Star of TV’s Alice and a Tony Winner was 87

Linda Lavin, star of CBS’ long-running sitcom “Alice” and Tony winner of Neil Simon’s play “Broadway Bound,” who remained active on TV and on stage, died Sunday. She was 87.

A rep for Lavin confirmed that the actress died unexpectedly on Sunday due to complications from recently diagnosed lung cancer. As recently as December 4, Lavin attended the premiere of Netflix’s dark comedy series ‘No Good Deed’ at the streamer’s Tudum Theater in Hollywood.

Lavin was also set to star alongside Matt Bomer and Nathan Lane in the upcoming Hulu comedy “Mid-Century Modern,” which is in the middle of filming its first season. The show comes from “Will & Grace” creators/executive producers David Kohan and Max Mutchnick and director-producer James Burrows for 20th Television.

“Working with Linda was one of the highlights of our career. She was a great actress, singer, musician and a heat-seeking missile with a joke. But more importantly, she was a beautiful soul. Deep, joyful, generous and loving. She made our days better. The entire staff and crew will miss her dearly. It’s better that we knew her,” Kohan, Mutchnick and Burrows said in a joint statement.

Hulu and 20th Television, both part of Disney, also paid tribute to the veteran actor.

“Our deepest and heartfelt condolences go to the family and loved ones of Linda Lavin,” the streamer and studio’s statement read. “She was a legend in our industry and brought her immense talent to audiences for over seventy years. She will be forever missed by her Mid-Century Modern family as we mourn this incredible loss together.”

Lavin established herself as a beloved character actor with her decade-long role on “Alice,” the CBS comedy series adapted from Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” starring Ellen Burstyn in the title role. The series, which ran from 1976-85, starred Lavin as Alice Hyatt, a widow with a young son (played by Philip McKeon) who starts her life over in Arizona, working at Mel’s Diner (whose eponymous owner was played by Vic Tayback). ), alongside fellow waitresses Flo (Polly Holliday) and Vera (Beth Howland).

Lavin was nominated for an Emmy in 1979 for her work on the series. She won the Golden Globe for Actress in a Comedy or Music for “Alice” in 1979 and 1980 and was nominated again in 1981.

“Alice” was in the top 30 for its first eight seasons, finishing the 1979-80 season at No. 4 before ultimately dropping out in its final season. The series subsequently appeared in syndication.

In 2015, she appeared in the Nancy Meyers comedy “The Intern,” starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway, and had the films “My Bakery in Brooklyn” and “Manhattan Nocturne” ready for release in 2016. Last decade Lavin was busy with roles in series such as Netflix’s ‘No Good Deed’ and CBS’ ‘Elsbeth’, as well as the CBS comedy ‘9JKL’. Other recent TV credits include CBS’ “B Positive,” Amazon Prime’s “Being the Ricardos,” IFC’s “Brockmire,” Netflix’s “Santa Clarita Diet,” CBS’ “Madam Secretary,” “Mom” and “The Good Wife ‘, Fox’s “Bones” and “The OC”, “HBO’s “The Sopranos” and “Room 104” and more. Film roles included 2019’s “Girls Weekend,” 2017’s “How to Be a Latin Lover” and 2010’s “The Back-up Plan.”

Although Lavin appeared on television after “Alice,” she was really more of a stage actress — one who was nominated by Tony six times, for actress in a play in 1970 for Neil Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers”; leading actress in a play in 1987 for Simon’s “Broadway Bound,” which she later won; actress in a play in 1998 for “The Diary of Anne Frank”; leading actress in a play in 2001 for Charles Busch’s “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife”; lead actress in a play in 2010 for Donald Margulies’ “Collected Stories”; and lead actress in a play in 2012 for Nicky Silver’s ‘The Lyons’.

Lavin was known for her charismatic work in both drama and comedy, not to mention musicals. When “The Lyons” was still Off Broadway, the New York Times praised her primarily for “the surprising dimensions she finds within one-liners.”

In 1990, Lavin replaced Tyne Daly in the lead role of Rose in a Broadway revival production of the musical “Gypsy.” In 1994, she was a replacement in Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Sisters Rosenzweig,” and in 2002 she starred in “Hollywood Arms,” ​​written by Carol Burnett and her daughter Carrie Hamilton.

After ‘Alice’, Lavin occupied himself with theater work and made only occasional forays into television. But the Peak TV moment of the past decade has kept her busy with a steady stream of guest shots and supporting roles in comedies and dramas. She co-starred with Patricia Heaton as a sparring mother and daughter in the ABC sitcom ‘Room for Two’ in 1992, and she was a series regular in the short series ‘Conrad Bloom’ in 1998 and in Sean Hayes’ vehicle ‘Sean Saves the World’ in 2013-14.

She appeared in a number of TV movies and guested on shows ranging from ‘Touched by an Angel’ and ‘The OC’ to ‘The Good Wife’ and ‘The Sopranos’, on the latter of which she appeared as a psychotherapist who treated Tony Soprano’s daughter Meadow goes to watch. She appeared in a 2002 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent as a ruthless Jewish matriarch who had her daughter-in-law murdered.

Born in Portland, Maine, to a mother, Lucille Potter Lavin, once a coloratura soprano opera singer on stage and radio. Lavin first took the stage at the age of 5. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1959 with a degree in theater.

The actress made her Broadway debut in 1962 in the Harold Prince-directed musical comedy “A Family Affair,” followed by “The Riot Act” the following year. She returned to the Rialto in 1966, again for Prince, in the musical comedy “It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman.” Also in the 1960s she appeared on Broadway in ‘Something Different’, written and directed by Carl Reiner, and in John Guare’s ‘Cop-Out’. Other New York credits during the period include “Oh, Kay!” in 1960, “On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever” in 1966 and “The Enemy Is Dead” in 1973. She also appeared on TV in a 1967 production of ‘Damn Yankees’.

Lavin made her television debut in a 1963 episode of “The Doctors and Nurses”; after “Damn Yankees,” she appeared in a 1969 segment on “CBS Playhouse” called “Sadbird.” There were a few TV movies and guest appearances on “Rhoda” and “Harry O” before she starred for a season on ABC’s hit cop comedy “Barney Miller” from 1975 to 1976 as Det. Janice Wentworth.” After starting “Alice” in 1976, she continued to guest on other shows, including “Phyllis” and “Family.”

For decades, the actress never really had a film career; she played Kermit’s doctor in “The Muppets Take Manhattan” in 1984; in 1989, she had supporting roles in Alan J. Pakula’s “See You in the Morning” and Alain Resnais’ Jules Feiffer-penned “I Want to Go Home.” But later in her career she was drawn to film. She had supporting roles in Alan Poul’s Jennifer Lopez film ‘The Back-up Plan’ in 2010 and the Jennifer Aniston-Paul Rudd comedy ‘Wanderlust’ in 2012, and was excellent as a mother suffering from Alzheimer’s in the film ‘A Short History ‘ by Michael Maren from 2014. of decay.”

She appeared on Broadway in 2016 in “Our Mother’s Brief Affair.” Variety said: “Not even the saintly Linda Lavin can save the deeply unpleasant character she plays in ‘Our Mother’s Brief Affair,’ a lazy Richard Greenberg play commissioned and first produced by South Coast Rep, now airing on Broadway by the Manhattan Theater Club. Stubbornly lacking in dramatic tension, the dull story concerns a mean-spirited woman who may or may not be on her deathbed telling a closely guarded secret to her obnoxious adult children.

After meeting actor-drummer Steve Bakunas during the 2002 run of “Hollywood Arms,” the couple married in 2005 and subsequently settled in Wilmington, NC, converting a garage into the Red Barn Studio Theater, which they ran together. The actress appeared there in productions of “Doubt,” “Collected Stories,” “Driving Miss Daisy” and “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife,” among others, and also directed plays in the region.

Lavin was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2011.

She was married three times, the first time to actor Ron Liebman from 1969-81, the second time to actor Kip Niven from 1982-92.

Lavin is survived by third husband Bakunas.