Linda Lavin, Star and Tony Winner, Dies at 87: 'A Beautiful Soul'
Linda Lavin, a Broadway star and Tony winner, has died. She was 87.
Lavin, who guest-starred on Barney Miller before getting her own TV series, Alice, died on Sunday, Dec. 29, PEOPLE can confirm. Her representative told PEOPLE she "passed unexpectedly due to complications from recently discovered lung cancer." Deadline was the first to report the news.
The actress returned to Broadway in the ‘80s and won a Tony in 1987, while continuing to appear on TV and in film. Just a few weeks before her death, Lavin had been promoting her new Netflix series No Good Deed and filming for her upcoming Hulu series Mid-Century Modern.
Lavin was born in Portland, Maine, in 1937. Both sets of grandparents emigrated from Russia, and her family was involved in the local Jewish community. Her mother, who had been a singer, encouraged her toward the theater.
“There's a picture of me at 1 1/2 — I use it at the end of my show — where I'm in my rompers, looking out at the world with wonder and joy and hope,” Lavin told PEOPLE in 1992. “That's still me. I am still her.”
She acted in high school and during her time in college at Virginia’s William and Mary. She eventually ended up in New York City. “It took me 10 years to become established in New York,” she told PEOPLE in 1978. In 1966, she appeared in the famous Broadway flop It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman.
Though the musical was unsuccessful, Lavin sang the show’s most famous song, "You've Got Possibilities.” She heard it for the first time while auditioning for the show, she told BroadwayWorld in 2018.
“If you've seen that show and listened to that song, you know it's an impossible song to learn. It's got 87 verses, and it changes keys a million times,” she said. The producers wanted a blonde, so she wore a wig to the audition. “By that time, I knew the song backwards and forwards, and they gave me the part right there and then,” she recalled.
Other early theater credits for Lavin included 1967’s Something Different, 1970’s Paul Sills' Story Theatre and 1969’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers, which earned her a Tony nomination. In 1969, she married actor Ron Leibman, and they moved to Los Angeles in 1973.
Her early TV roles included episodes of The Nurses, Rhoda, Harry O and Kaz. She landed a recurring spot as Detective Janice Wentworth on Barney Miller and appeared in the show’s first two seasons.
Executives, impressed with her work on Barney Miller, cast her on Alice, a sitcom based on Ellen Burstyn’s Oscar-winning role in 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Lavin was worried, she said in 1978: “How can you do something that already’s been done so well?”
But she succeeded and the show — in which she played a widow and single mom who becomes a waitress in Phoenix — was a success. Philip McKeon played her son. Lavin, who had no children, told PEOPLE she took the role so seriously she asked Gloria Steinem for advice.
“Alice’s foremost responsibility is to her kid, but her first responsibility is to herself,” she said. “A lot of shows depict women as backbiting, clawing and competitive for the attention of men. I want this program to show women who are lonely and brave and have a sense of humor. Alice is a woman who is scared shitless. What I like to do is to make people laugh and, in the same moment, reach out to millions and say, ‘You’re not alone.’ ”
Alice ran from 1976 to 1985. Lavin received one Emmy nomination and won two Golden Globes. She told the Los Angeles Times in 2013 that the show politicized her and made her a figure in the women’s movement. “I was asked to speak at events,” she said. “I had never been asked to speak in public before. I was a musical comedy actress.” She had to get “educated” on important issues.
In 1981, she and Leibman divorced. In 1982, she wed actor-director Clifford “Kip” Niven and became stepmother to his two children. They divorced in 1992. In the 1991 divorce proceedings, she accused him of mental and emotional cruelty, adultery and “profligate spending” of her income. She told PEOPLE in 1992 that testifying was “painful and empowering.”
Lavin returned to Broadway in the late ‘80s and won a Tony for the play Broadway Bound. She ultimately received four more nominations, including for 1998’s The Diary of Anne Frank and 2012’s The Lyons. She also worked as a cabaret performer throughout her life.
Lavin starred in the 1992 TV series Room for Two and appeared in episodes of The Sopranos, The Good Wife, Bones, The O.C. and Elsbeth. She also had a main role on the 2013 sitcom Sean Saves the World. Beginning in 2020, she appeared on the CBS sitcom B Positive, and she also had a recurring role on the 2024 Netflix limited series No Good Deed. Her film roles included 1967’s Damn Yankees!, 1984’s The Muppets Take Manhattan, 2015’s The Intern and 2021’s Being the Ricardos.
Lavin plays Phyllis in No Good Deed alongside Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano and attended the show's premiere in Los Angeles on Dec. 4. At that event she noted to PEOPLE that she'd been doing more stuff on the big screen recently. "That's pretty much where the career is flowing right now. I always go with the material is," she said.
The star also reflected on finding inspiration for her roles from her everyday life. "As an actor, I like to expose myself through the character," she added to PEOPLE. "I have a wonderful life, a wonderful husband [Steve Bakunas] 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."
Series creator Liz Feldman paid a sweet tribute to the star on Instagram, posting: “Getting to work with you once was an honor and a joy. I loved writing for you on 9JKL all those years ago. I just loved YOU. Being around you. In your magnetic orbit. That we got to collaborate again on No Good Deed was simply a gift. You were, as always, incredibly gracious, totally hilarious and pitch perfect. Ready to play and full of life. Your warmth and kindness was unparalleled.”
Ahead of the holidays, Lavin had filmed seven episodes of Mid-Century Modern with production scheduled to resume in January, per Rolling Stone. Producer Max Mutchnick and David Kohan and director and executive producer James Burrows released a joint statement following Lavin’s death, per the outlet, saying, “Working with Linda was one of the highlights of our careers. She was a magnificent actress, singer, musician, and a heat seeking missile with a joke. But more significantly, she was a beautiful soul. Deep, joyful, generous and loving. She made our days better. The entire staff and crew will miss her beyond measure. We are better for having known her.”
Many of Lavin’s costars shared memories of her on social media following the news of her death. Patricia Heaton, who starred with her in Room for Two, called the actress “a true friend and a total force of nature” in a post on X, while Criminal Minds actor Joe Mantegna posted, “One of the rarest gifts in life is to make a ‘new’ old friend. Linda Lavin was that for me and my family.”
“There used to be a saying in the industry that if you made it to 70, things would start picking up,” she told The New York Times in 2014. “They were right. I have, and they did.”
In 2005, Lavin married artist and drummer Steve Bakunas, whom she’d met in 1999. “I had no interest in another romance or marriage,” she told CBS in 2020, saying their bond “surprised the hell outta me.”
“I didn't think I was very good at relationships. And I found out that it takes work, and I'm willing to do the work, and so is he. Somebody said to me: 'Wear life like a loose garment, Linda. Lighten up!' " Bakunas also collaborated with her on her cabaret act.
Lavin is survived by Bakunas.
Linda Lavin, who tickled our funny bones and broke our hearts, is mourned by Broadway
Linda Lavin, who died Sunday at age 87, was a captivating Broadway star beloved by audiences for her electrifying contradictions.
A celebrated fixture of the New York stage for six decades, the Tony Award-winning actress was just 5-foot-3-inches tall yet towering; maternal and volcanic; glitteringly musical and groundedly real; hilarious and heartbreaking.
Her sardonic punch line could be followed by a shattering gut punch a second later.
“She was several women in one fragile body,” playwright Charles Busch, whose Broadway play “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife” starred Lavin in 2000, told The Post.
“To be able to conjure forth such sharp wit, comic invention and intense emotion, she had to be a woman of great complexity.”
She was. And one of staggering range.
Dramas, comedies, plays, musicals — Lavin ably did it all with an artistry and assuredness few can match.
Yes, Lavin played many mothers. But from fame-hungry Mama Rose in the 1989 revival of “Gypsy,” in which she replaced Tyne Daly, to the secretive lead of her final Broadway show, 2016’s “Our Mother’s Brief Affair” by Richard Greenberg, the roles couldn’t have been more different.
Lavin won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1987 for playing another mom, Kate Jerome, in “Broadway Bound,” the final chapter of Neil Simon’s Eugene trilogy.
Kate’s life is a hard one. Her sons, portrayed by Jonathan Silverman and Jason Alexander, are about to leave her, her husband is cheating and her father is growing old.
Kate’s speech to her wandering spouse overflows with pain.
“I am so angry,” she tells him. “I am so hurt by your selfishness.”
However, Lavin never settled for just one adjective. In critic Clive Barnes’ review in The Post, he called her “a delight.”
And the Times’ Frank Rich well understood the Olympic balancing act the star had triumphantly mastered — and would for her entire career.
“One only wishes that Ms. Lavin, whose touching performance is of the same high integrity as the writing, could stay in the role forever,” he wrote. “It’s all too easy to imagine the coarse interpretations that could follow this actress’s meticulously, deeply etched portrait of a woman.”
Silverman, who played Eugene, told The Post he was “so lucky” to have been Lavin’s fictional son.
“I had the privilege of dancing and acting alongside the brilliant and beautiful Linda Lavin eight times a week for a year in Neil Simon’s ‘Broadway Bound,’” the actor said.
“At the time, I was barely 20 years old. I had maybe two or three credits to my name. She took me under her wing and we soared,” Silverman continued. “I had a front-row seat to witness her stunning Tony Award-winning performance night after night. It was heartbreaking and stunning. Every time. Every show.”
On social media, Alexander of “Seinfeld” fame wrote, “The talent was immense. The heart even bigger.”
Lavin originated roles in plays by the greatest comedy minds of the last half-century: Simon, Busch, John Guare and Paul Rudnick, among others. Their words flowed from her like they were her own.
Rudnick, whose “The New Century” starred Lavin in 2008, said she was “a writer’s dream.”
“She was brilliantly funny and deeply emotional,” the playwright told The Post. “Watching her build a performance was a master class, and audiences adored her. She was a wonderfully approachable legend.”
Speaking of adoration, the actress’ friends and colleagues mentioned over and over again the outpouring of affection from theatergoers that she regularly inspired. The name Linda Lavin held extreme weight for discerning Broadway ticket-buyers.
“Sitting in the back of the house once the show opened, I marveled at how audiences adored her and she them,” said Manhattan Theatre Club artistic director Lynne Meadow, who directed her in “Allergist’s Wife,” “Brief Affair” and “Collected Stories.”
“Linda was both a comedic and dramatic genius,” she added. “Smart, intuitive, with boundless energy. I called her ‘the energizer bunny.’”
Although her later career was defined by straight plays, “Gypsy” was not Lavin’s only foray into song.
An early breakout role was as Sydney in the 1966 musical “It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman” at the Alvin Theatre (later, the Neil Simon).
And, after she starred in Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” on Broadway in 1969, the actress had trouble finding work. So, she headed west to Los Angeles and performed in cabarets.
“Nobody knew who I was,” Lavin told The Post in 2011. “The club put up a sign in the window — ‘Linda Lawn.’ I sang all the sad songs. I sang ‘I’m Still Here’ to people who didn’t know who I was.”
She eventually found Broadway (and TV) success again, but continued to sing onstage, mostly with friend and music director Billy Stritch.
“Linda was an angel in my life and like a sister to me,” he told The Post.
“Much has and will be said about her exceptional acting talent, but I was the lucky one who knew her the best through her music,” Stritch continued. “Linda and I spent almost 20 years performing together on cabaret and concert stages around the world and every moment was pure joy. We laughed constantly and she was always full of musical ideas and great concepts and no one had a better ear for harmony and improvisation.”
Offstage, Lavin, who married three times, finally found love with husband Steve Bakunas in 2005.
“I saw those gorgeous blue eyes, and I thought, ‘Wow! I’m glad I had my hair done,’” she told The Post in 2011.
The couple’s close friend, Broadway producer Robyn Goodman, said Lavin and Bakunas also took up a hobby that one of the actress’ urbanite characters might enjoy: house flipping.
“She loved to buy and sell real estate with her husband Steve, who was brilliant at rebuilding and making things beautiful with her,” said Goodman, who first met Lavin on a plane in the 1970s. During the flight, “we laughed as we trashed our husbands the whole way.”
Decades later, the pair spent the weekend upstate with Goodman and her wife, designer Anna Louizos.
“She came to visit us in the country once,” Goodman said. “She left on a Sunday and bought a new house nearby on Tuesday!”
Linda Lavin, Tony-winning Broadway actor who starred in the landmark sitcom ‘Alice,’ dies at 87
NEW YORK (AP) — Linda Lavin, a Tony Award-winning stage actor who became a working class icon as a paper-hat wearing waitress on the TV sitcom “Alice,” has died. She was 87.
Lavin died in Los Angeles on Sunday of complications from recently discovered lung cancer, her representative, Bill Veloric, told The Associated Press in an email.
A success on Broadway, Lavin tried her luck in Hollywood in the mid-1970s. She was chosen to star in a new CBS sitcom based on “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” the Martin Scorsese-directed film that won Ellen Burstyn an Oscar for playing the title waitress.
The title was shortened to “Alice” and Lavin became a role model for working moms as Alice Hyatt, a widowed mother with a 12-year-old son working in a roadside diner outside Phoenix. The show, with Lavin singing the theme song “There’s a New Girl in Town,” ran from 1976 to 1985.
The show turned “Kiss my grits” into a catchphrase and co-starred Polly Holliday as waitress Flo and Vic Tayback as the gruff owner and head chef of Mel’s Diner.
The series bounced around the CBS schedule during its first two seasons but became a hit leading into “All in the Family” on Sunday nights in October 1977. It was among primetime’s top 10 series in four of the next five seasons. Variety magazine listed it among the all-time best workplace comedies.
Lavin soon went on to win a Tony for best actress in a play for Neil Simon’s “Broadway Bound” in 1987, which also garnered her Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Helen Hayes awards.
“She was a tremendous performer with a generous heart,” the union Actors Equity said on X. The group in 2023 honored her with the Richard Seff Award — given to veteran performers in supporting roles — for her work in Noah Diaz’s “You Will Get Sick.”
She was working as recently as this month promoting a new Netflix series in which she appears, “No Good Deed,” and filming a forthcoming Hulu series, “Mid-Century Modern,” according to Deadline, which first reported her death. She also appeared in 2024 as a guest star in “Elsbeth,” the spinoff of “The Good Wife.”
Lavin grew up in Portland, Maine, and moved to New York City after graduating from the College of William and Mary. She sang in nightclubs and in ensembles of shows.
Iconic producer and director Hal Prince gave Lavin her first big break while directing the Broadway musical “It’s a Bird ... It’s a Plane ... It’s Superman.” She went on to earn a Tony nomination in Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” in 1969 before winning 18 years later for another Simon play, “Broadway Bound.”
In the mid 1970s, Lavin moved to Los Angeles. She had a recurring role on “Barney Miller” and in 1976 was chosen to star in a new CBS sitcom based on Ellen Burstyn’s Oscar-winning waitress comedy-drama, “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”
Back on Broadway, Lavin later starred in Paul Rudnick’s comedy “The New Century,” had a concert show called “Songs & Confessions of a One-Time Waitress” and earned a Tony nomination in Donald Margulies’ “Collected Stories.”
“A star in every medium, but pure theatrical genius. Blissfully funny, deeply emotional, and audiences adored her. She never disappointed: I worked with her, and just watching her rehearse and build a performance was an education and the greatest joy,” Rudnick wrote on X.
Michael Kuchwara of the AP gave Lavin a rave in “Collected Stories,” writing that she “gives one of those complete, nuanced performances, capturing the woman’s intellectual vigor, her wry sense of humor and her increasing physical frailty with astonishing fidelity. And Lavin’s sense of timing is superb, whether delivering a joke or acerbically dissecting the work of her protegee.”
Lavin basked in a burst of renewed attention in her 70s, earning a Tony nomination for Nicky Silver’s “The Lyons.” She also starred in “Other Desert Cities” and a revival of “Follies” before they transferred to Broadway.
The AP again raved about Lavin in “The Lyons,” calling her “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 also appeared in the film “Wanderlust” with Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, and released her first CD, “Possibilities.” She played Jennifer Lopez’s grandmother in “The Back-Up Plan.”
When asked for guidance from up-and-coming actors, Lavin stressed one thing. “I say that what happened for me was that work brings work. As long as it wasn’t morally reprehensible to me, I did it,” she told the AP in 2011.
She and Steve Bakunas, an artist, musician and her third husband, converted an old automotive garage into the 50-seat Red Barn Studio Theatre in Wilmington, North Carolina.
It opened in 2007 and their productions include “Doubt” by John Patrick Shanley, “Glengarry Glen Ross” by David Mamet, “Rabbit Hole” by David Lindsay-Abaire and “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife” by Charles Busch, in which Lavin also starred on Broadway, earning a Tony nomination.
She returned to TV in 2013 in “Sean Saves the World,” starring “Will & Grace’s” Sean Hayes, a show which lasted a season. Lavin also made appearances on “Mom” and “9JKL.”
AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed from Los Angeles.
Linda Lavin, star of sitcom "Alice" and Tony Award winner, dies at 87
Linda Lavin, a Tony Award-winning stage actress who became a working class icon as a paper-hat wearing waitress on the TV sitcom "Alice," has died. She was 87.
Lavin died unexpectedly Sunday of complications from recently discovered lung cancer, her representative, Michael Gagliardo, told CBS News in an email.
A success on Broadway, Lavin tried her luck in Hollywood in the mid-1970s. She was chosen to star in a new CBS sitcom based on "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," the Martin Scorsese-directed film that won Ellen Burstyn an Oscar for playing the title waitress.
The title was shortened to "Alice" and Lavin become a role model for working moms as Alice Hyatt, a widowed mother with a 12-year-old son working in a roadside diner outside Phoenix. The show, with Lavin singing the theme song "There's a New Girl in Town," ran from 1976 to 1985.
The show turned "Kiss my grits" into a catchphrase and co-starred Polly Holliday as waitress Flo and Vic Tayback as the gruff owner and head chef of Mel's Diner.
The series bounced around the CBS schedule during its first two seasons but became a hit leading into "All in the Family" on Sunday nights in October 1977. It was among primetime's top 10 series in four of the next five seasons. Variety magazine listed it among the all-time best workplace comedies.
Lavin soon went on to win a Tony for best actress in a play for Neil Simon's "Broadway Bound" in 1987.
She was working as recently as this month promoting a new Netflix series in which she appears, "No Good Deed," and filming a forthcoming Hulu series, "Mid-Century Modern," according to Deadline, which first reported her death.
Lavin grew up in Portland, Maine, and moved to New York City after graduating from the College of William and Mary. She sang in nightclubs and in ensemble shows.
Iconic producer and director Hal Prince gave Lavin her first big break while directing the Broadway musical "It's a Bird ... It's a Plane ... It's Superman." She went on to earn a Tony nomination in Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" in 1969 before winning a Tony 18 years later for another Simon play, "Broadway Bound."
In the mid 1970s, Lavin moved to Los Angeles. She had a recurring role on "Barney Miller" and in 1976 was chosen to star in "Alice."
Back on Broadway, Lavin later starred Paul Rudnick's comedy "The New Century," had a concert show called "Songs & Confessions of a One-Time Waitress" and earned a Tony nomination in Donald Margulies' "Collected Stories."
Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press raved about Lavin in "Collected Stories," writing that she "gives one of those complete, nuanced performances, capturing the woman's intellectual vigor, her wry sense of humor and her increasing physical frailty with astonishing fidelity. And Lavin's sense of timing is superb, whether delivering a joke or acerbically dissecting the work of her protegee."
Lavin basked in a burst of renewed attention in her 70s, earning a Tony nomination for Nicky Silver's "The Lyons." She also starred in "Other Desert Cities" and a revival of "Follies" before they transferred to Broadway.
The AP again raved about Lavin in "The Lyons," calling her "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 also appeared in the film "Wanderlust" with Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, and released her first CD, "Possibilities." She played Jennifer Lopez's grandmother in "The Back-Up Plan."
When asked for guidance for up-and-coming actresses, Lavin stressed one thing. "I say that what happened for me was that work brings work. As long as it wasn't morally reprehensible to me, I did it," she told the AP in 2011.
She and Steve Bakunas, an artist, musician and her third husband, converted an old automotive garage into the 50-seat Red Barn Studio Theatre in Wilmington, North Carolina.
It opened in 2007 and their productions include "Doubt" by John Patrick Shanley, "Glengarry Glen Ross" by David Mamet, "Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire and "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" by Charles Busch, in which Lavin also starred on Broadway, earning a Tony nomination.
She returned to TV in 2013 in "Sean Saves the World," starring "Will & Grace's" Sean Hayes, a show that lasted a season. Lavin also made appearances on "Mom" and "9JKL."
Tony-winning ‘Alice’ star Linda Lavin dies at 87
Linda Lavin, the Tony- and Golden Globe-winning actress and singer best known for starring in the CBS sitcom “Alice” for nearly a decade, died on Sunday at the age of 87.
She died due to complications from recently discovered lung cancer, according to her representatives.
Lavin’s long, illustrious career spanned both the stage and the screen and started at a young age; born into a musical family, Lavin has been performing since the age of 5, according to her alma mater, William & Mary.
She got her big break in New York, cutting her teeth in Broadway plays and musicals throughout the 1960s.
She starred in the 1966 musical “It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman,” with the New York Times review at the time praising her performance as “fresh.” “I wish she was in every musical and revue,” wrote Times critic Stanley Kauffmann.
But it was the television show “Alice,” which follows a widowed mother pursuing her dreams of being a singer while working at a diner, that made Lavin a household name.
She played the titular character throughout the show’s entire nine-season run from 1976 to 1985 – during which she won two Golden Globes, was nominated a third time, and was also nominated for an Emmy Award.
In the following years she juggled television, film and theater, nabbing a Tony Award for her lead role in the 1986 play “Broadway Bound” – and more Tony nominations for several other projects. Her work never slowed over the years, with stints in voice acting, directing and producing, and teaching master classes at William & Mary.
Her most recent performance was in the Netflix show “No Good Deed,” following three families fighting to buy the same house – which released earlier this month. She had been set to act in another play, “Mid-Century Modern,” in California in January.
The news of her death sparked tributes and messages of mourning from those in Hollywood and Broadway who remembered her as a respected veteran who shaped the industry.
Actress Patricia Heaton shared a video on X reminiscing about her time working with Lavin on the short-lived ABC sitcom “Room for Two” from 1992 to 1993.
“She was such a legend. The first major role I had in television was playing her daughter,” Heaton said. “She was my mentor, my guardian angel. She really looked out for me, taught me a lot, not just about acting but about life. And we had dinner a couple months ago when I was in LA, and she was just as sharp and funny and energetic as she always has been.”
“I’m going to miss her. She was a good friend,” Heaton added.
CNN’s Amanda Jackson contributed to this report.
Linda Lavin, Star of CBS’ Alice and Tony Award Winner, Dead at 87
Actress Linda Lavin, best known to TV fans for starring in the CBS sitcom Alice, has died, TVLine has confirmed. She was 87.
According to a representative for Lavin, she died unexpectedly on Sunday due to complications from recently discovered lung cancer.
More from TVLine
Lavin got her start on the small screen with episodes of shows like Rhoda, Phyllis and Barney Miller. Her most memorable TV role, though, was that of widowed diner waitress Alice Hyatt in the CBS sitcom Alice, which ran for nine seasons from 1976 to 1985. Lavin starred in the series for all 202 episodes, picking up a Primetime Emmy nomination in 1979 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, as well as two Golden Globe wins.
Post-Alice, Lavin co-starred in the short-lived sitcoms Room for Two (opposite Patricia Heaton) and Conrad Bloom, appeared in a number of TV movies, and guest-starred on series like The O.C., The Good Wife, Bones and Madam Secretary. More recently, her small-screen credits included the CBS comedies 9JKL and B Positive, a guest stint on Good Wife spinoff Elsbeth and, just earlier this month, three episodes of the Lisa Kudrow-Ray Romano Netflix series No Good Deed.
Lavin was also an accomplished stage actress, appearing in numerous productions on and off-Broadway. Throughout her career, she garnered six Tony Award nominations and won the Best Leading Actress in a Play trophy in 1987 for Broadway Bound.
She was next set to co-star in the Hulu comedy Mid-Century Modern, a Golden Girls-esque series led by Nathan Lane and Matt Bomer. The series, in which Lavin played mom to Lane, has three of 10 episodes left to shoot. TVLine has reached out to Hulu regarding any impact on the show’s production.
“Working with Linda was one of the highlights of our careers,” Mid-Century Modern creators David Kohan, Max Mutchnick and Jimmy Burrows said in a statement. “She was a magnificent actress, singer, musician, and a heat seeking missile with a joke. But more significantly, she was a beautiful soul. Deep, joyful, generous and loving. She made our days better. The entire staff and crew will miss her beyond measure. We are better for having known her.”
Added 20th Television and Hulu: “Our deepest and heartfelt condolences go to Linda Lavin’s family and loved ones. She was a legend in our industry, bringing her tremendous talent to audiences for over seven decades. She will be forever missed by her Mid-Century Modern family, as we mourn this incredible loss together.”
Heaton, who played Lavin’s TV daughter on Room for Two in 1992, reflected on her experience working with Lavin in a video posted to X on Sunday.
“She was my mentor, my guardian angel,” Heaton said. “She really looked out for me, taught me a lot — not just about acting, but about life. And we had dinner a couple months ago when I was in L.A., and she was just as sharp and funny and energetic as she always has been… I’m going to miss her. She was a good friend.”
“She was so good to work with,” added The Good Wife and Elsbeth co-creator Robert King. “Such a voice. Such reality. And, yet, great comic instincts.”
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Linda Lavin Dies: The ‘Alice’ Star Was 87
Linda Lavin, the Tony and Golden Globe Award-winning actress who rose to fame in the long-running CBS sitcom Alice, died unexpectedly in Los Angeles on Sunday, December 29. She was 87 and had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Born October 15, 1937 in Portland, Maine, Linda Lavin began her Broadway career in the 1960s, appearing in the musicalcomedies Oh, Kay!, A Family Affair, It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman, and the play Last of the Red Hot Lovers, which earned her the first of six Tony Award nominations. Her one Tony win came in 1987 for Best Actress in a Play for Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound.
Lavin moved to Hollywood in 1973 and began making the rounds on television in guest roles on TV series including Rhoda, Harry O, Family, Phyllis, and as Detective Janice Wentworth in five episodes of comedy Barney Miller.
In 1975, Lavin began her nine season stint as waitress/singer Alice Hyatt on Alice, which was based on the 1974 Martin Scorcese-directed theatrical Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (which earned Ellyn Burstyn as Alice an Academy Award).
In 1979, Lavin won the Golden Globe for Best TV Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Alice.
Following Alice, Lavin appeared as a series regular in seven other comedies. The first was Room For Two opposite Patricia Heaton (pre-Everybody Raymond) from 1992-93. Next was Conrad Bloom (1998), followed by Sean Saves the World (2013-14), 9JKL (2017-18), Yvette Slosch, Agent (2020), B Positive (2020-22), and the upcoming Hulu comedy Mid-Century Modern. Lavin taped her most recent episode of Mid-Century Modern just a couple of weeks ago.
Lavin also had recurring roles in The O.C., The Good Wife, Santa Clarita Diet, and No Good Deed, which recently dropped on Netflix.
“Getting to work with you once was an honor and a joy. I loved writing for you on 9JKL all those years ago,” wrote Liz Feldman, the creator of 9JKL on Instagram. “I just loved YOU. Being around you. In your magnetic orbit. That we got to collaborate again on No Good Deed was simply a gift. You were, as always, incredibly gracious, totally hilarious and pitch perfect. Ready to play and full of life. Your warmth and kindness was unparalleled.”
“She was such a legend. The first major role I had in television was playing her daughter,” said Patricia Heaton in a video on X. “She was my mentor, my guardian angel. She really looked out for me, taught me a lot, not just about acting but about life. And we had dinner a couple months ago when I was in L.A., and she was just as sharp and funny and energetic as she always has been.”
“I’m going to miss her. She was a good friend,” Heaton added.
