A Life of Love & Laughter

THE ALICE ALUM AND TONY-WINNING ACTRESS WAS GRATEFUL FOR HER MARRIAGE AND CAREER

- Louise A. Barile

In one of Linda Lavin’s favorite episodes of the television sitcom Alice, her title character, an aspiring singer working as a waitress, agrees to star in a commercial for Mel’s Diner. “She thought she’d just be all glamorous and sing a fabulous sexy song, but instead Mel put her in a hamburger suit,” remembered Linda to Closer. Alice “thought she was on the glamour train, but she turned out to be the caboose!”

From 1976 to 1985, Lin da, who died on Dec. 29 of complications from recently discovered lung cancer at age 87, played one of television’s first blue-collar, single working moms on TV. “Alice represented 80 percent of all the women who work in this country,” said Linda, who earned two Golden Globe Awards for the role, “women who were inspired to go after a better life for themselves.”