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.
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.
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. TVLine has reached out to Hulu regarding any impact on the show’s production.
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.
Heaton, who played Lavin’s TV daughter on Room for Two in 1992, reflected on her experience working with Lavin in an X video 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.”
