Linda Lavin Dies: 'Alice' Star & Tony-Winning Broadway Actor Was 87 [View all]

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.