Linda Lavin dies aged 87 after cancer diagnosis (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Star of sitcom Alice and Broadway icon Linda Lavin has died aged 87, confirms her representatives.
Lavin, who started her career as a child stage actor, died unexpectedly on December 29 from complications linked to her recent lung cancer diagnosis.
Her death comes as a shock as months before she was spotted out and about in Los Angeles, looking well in a long blue dress and white shirt.
She had been working recently, promoting her new Netflix series No Good Deed as well as filming comedy series Mid-Century Modern.
Lavin, who was born in Maine in 1937, started her career on the stage as a child and would go on to win a Tony Award for Broadway Bound in 1980.
Her first Broadway roles began in the 1960s, including in It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman in 1968, for which she also received a Tony nod.
She is best known for her appearance in sitcom Alice (Picture: THA/REX/Shutterstock)
Lavin was working right up until her death (Picture: Matt Baron/REX/Shutterstock)
She is better known for her sitcom Alice, based on the 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, in which she stars as the titular Alice.
The show ran for nine seasons from 1976 until 1985 and earned Lavin two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
Showcasing her talent, the leading lady also performed the show’s theme song, There’s a New Girl in Town.
Two years after Alice ended, Lavin returned to her Broadway roots for the first time in a decade and starred in shows including Broadway Bound, The Sisters Rosenweig and The Diary of Anne Frank.
Her time in film was not finished though as between 1967 and 1998 she appeared in multiple movies, as well as the iconic The Muppets Take Manhattan in 1984.
Alice ran from 1976 to 1985 (Picture: Everett/REX/Shutterstock)
It made Lavin a household namewith multiple awards (Picture: CBS via Getty Images)
In 2013, Lavin left the theatre behind and moved back into sitcoms, starring alongside Will & Grace’s Sean Hayes in Sean Saves the World.
In more recent years, the Tony winner has cropped up in shows like The Soprano’s, The O.C., The Good Wife, Bones, Santa Clarita Diet and an episode of Elsbeth earlier this year.
A few months ago, it was also announced she had been cast in the upcoming Ryan Murphy series Mid-Century Modern, a gay spin on The Golden Girls.
It will star Matt Bomer and Nathan Lane, with Lavin playing the latter’s mother, and is due to be released next year.
The sitcom will serve as her last credit after an extensive career on both stage and screen.
More recently Lavin has starred in various US shows like The Sopranos (Picture: HBO)
She’s a Broadway legend as well as a TV star (Picture: MediaPunch/REX/Shutterstock)
She kept fairly out of the spotlight in later years, although she often shared updates with fans on Instagram — promoting No Good Deed just three days before her death.
Two weeks ago, Lavin posted that she attended Sarah Paulson’s birthday party where she ‘reunited’ with Holland Taylor
Lavin has no biological children but was stepmother to second husband Kip Niven’s children, after they met on the set of Alice.
The pair divorced in 1992 and in 2005 she wed third husband Steven Bakunas, best known for his appearances on One Tree Hill.
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