LAVIN, LINDA

LAVIN, LINDA (1937– ), U.S. actress. Lavin appeared in a community production of Alice in Wonderland in her birthplace, Portland, Me., at the age of five and studied piano for ten years under the eye of her stage mother. She majored in theater arts at William and Mary College and then embarked on summer stock in New Jersey. She made her Off Broadway debut in a revival of Oh, Kay (1960) and had a succession of roles in several Broadway musicals. She earned her first Tony nomination for her role in neil simon 's Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969). After moving to Hollywood, she appeared on the hit comedy series Barney Miller and then got the role of Alice the waitress in the situation comedy Alice, which ran from 1976 to 1985. The part in the show, loosely based on the 1975 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, earned her two Golden Globe awards and an Emmy nomination. In 1987, returning to the Broadway stage, she won a Tony award for Broadway Bound, another Simon vehicle. She earned two other Tony nominations, for her starring role in Gypsy and in The Sisters Rosensweig. As an actor, producer, and executive producer, Lavin has been involved in more than two dozen films. (Stewart Kampel (2nd ed.)