Polly Holliday

Polly Holliday Headshot

Actress

Birth Date: July 2, 1937

Age: 86 years old

Birth Place: Jasper, Alabama

Actress Polly Holliday played one of the brassiest characters on network television in the 1970s - the sassy, fearless hash house waitress Flo on "Alice" (CBS, 1975-1985). The larger-than-life character was the first of many formidable women Holliday would play over the course of her four-decade career, though none would attain the pop culture icon status of Flo, thanks to her room-clearing catch phrase of "Kiss my grits!" For her scene-stealing role, the Alabama-born actress earned several major awards and nominations. Holliday escaped Flo's orbit by segueing into character roles in films and on stage, but the Mel's Diner waitress remained her most memorable character, earning her a spot in the small screen circle of eternal fame.

Born Polly Dean Holliday in Jasper, AL on July 2, 1937, she was the daughter of truck driver Ernest Holliday and his wife, Velma Mabel. She taught piano and music in her home state's elementary schools before deciding to change her focus to acting. Holliday moved to Sarasota, FL to join the esteemed Asolo Repertory Company, the largest repertory theater in the Southeastern United States. There, she built an impressive, decade-long résumé of stage performances before heading to New York City. There, she began landing roles on stage, including the 1974 Broadway hit "All Over Town." Holliday became close friends with the play's director, Dustin Hoffman, who helped her land a small but noteworthy turn as Ned Beatty's flinty secretary in "All the President's Men" (1976). The bit role helped to mint Holliday's screen persona as a woman of considerable presence, which eventually led to one of the most beloved sitcoms of the 1970s.

As played by Diane Ladd in Martin Scorsese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974), the source material for the sitcom, Florence Jean Castleberry was a free-thinking, gum-snapping, trash-talking waitress at a roadside diner in Arizona. The series blunted the dramatic elements of the feature, instead making Flo a "broad" in every sense of the world, as well as comic sidekick for Linda Lavin's Alice and a good-natured adversary for Vic Tayback's volatile Mel Sharples. Flo's force of nature attitude soon overshadowed the other characters, earning Holliday two Golden Globes and three Emmy nominations. It also contributed to a brief spin-off series, "Flo" (CBS, 1980-81), which took the character to her hometown of Fort Worth, TX, where she opened a roadhouse. A ratings hit in its first season, it earned Holliday a fourth Emmy nomination, but a timeslot change shook off much of its audience, and it was unceremoniously cancelled in its sophomore outing. Holliday did not return to "Alice," where she was replaced briefly by the original Flo, Diane Ladd, and later by Celia Weston.

Holliday made two brief returns to series work in the early 1980s; she was cast as Eileen Brennan's replacement on "Private Benjamin" (CBS, 1981) after the actress was gravely injured in a car accident, but the show was cancelled before she could film more than three episodes. She also starred as a tough prison guard in "Stir Crazy" (ABC, 1985-86), a sitcom based on the 1980 Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor comedy of the same name, but the show was axed after only four months. Holliday found greater success as a character actress in features, most notably as the mean-spirited Mrs. Deagle in "Gremlins" (1984), who earned her come-uppance when the mischievous creatures launch her into orbit by souping up her chair lift. She also drew laughs as Sally Field's nosy neighbor in the comedy hit "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993), a recurring role as JoBeth Williams' Southern mom on "The Client" (CBS, 1995-96), the head of the summer camp in the 1998 remake of "The Parent Trap" with Lindsay Lohan, and as Patricia Richardson's mother on "Home Improvement" (ABC, 1991-99).

Holliday's other home during this period was the stage, where she frequently played impressive matriarchs and other formidable women of a certain age. She was one of the murderous if kind-hearted Brewster sisters in a 1986 revival of "Arsenic and Old Lace," then earned a Tony nomination as Big Mama in a 1990 production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Other significant productions included the 1994 revival of "Picnic" and "The Time of the Cuckoo" at Lincoln Center in 2000. She also became an in-demand speaker and guest lecturer for acting students around the country. In 2010, she returned to dramatic fare as the fiercely loyal grandmother of CIA operative Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) in "Fair Game."

Credits

TV's 50 Funniest Phrases

Guest
Show
2009

It Must Be Love

Actor
Mama Bell
Movie
2004

The Parent TrapStream

Actor
Marva Kulp, Sr.
Movie
1998
87%

Mr. Wrong

Actor
Mrs. Alston
Movie
1996

A Loss of Innocence

Actor
Christina Eriksen
Movie
1996

The Client

Actor
Momma Love
Show
1995

Histoires fantastiques

Actor
Show
1994

Homicide: Life on the Street

Guest Star
Series
1993
91%

Mrs. DoubtfireStream

Actor
Gloria
Movie
1993
70%

Home ImprovementStream

Guest Star
Series
1991

A Triumph of the Heart: The Ricky Bell Story

Actor
Ruth
Movie
1991

Moon Over ParadorStream

Actor
Midge
Movie
1988
42%

Amazing StoriesStream

Actor
Series
1985

The Equalizer

Guest Star
Sister Sara
Series
1985

The Golden GirlsStream

Guest Star
Lily Lindstrom
Series
1985

Konrad

Actor
Berti Bartolotti
Movie
1985

Lots of Luck

Actor
Lucille
Movie
1985

GremlinsStream

Actor
Mrs. Ruby Deagle
Movie
1984
86%

The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story

Actor
Aunt Minerva
Movie
1983

Missing Children: A Mother's Story

Actor
Mary Gertrude
Movie
1982

All the Way Home

Actor
Aunt Hannah
Movie
1981

FloStream

Actor
Florence Jean Flo Castleberry
Series
1980

The One and Only

Actor
Mrs. Crawford
Movie
1978

AliceStream

Actor
Florence Jean Castleberry
Series
1976

The Silence

Actor
Mrs. Watson
Movie
1975

W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings

Actor
Mrs. Cozzens
Movie
1975

The Catamount Killing

Actor
Miss Pearson
Movie
1974