by his actors that they in turn considered him family—and the reason why they continually returned to work on the warm sets of his films. Anne Hathaway, the star of The Princess Diaries, once explained the appeal in these words: “Being on a Garry Marshall movie is like summer camp,” she said. “He’s a big, big, big, big hugger. He gives really good hugs.”

Roberts, who credits Marshall with her career as one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, spoke this past April about their multi-decade working relationship.

“I want to make him as happy [on the set of Mother’s Day] in Atlanta as I wanted to make him on the soundstage 25 years ago,” Roberts told the Los Angeles Times. “But that’s why you keep working for somebody. You don’t want to work for somebody that you don’t really care what they think about what you’re doing. . . . And of course, my greatest joy is if I can make him laugh.”

Explaining Marshall’s cultural appeal to a generation of Americans who were raised on his TV sitcoms, she continued, “He’s like the ultimate father for everyone in every scenario. I think about Garry and it’s like he raised me. I grew up on his television shows. . . . Happy Days— that’s what my sisters and I were brought up on. That kind of idea of family and friends and things that make you laugh and make you wish you were a Cunningham.”

On Tuesday evening, Marshall’s Happy Days star Henry Winkler remembered Marshall on Twitter, writing, “Rest in Peace . . . Thank you for my professional life. Thank you for your loyalty , friendship and generosity.”

Marshall is survived by his wife, Barbara; sisters Ronny Hallin and Penny Marshall; children Lori, Kathleen, and Scott; and his six grandchildren.