I'll always think of her as Wentworth from Barney Miller. She was so great as Wentworth that she had a major impact on the show, even though she was only on 4 or 5 episodes, and even though she left to do Alice. (They referenced Wentworth a couple of times after she was gone.) Honestly? She was one of my favorite characters on that show.

Linda Lavin was great.

Awww bummer! Alice is one of the early shows I remember watching.

RIP

A very underrated actress. Always thought she deserved better/bigger roles.

I saw this PBS production in 2002 called "Collected Stories" that was based on a play. It only had to actors in it - Lavin and Samantha Mathis:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308125/reference/

Her performance in that was fantastic.

"Alice" was one of my favorites when I was a kid. Granted, it was best when Flo was on. But it was a fun show it's entire run. And everyone looked like that were having a great time doing it.

Flo and Jolene are the last surviving characters.

Even Tommy passed away several years ago.

Lavin sang the theme song for the show.


Haven't seen that in many years, and so was reminded that the first season credits laid out the premise of the show. Classic.

Aww, bummer indeed. RIP

RIP Linda. "Alice" was one of my earliest TV shows that I followed every week. I most recently saw he in "The Intern" with Robert DeNiro.

Diane Ladd "Belle" is still living from the show. She played "Flo" in the original film "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" that is the basis for the TV show. As a matter of fact, Ellen Burstyn who played the original "Alice" in the film is also still alive.

RIP. Fond memories of watching Alice as a kid.

Probably from eating too much of Mel's chili as a kid. That stuff has a long half life.

As already mentioned, "Jolene" (Celia Watson) is still alive. Most recently, she played Cam's mother on Modern Family.

"Flo" (Polly Holliday) is 87, "Belle" (Diane Ladd) is 89 and surprisingly (to me) "Jolene" (Celia Watson) only just turned 73. Didn't think she was much younger than the other cast members when I watched the show.

Jolene was Celia Weston.

Apparently Lavin was still working as late as this month. She had a Netflix show and was also on a Hulu series as a lead.

Story said she was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, which also caused her co-star Beth Howland's death.

Yeah, I knew that but for some reason reversed it when typing. Fixed.

Okay, now everyone do the cast of "It's a Living"

I also watched Alice as a kid. Thinking back, I feel like it probably had more serious adult themes like women's lib and workers' rights, but i just watched to see Flo telling people "Kiss my grits!" and Mel yelling at Vera. Alice was always the least funny character on the show.

The Alice break dancing episode with Vic Tayback and Linda busting a move.

Fuckin' 80's

I watched a lot of Alice too as a kid. 'Dingy!' and 'Kiss my grits!' were cemented in my brain. RIP Linda Lavin.