Linda Lavin Dies: 'Alice' Star & Tony-Winning Broadway Actor Was 87

[Demovictory9]

https://deadline.com/2024/12/linda-lavin-dead-alice-no-good-deed-tony-winner-1236243483/

Linda Lavin, the beloved veteran stage and TV actress known for her Emmy-nominated role in the 1976 sitcom Alice and for her Tony-winning performance in the 1986 play Broadway Bound, died today, Dec. 29. She was 87.

The news comes as a shock as Lavin has been working as recently as this month, promoting her new Netflix series No Good Deed and filming the upcoming Hulu comedy series Mid-Century Modern, on which she is one of the leads. She died unexpectedly due to complications from recently discovered lung cancer, her PR representative told Deadline.

A former child stage actor, Lavin started her Broadway career in the 1960s, appearing in the musical 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 in 1970.

For the next five decades, Lavin juggled theater and Hollywood careers. Following a memorable recurring role on the ABC sitcom Barney Miller from 1975-1976, she landed the the title role of a roadside diner waitress and widowed young mother in the 1976 comedy series Alice, based on the movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which ran on CBS for nine seasons and 202 episodes.

[DeeDeeNY]

1. The first time I heard of Linda Lavin

It was around 1973 and a friend of mine from work had gotten married, and she and her husband started renting a brownstone apartment in Manhattan. But after they had been living there awhile, she confided to me that it was sometimes awkward because she and her husband would have to walk through the living room of the first-floor apartment where the building's owners lived to get to the staircase going up to their apartment. But luckily the owners weren't home much because they were actors. I asked her their names, but when she told me I had to admit I had never heard of either of them: Ron Liebman and Linda Lavin!

[Demovictory9]

2. That is super awkward living situation. Didnt know she was married to Liebman

[LessAspin]

3. Elsbeth and Barney Miller

Was just watching Season 1 of Elsbeth and Linda Lavin was one of the first victims of foul play in the series.

Tonight on Antenna 📡 TV they showed the series finale of Barney Miller. As Barney stood in the empty squad room they showed a few clips from past shows. Linda Lavin was featured in one of those clips.

Only about 50 years separating those episodes.