Linda Lavin, an award-winning actress identified for starring within the beloved sitcom “Alice,” has died. She was 87.
Lavin had just lately been recognized with lung most cancers, and handed away on Sunday from problems of the illness, a consultant instructed the Related Press.
She had been lively within the weeks main as much as her dying, making an look earlier this month on the Los Angeles premiere of the Netflix sequence “No Good Deed,” by which she seems.
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Linda Lavin has died. The actress was 87. (CBS by way of Getty Pictures)
Lavin appeared to know from an early age that she was destined for all times as an actress, shifting to New York Metropolis after graduating from faculty. Her first large break got here when she was forged in a musical on Broadway known as “It is a Chook … It is a Airplane … It is Superman.”
In 1969, she was nominated for her first Tony for her work in “Final of the Purple Scorching Lovers.”
Linda Lavin and husband, Steve Bakunas, on the “No Good Deed” Los Angeles Premiere at Tudum Theater on December 4, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Gilbert Flores/Selection by way of Getty Pictures)
By the 70s, she made the transfer to Los Angeles, the place she started getting jobs as a TV actress. She appeared in an episode of “Rhoda,” then landed a small recurring function in “Barney Miller.”
It was in 1976 that she was chosen to star in a brand new CBS sitcom based mostly on Ellen Burstyn’s Oscar-winning waitress comedy-drama, “Alice Doesn’t Dwell Right here Anymore.”
The title was shortened to “Alice,” and Lavin turned a task mannequin for working mothers as Alice Hyatt, a widowed mom with a 12-year-old son working in a roadside diner exterior Phoenix. The present, with Lavin singing the theme music “There is a New Lady in City,” ran from 1976 to 1985.
“Alice” forged from left to proper: Polly Holliday as “Flo” Florence Jean Castleberry; Vic Tayback as diner proprietor Mel Sharples; Philip McKeon as Alice’s son Tommy; Linda Lavin as Alice Hyatt; and Beth Howland as Vera Louise Gorman. (Getty Pictures)
The present turned “Kiss my grits” right into a catchphrase and co-starred Polly Holliday as waitress Flo and Vic Tayback because the gruff proprietor and head chef of Mel’s Diner.
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The sequence bounced across the CBS schedule throughout its first two seasons however turned a success main into “All within the Household” on Sunday nights in October 1977. It was amongst prime time’s prime 10 sequence in 4 of the following 5 seasons. Selection journal listed it among the many all-time greatest office comedies.
“Alice” was based mostly on the Oscar-winning movie “Alice Doesn’t Dwell Right here Anymore.” (CBS by way of Getty Pictures)
When “Alice” ended, Lavin continued working in Hollywood, although she did head again to Broadway for a bit. In 1987, she received a Tony Award for greatest actress after showing in Neil Simon’s “Broadway Sure.”
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She took a number of roles on stage within the years following her success on “Alice,” together with a flip within the musical “Gypsy” in 1990. Her most up-to-date function there was in 2016 in “Our Mom’s Transient Affair.”
Linda Lavin attends the Los Angeles Premiere of Amazon Studios’ “Being The Ricardos” on the Academy Museum of Movement Photos on December 6, 2021, in Los Angeles, California. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Lavin continued working up till her dying. Along with her work in “No Good Deed,” she appeared in an episode of “Elsbeth” this yr. Final yr, she did voice work for an episode of “Bob’s Burgers.”
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She is survived by her husband, Steve Bakunas.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
