Linda Lavin facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Linda Lavin
Lavin in 2014
Born	(1937-10-15)October 15, 1937 Portland, Maine, U.S.
Died	December 29, 2024(2024-12-29) (aged 87)
Education	College of William & Mary HB Studio
Occupation	Actress singer
Years active	1962–2024
Known for	Alice Broadway Bound Barney Miller
Spouse(s)	Ron Leibman ​ ​ (m. 1969; div. 1981)​ Kip Niven ​ ​ (m. 1982; div. 1992)​ Steve Bakunas ​ ​ (m. 2005)​
Awards	American Theater Hall of Fame

Linda Lavin (October 15, 1937 – December 29, 2024) was an American actress and singer. She was famous for playing the main character in the TV show Alice. She was also well-known for her many performances on stage, both on and off-Broadway.

Linda started acting when she was a child. In the late 1950s, she joined a group called the Compass Players. She began performing on Broadway in the 1960s. She became noticed in It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman in 1966. In 1970, she received her first Tony Award nomination for Last of the Red Hot Lovers.

In 1973, she moved to Hollywood and started working in television. She had a recurring role on the show Barney Miller. Then, she got the main role in the popular comedy Alice, which aired from 1976 to 1985. She also appeared in many TV movies and other TV shows. She also acted in several feature films.

In 1987, Linda returned to Broadway. She starred in Broadway Bound, where she won a Tony Award. She also appeared in Gypsy (1990), The Sisters Rosensweig (1993), The Diary of Anne Frank (1997–1998), and The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (2000–2001). In 2010, she was in Collected Stories, earning her fifth Tony nomination. Later, she starred in the TV shows Sean Saves the World, 9JKL, and B Positive.

Early Life and Start in Acting

Linda Lavin was born in Portland, Maine. Her father, David Joseph Lavin, was a businessman. Her mother, Lucille, was an opera singer. Linda's family was very involved in their local Jewish community. Both sets of her grandparents came from Russia.

Her family was very musical, and Linda started performing on stage when she was just five years old. She studied acting at HB Studio in New York City. She went to Waynflete School and then the College of William & Mary. While at college, she acted in many plays. In 1958, she played a main role in The Common Glory, an outdoor play. By the time she graduated, she had already earned her Actors' Equity Association card, which meant she could work as a professional actor.

In the late 1950s, she was part of the Compass Players. By the early 1960s, Linda had appeared in several Broadway shows. She also sang on the 1966 album for The Mad Show, performing a song called "The Boy From...". From It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman, her song "You've Got Possibilities" was very popular.

Acting Career

TV and Movies

In 1967, Linda Lavin appeared as Gloria Thorpe in a TV version of the musical Damn Yankees. In 1969, she married actor Ron Leibman. By 1973, they had moved to Hollywood, California. Linda made guest appearances on TV shows like The Nurses, Rhoda, and Harry O. She then got a recurring role as Detective Janice Wentworth on Barney Miller in 1975–1976.

Beth Howland as Vera, Linda Lavin as Alice, and Polly Holliday as Flo on Alice (1976)

Linda left Barney Miller to star in the main role of Alice. This show was a big hit for CBS and ran from 1976 to 1985. The series was based on the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Linda played Alice Hyatt, a waitress and singer. Linda also sang the show's theme song, "There's a New Girl in Town." During the show's nine years, Linda won two Golden Globe Awards and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She also gained experience directing some episodes.

Linda also appeared in many other TV shows. She hosted her own special called Linda in Wonderland (1980). She acted in two other sitcoms, Room for Two (1992–93) and Conrad Bloom (1998). In Room for Two, she played a mother who moved in with her daughter, played by Patricia Heaton.

After working in theater for many years, Linda was cast in the NBC show Sean Saves the World (2013–14). She played Lorna, the mother of Sean Hayes' character. People noted how well Linda and Sean worked together on screen.

She made many guest appearances on TV, including The Muppet Show (1979), Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The O.C., Touched by an Angel (1999), and HBO's The Sopranos (2002).

Linda also appeared in many TV movies between 1967 and 1998. Some of these include Damn Yankees!, Like Mom, Like Me, and Best Friends for Life. She also helped produce and starred in A Matter of Life and Death (1981), a TV movie about a nurse. She directed the 1990 TV movie Flour Babies.

Linda's first feature film was The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). She also appeared in movies like See You in the Morning (1989) and The Back-up Plan (2010). She also lent her voice to the character of Mother Vulture in an episode of the animated series Courage the Cowardly Dog.

In 2015, Linda was a guest star on Bones, playing a judge. In 2017–2018, she played Judy Roberts in the CBS sitcom 9JKL. She enjoyed being back on CBS and working with the cast. In 2019, Linda joined the cast of the Netflix comedy/horror show Santa Clarita Diet. In 2020, she performed "The Boy From..." for a special celebrating Stephen Sondheim's 90th birthday. From 2020 to 2022, Linda had a recurring role as Norma in the CBS comedy B Positive. In 2024, it was announced that Linda would be in a new TV series for Hulu called 'Mid-Century Modern'.

On Stage

In 1960, Linda Lavin performed in Oh, Kay! at the East 74th Street Theater. She started her Broadway career in the musical A Family Affair (1962). She also appeared in plays like The Riot Act (1963) and Something Different (1967).

Linda also performed in many Off-Broadway shows. These included Wet Paint (1965) and the musical The Mad Show (1966). In The Mad Show, she introduced the famous song "The Boy From...". She won the Theatre World Award for Wet Paint and a Drama Desk Award for Little Murders (1969). In 1975, she was in a Shakespeare in the Park production of The Comedy of Errors.

She received her first Tony Award nomination in 1970 for her role in the play Last of the Red Hot Lovers. Her last Broadway show before moving to Hollywood was Paul Sills' Story Theatre in 1971.

In 1987, after more than ten years, Linda returned to Broadway. She won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and her second Drama Desk Award for her role as Kate in Broadway Bound. Critics praised her performance very highly.

She then starred on Broadway as Mama Rose Hovick in Gypsy in 1990. Later Broadway roles included The Sisters Rosensweig (1993) and Mrs. Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank (1997–1998). For The Diary of Anne Frank, she was nominated for another Tony Award. In 1995, she appeared in the Off-Broadway show Death-Defying Acts. She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and won an Obie Award and the Lucille Lortel Award. She also directed plays during this time.

She played Marjorie in The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (2000–2001). For this role, she was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award. In 2002, she played a "nanny" in Hollywood Arms in Chicago and on Broadway.

In 2010, Linda appeared in a Broadway revival of Collected Stories, earning her fifth Tony nomination. She also performed in the musical Follies in Washington, DC, in 2011.

She starred in the play The Lyons Off-Broadway in 2011, and then on Broadway in 2012. Critics loved her performance. In 2014, Linda appeared in another play by Nicky Silver called Too Much Sun. In 2015–2016, she was on Broadway in Our Mother's Brief Affair. In 2017, Linda appeared in Candide at Lincoln Center. In 2020, she again performed "The Boy From..." for a special event.

Cabaret and Music

Linda Lavin also performed in cabaret shows and concerts. In 2005, she performed in San Francisco. In 2006, she performed at Birdland in New York with her show "The Song Remembers When." She also performed with the Wilmington Symphony in 2012.

Her music album Possibilities was released in 2012.

Personal Life

Linda Lavin and her husband Steve Bakunas at the Kennedy Center, 2011

Linda Lavin was married three times. Her first marriage to Ron Leibman ended in 1981. Her second marriage was to Kip Niven, whom she met on the set of Alice. This marriage ended in 1992. Linda did not have her own children. However, she was a stepmother to her second husband's children and was very involved in their lives and the lives of her grandchildren. She was also a stepmother to the children of her third husband, artist and musician Steve Bakunas. They married in 2005.

Linda and Steve lived in Wilmington, North Carolina. They were very active in their community. They worked together to improve neighborhoods by renovating homes. They also donated a park to the city and created a community theatre called the Red Barn Studio. In 1997, Linda started The Linda Lavin Arts Foundation in Wilmington. This foundation helps promote the performing and visual arts, especially in education. Her foundation created a theater program called Girl Friends. This program helps improve the self-esteem of teenage girls who are at risk.

Both of her former husbands, Kip Niven and Ron Leibman, passed away in 2019. Also, her Alice co-stars Philip McKeon and Charles Levin died in the same year.

In Wilmington, Linda also worked as a stage director. In 1998, she directed a play by William Shakespeare called As You Like It. She updated it to have a Brazilian jazz style. In both Wilmington and New York, she taught special classes in acting and singing.

In 2012, Linda announced that she planned to sell her home in Wilmington and move back to New York City. Linda and Steve Bakunas have lived in New York City since around 2013–2014.

Her Legacy

Linda Lavin passed away from lung cancer on December 29, 2024. She was 87 years old. She left behind a legacy of memorable performances on screen and stage.

Work

Movies

TV Shows

Stage Plays

Awards and Recognition

Linda Lavin received many awards and nominations throughout her career for her work in theater, television, and film.

American Theater Hall of Fame

Critics' Choice Television Awards

Drama Desk Awards

Emmy Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Obie Awards

Theatre World Awards

Tony Awards

TV Land Awards

See also

In Spanish: Linda Lavin para niños