Actor Eddie Mekka, ‘Laverne & Shirley’ Star, Tony Nominee, Dies

Mekka’s film credits include “Beaches,” “Dream Girls” and the 1992 Penny Marshall-directed “A League of Their Own,” in which Mekka famously got to show off his hoofing prowess as a soldier courting Madonna’s character, Mae, during a dancing scene at the local bar.

Michael McKean, who co-starred as Lenny Kosnowski on “Laverne & Shirley,” remembered Mekka in a tweet, calling the actor “a genuinely good guy and purveyor of cheer.”

Mekka began and ended his real-life career on the stage, even earning a Tony Award nomination. He was nominated for best actor in a musical for his performance as Lt. William L. Calley Jr., who perpetrated the My Lai massacre of civilians during the Vietnam War, in “The Lieutenant” (1975).

Clive Barnes, reviewing the show for the New York Times, said Mekka displayed “an honesty and openness that proves very attractive” in his portrayal of “a puzzled kid with a gun who has been told to kill.” The musical, with its difficult subject matter, closed after nine performances but received four Tony nominations.

Mr. Mekka returned to the New York stage in 2008, starring in the one-man Off Broadway comedy “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m in Therapy.”

He also continued to appear in regional theater. He was Harold Hill in “The Music Man,” Pseudolos in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors” and Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof,” his favorite role, which he said in 2003 he had already played more than 20 times.