‘Alice’ Star Linda Lavin Dies At 87

Broadway actress Linda Lavin died at age 87 on Sunday, Dec. 29.

A representative for Lavin revealed on Sunday in a statement that the actress, “passed unexpectedly due to complications from recently discovered lung cancer.”

Hailing from Portland, Maine, Lavin graduated from the College of William and Mary before she went to New York City to pursue a career in music, getting her start by singing at nightclubs and in ensemble shows. Her first break on Broadway was in the musical It’s a Bird…It’s A Plane…It’s Superman in the 1960s.

Lavin ventured into Hollywood in the 1970s and starred in the CBS sitcom Alice, based on the 1974 Martin Scorsese-directed film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which followed a waitress in Arizona with dreams of being a singer as she struggles to save money. The show ran from 1976 to 1985. In 1987, Lavin earned a Tony for Broadway Bound, a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon which continued to make appearances in film and TV. Lavin also had a concert show entitled Songs & Confessions of a One-Time Waitress, starred in a comedy called The New Century, and was nominated for a Tony for her role in Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories play.

On Dec. 4, less than a month before her death, Lavin opened up to People about her career at the premiere of Netflix’s No Good Deed, in which Lavin plays the character Phyllis.

Asked about the direction of her profession, Lavin told the outlet, “That’s pretty much where the career is flowing right now… and I did a play a couple of years ago in New York, almost two years ago, so that recently, off-Broadway, and it was a limited run, which I enjoy. It doesn’t matter about the medium for me. If it had been a play, I would’ve said yes, but I still would’ve liked a limited run.”

She added, “As an actor, I like to expose myself through the character…I have a wonderful life, a wonderful husband who’s standing over there, and I have a very rich and full life and I’m happy to show up. I’m thrilled to show up at this time in my life. I’m really grateful.”

In a 2011 interview with AP, Lavin shared advice for aspiring actors: “What happened for me was that work brings work. As long as it wasn’t morally reprehensible to me, I did it.”

Lavin was actively filming earlier this month for an upcoming Hulu series entitled Mid-Century Modern.

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