Linda Lavin, Tony-winning Broadway actress who starred in the sitcom ‘Alice,’ dead at 87

nypost.com:

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 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 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 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,.