'Alice' Star Linda Lavin Dies at 87

Back on Broadway, Lavin later starred in Paul Rudnick’s comedy The New Century, had a concert show called Songs & Confessions of a One-Time Waitress, and earned a Tony nomination in Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories.

“A star in every medium, but pure theatrical genius. Blissfully funny, deeply emotional, and audiences adored her. She never disappointed: I worked with her, and just watching her rehearse and build a performance was an education and the greatest joy,” Rudnick wrote on X.

Michael Kuchwara of the AP gave Lavin a rave in Collected Stories, writing that she “gives one of those complete, nuanced performances, capturing the woman’s intellectual vigor, her wry sense of humor and her increasing physical frailty with astonishing fidelity. And Lavin’s sense of timing is superb, whether delivering a joke or acerbically dissecting the work of her protegee.”

Lavin basked in a burst of renewed attention in her 70s, earning a Tony nomination for Nicky Silver’s The Lyons. She also starred in Other Desert Cities and a revival of Follies before they transferred to Broadway.

The AP again raved about Lavin in The Lyons, calling her “an absolute wonder to behold as Rita Lyons, a nag of a mother with a collection of firm beliefs and eye rolls, a matriarch who is both suffocating and keeping everyone at arm’s length.”

She also appeared in the film Wanderlust with Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, and released her first CD, Possibilities. She played Jennifer Lopez’s grandmother in The Back-Up Plan.

When asked for guidance from up-and-coming actors, Lavin stressed one thing. “I say that what happened for me was that work brings work. As long as it wasn’t morally reprehensible to me, I did it,” she told the AP in 2011.

She and Steve Bakunas, an artist, musician and her third husband, converted an old automotive garage into the 50-seat Red Barn Studio Theatre in Wilmington, North Carolina.

It opened in 2007 and their productions include Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire and The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife by Charles Busch, in which Lavin also starred on Broadway, earning a Tony nomination.

She returned to TV in 2013 in Sean Saves the World, starring Will & Grace’s Sean Hayes, a show which lasted a season. Lavin also made appearances on Mom and 9JKL.