Tony winner Linda Lavin died suddenly December 29. As confirmed by Deadline, Ms. Lavin had only recently been diagnosed with lung cancer, and had been working up until the start of the holiday season. She was 87.
The granddaughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, Ms. Lavin began as a child performer, making her stage debut at the age of 5 and studying at the HB Studio. Her big break, however, would not arrive until adulthood, when she took Broadway by storm in the 1960s.
Making her debut in A Family Affair, Lavin appeared on Broadway primarily in plays, including The Riot Act, Something Different, Cop-Out, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Paul Sills' Story Theatre, and The Enemy is Dead. When she opted to point her talents toward musicals, however, it was with great impact. She originated the role of Sydney in It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman, where she introduced the song "You've Got Possibilites;" and in 1966 Stephen Sondheim and Mary Rodgers wrote the song "The Boy From..." for Lavin as a part of The Mad Show.
Ms. Lavin's life would change dramatically halfway through the 1970s, when she went from stage stalwart to screen star. After a variety of guest appearances on episodic programs, Ms. Lavin first hit it big on television with a recurring role on Barney Miller, where she played Detective Janice Wentworth throughout the first and second seasons of the NYPD sitcom. True stardom would descend in 1976 when she was cast as the lead role in Alice, on of the biggest sitcom successes in the history of CBS.
Running from 1976 through 1985, Alice was based on the Martin Scorsese's romantic comedy film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. In the sitcom, Ms. Lavin portrayed Alice Hyatt, a singing waitress. Across the show's nine seasons, Ms. Lavin won two Golden Globes and received a Primetime Emmy nomination. Ms. Lavin also performed the show's theme song, "There's a New Girl in Town," which was written by theatrical writers David Shire and Alan and Marilyn Bergman.
Outside of Alice, Ms. Lavin appeared on a handful of other television programs throughout the end of the 20th century, including Room for Two and Conrad Bloom. In 1984, she even made her feature film debut in the cult classic The Muppets Take Manhattan. Her first love, however, remained the stage, and her love was almost immediately returned in kind upon her return to Broadway in 1986, winning the Tony for her performance in Broadway Bound.
In 1990, Ms. Lavin replaced Tyne Daly as Rose in Gypsy, and in 1994, she stepped into The Sisters Rosensweig to take over from Madeline Kahn. She soon returned to originating performances, however, starring in the first Broadway revival of The Diary of Anne Frank, as well as the original Broadway productions of The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Hollywood Arms, Collected Stories, and The Lyons. Her final Broadway appearance came in 2016, when she starred in Our Mother's Brief Affair.
In all, Ms. Lavin's theatrical career brought her six Tony nominations, winning once; eight Drama Desk nominations, winning twice; two Obie Awards; three Outer Critics Circle nominations, winning once; two Lucille Lortel nominations, winning once; two Drama League nominations; and a Theatre World award.
Throughout the 21st century, Ms. Lavin would occasionally return to television in between her stage work. On the small screen, she appeared on Sean Saves the World, 9JKL, Bones, Santa Clarita Diet, Elsbeth, and more. At the time of her death, Ms. Lavin was in the midst of working on the new sitcom Mid-Century Modern, where she was to play Nathan Lane's mother in a Golden Girls-inspired series, with Lane portraying a Bea Arthur-like figure and Ms. Lavin as his Estelle Getty. It is unclear at this point how or if the production will proceed, as it has been confirmed that Ms. Lavin still had three episodes to complete at the time of her death.
Ms. Lavin is survived by her third husband, Steve Bakunas, and her array of stepchildren and grandchildren.
