A Tony Award-winning stage actress who became a working class icon as a paper-hat waitress on “Alice,” Linda Lavin, died. She was 87.
Michael Gagliardo, Lavin’s representative, emailed CBS News that she died abruptly Sunday of lung cancer complications.
After Broadway success, Lavin explored Hollywood in the mid-1970s. She was cast in a CBS sitcom based on Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” in which Ellen Burstyn played the title waitress.
Lavin became a role model for working moms as Alice Hyatt, a widowed mother with a 12-year-old son who works in a roadside cafe outside Phoenix. In 1976–1985, Lavin sang “There’s a New Girl in Town,” the show’s theme.
Polly Holliday played waitress Flo and Vic Tayback as Mel’s Diner’s gruff proprietor and head chef. “Kiss my grits” became a catchphrase.
The sitcom hopped around CBS’s schedule for its first two seasons but became a hit before “All in the Family” on Sunday nights in October 1977. Four of the next five seasons ended with it in primetime’s top 10. Variety named it one of the best workplace comedies.
A 1987 Tony for best actress in a play for Neil Simon’s “Broadway Bound” followed for Lavin.
Deadline, which first reported her death, reported that she was promoting “No Good Deed,” a Netflix series, and filming “Mid-Century Modern,” a Hulu series, this month.
From Portland, Maine, Lavin went to New York City after graduating from William and Mary. She sang in bars and ensembles.
Iconic producer and director Hal Prince handed Lavin her first major chance while directing “It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman.” She was nominated for a Tony in 1969 for Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” and won 18 years later for “Broadway Bound.”
In the mid-1970s, Lavin moved to LA. The 1976 film “Alice.” followed her “Barney Miller” recurrent role.
After “The New Century,” Lavin starred in “Songs & Confessions of a One-Time Waitress” and received a Tony nomination for Donald Margulies’ “Collected Stories.”
In “Collected Stories,” The Associated Press’ Michael Kuchwara praised Lavin, saying she “captures the woman’s intellectual energy, caustic sense of humor, and increasing physical weakness with stunning authenticity. Lavin has great timing, whether making a joke or scolding her protegee.”
A Tony nomination for Nicky Silver’s “The Lyons.” brought Lavin renewed prominence in her 70s. Before moving to Broadway, she starred in “Other Desert Cities” and “Follies” revivals.
The AP praised Lavin in “The Lyons,” deeming “an absolute wonder to behold as Rita Lyons, a nag of a mother with a collection of firm beliefs and eye rolls, a matriarch who is both suffocating and keeping everyone at arm’s length.”
She performed in “Wanderlust” alongside Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd and published her first CD, “Possibilities.” In “The Back-Up Plan.” she played Jennifer Lopez’s grandmother.
Lavin advised aspiring actresses on one thing. My experience was that work brings work. In 2011, she told the AP, “I did whatever wasn’t morally wrong.”
Her 50-seat Red Barn Studio Theatre in Wilmington, North Carolina, was rebuilt from an abandoned automobile garage by artist, musician, and third husband Steve Bakunas.
They opened in 2007 and have produced “Doubt” by John Patrick Shanley, “Glengarry Glen Ross” by David Mamet, “Rabbit Hole” by David Lindsay-Abaire, and Charles Busch’s “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife” (which Lavin starred in and received a Tony nomination
She returned to TV in 2013 with “Sean Saves the World,” starring “Will & Grace”‘s Sean Hayes, for a season. Lavin appeared in “Mom” and “9JKL.”
