Linda Lavin

Linda Lavin Headshot

Actress • Singer

Birth Date: October 15, 1937

Age: 86 years old

Birth Place: Portland, Maine

Spouses: Ron Leibman

Linda Lavin was barely off the bus from the College of William and Mary when she landed her first professional New York engagement in the chorus of the off-Broadway revival of the Gershwin musical "Oh, Kay!" (1960). Two years later she made her Broadway debut in "A Family Affair," but she really came to prominence in 1966 for her work in the musical revue "The Mad Show" and as the show-stopping Sydney singing the Strouse-Adams score's best song, "You've Got Possibilities," in the Robert Benton-David Newman musical "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman." A role in Alan Arkin's off-Broadway revival of Jules Feiffer's black comedy "Little Murders" and her Tony-nominated turn in Neil Simon's "The Last of the Red Hot Lovers" (both 1969) proved Lavin was more than just a musical actress, as did her participation in Paul Sills' experimental "Story Theatre" (1970), but with the downturn in NYC's theater fortunes during the early 70s, she decided to try her luck in California.

The petite, dark-eyed Lavin made her TV-movie debut in "The Morning After" (ABC, 1974), starring Dick Van Dyke, and went on to create the recurring character of Detective Janet Wentworth for the 1975-76 season of ABC's "Barney Miller" before finding her niche as strong, independent single mother and waitress Alice Hyatt on the long-running sitcom, "Alice" (CBS, 1976-85). Using the series as a springboard, she began directing episodes of "Alice" and formed her own production company (Big Deal Films, Inc.), ultimately producing and starring in a number of CBS movies (i.e., "The $5.20 an Hour Dream" 1980) that reinforced her image as a struggling, underappreciated, working woman. Following the demise of "Alice," Lavin made a triumphant return to Broadway and won a Tony award playing the mother in the third installment of Simon's autobiographical trilogy, "Broadway Bound" (1986). Nightly delivering a memorable monologue about once dancing with George Raft, she managed to create a heartbreaking, showstopping moment. In 1990 ,she--somewhat less successfully--replaced Tyne Daly as the archetypal stage mother, Mama Rose, in the Broadway revival of "Gypsy."

Lavin earned an Emmy nomination as executive producer of "Flour Babies" (1990), a "CBS Schoolbreak Special" which she also directed, and executive produced and starred as Edie Kurland, a mother who finds a second career as a TV commentator working alongside her daughter, in ABC's short-lived sitcom "Room for Two" (1992-93). Broadway beckoned in 1993, and she scored again, replacing Tony-winner Madeline Kahn as Gorgeous Teitelbaum in Wendy Wasserstein's "The Sisters Rosensweig," followed by an OBIE-winning performance in "Death Defying Acts" (1995-96), a series of three one-acts written by Woody Allen, David Mamet and Elaine May (she starred in the Allen and Mamet plays). Lavin was back on the Great White Way earning acclaim (and another Tony nomination) as Mrs. Van Daan in the revival of "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1997-98) but left the production earlier than she had originally planned in order to co-star as Florrie Bloom, the recently widowed mother of an advertising executive, in the NBC sitcom "Conrad Bloom" (1998). Although her feature films are few (most notable is her debut, "The Muppets Take Manhattan" 1984), she continues to frequently star in TV-movies like "Best Friends For Life" (CBS, 1998).

Credits

ElsbethStream

Guest Star
Gloria
Series
2024
91%

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Voice
Barb
Movie
2022

Naked SingularityStream

Actor
Cymbeline
Movie
2021
28%

Being the RicardosStream

Actor
Madelyn Pugh -- Older (70's)
Movie
2021
68%

B PositiveStream

Actor
Norma
Series
2020
85%

B PositiveStream

Guest Star
Norma
Series
2020
85%

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase

Actor
Flora
Movie
2019

9JKLStream

Actor
Judy
Series
2017
19%

Room 104Stream

Actor
Enid
Series
2017
88%

How to Be a Latin LoverStream

Actor
Millicent
Movie
2017
39%

Manhattan Night

Actor
Norma
Movie
2016

The InternStream

Actor
Patty
Movie
2015
59%

Danielle Steel's The Ring

Actor
Show
2014

Madam SecretaryStream

Guest Star
June O'Callaghan
Series
2014

Sean Saves the World

Actor
Lorna
Show
2013

MomStream

Guest Star
Phyllis
Series
2013

Sean Saves the World: Extras

Actor
Show
2013

A Short History of Decay

Actor
Sandy
Movie
2013

Wanderlust

Actor
Shari
Movie
2012

Bob's BurgersStream

Voice
Gertie
Series
2011

The Talk

Guest
Talk
2010

The Back-up PlanStream

Actor
Nana
Movie
2010
17%

The Good WifeStream

Guest Star
Joy Grubick
Series
2009
93%

Mother's Day: O.C. Style

Guest Star
Show
2008

The Better Show

Guest
Show
2007

BonesStream

Guest Star
Judge Michael
Series
2005
90%

The O.C.Stream

Guest Star
Series
2003
68%

Collected Stories

Actor
Show
2002

Law & Order: Criminal IntentStream

Guest Star
Series
2001

PBS Hollywood Presents

Actor
Show
2001

The SopranosStream

Guest Star
Dr. Wendi Kobler
Series
1999
92%

Conrad Bloom

Actor
Show
1998

Mejores Amigos Por Siempre

Actor
Sarah 'Coop' Cooper
Movie
1998

Best Friends for Life

Actor
Sarah "Coop" Cooper
Movie
1998

Theater Talk

Guest
Show
1996

For the Children: The Irvine Fertility Scandal

Actor
Marilyn Killane
Movie
1996

Stolen Memories: Secrets From the Rose Garden

Actor
Earline
Movie
1996

Stolen Memories: Secrets From the Rose Garden

Executive Producer
Movie
1996

For the Future: The Irvine Fertility Scandal

Actor
Marilyn Killane
Movie
1996

The Ring

Actor
Ruth Liebman
Movie
1996

A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story

Actor
Virginia Funicello
Movie
1995

Touched by an AngelStream

Guest Star
Series
1994

Whitewash

Voice
Ms. Steunberg
Show
1994

Un Amor Para Siempre

Actor
Movie
1991

I Want to Go Home

Actor
Lena Apthrop
Movie
1989

Lena: My 100 Children

Actor
Lena Kuchler-Silberman
Movie
1987

A Place to Call Home

Actor
Liz Gavin
Movie
1987

The Muppets Take ManhattanStream

Actor
Kermit's doctor
Movie
1984
85%

Another Woman's Child

Actor
Terry DeBray
Movie
1983

The $5.20 an Hour Dream

Actor
Ellen Lissick
Movie
1980

A Matter of Life and Death

Actor
Nurse Joy Ufema
Movie
1980

The Hal Linden Special

Self
Show
1979

CBS News Sunday Morning

Guest
News
1979

Like Mom, Like Me

Actor
Althea Gruen
Movie
1978

AliceStream

Actor
Alice Hyatt
Series
1976

AliceStream

Director
Series
1976

Barney MillerStream

Guest Star
Det. Janice Wentworth
Series
1975

Rhoda

Guest Star
Series
1974

The Morning After

Actor
Toni
Movie
1974

The Great American Dream Machine

Self
Show
1971

The Alan King Show

Actor
guest
Show
1969

Today

Guest
News
1952

News aboutLinda Lavin