Linda LaVine, Tony Award-winning stage actor who became a working-class icon as Paper Hat, a waitress on the television sitcom. Alice:died. He was 87 years old.

Lavigne died in Los Angeles on Sunday of complications from recently diagnosed lung cancer, his representative, Bill Velorick, told The Associated Press in an email.

After success on Broadway, Lavigne tried her luck in Hollywood in the mid-1970s.She was cast in a new CBS sitcom based on Alice doesn't live here anymoreThe film directed by Martin Scorsese, which won Ellen Burstyn an Oscar for her role as a waitress.

The title has been shortened Alice: and Lavigne became a role model for working mothers as Alice Hyatt, a widowed mother with a 12-year-old son working at a roadside diner outside of Phoenix.The show features Lavigne singing the theme song There's a new girl in town!operated in 1976-1985.

The show turned “Kiss my grits” into a catchphrase and starred Polly Holliday as Flo the waitress and Vic Taybuck as the gruff owner and head chef of Mel's Diner.The series flopped on the CBS schedule for its first two seasons, but became a chart-topping hit All in the family 1977 Sunday night in October. It was among the top 10 primetime series for four of the following five seasons. Variety magazine ranked it among the best workplace comedies of all time.

Lavigne soon won a Tony Award for Best Actress for Neil Simon The border of Broadway in 1987, which also won her Drama Desk, Outside Critics and Helen Hayes Awards.

“He was a tremendous performer with a generous heart,” Actors Equity said on X. In 2023, the group honored him with the Richard Seff Award for Veteran Supporting Actors for Noah Diaz. You will get sick.

She was recently at work this month promoting a new Netflix series in which she appears, No good deedsand filming an upcoming Hulu series, Mid-century modern, according to Deadlinewhich first reported his death.He also appeared as a guest star in 2024 Elsbeththe spinoff The good wife.

Lavigne grew up in Portland, Maine, and moved to New York City after graduating from the College of William and Mary. He sang in nightclubs and show ensembles.

Iconic producer and director Hal Prince gave Lavigne her first big break directing a Broadway musical. It's a bird… It's a plane… It's Superman. He went on to earn a Tony nomination for Simon's The latest from Red Hot Lovers In 1969, before winning another Simon play 18 years later, The border of Broadway.

In the mid-1970s, Lavigne moved to Los Angeles. He had a recurring role Barney Miller and in 1976 was cast in a new CBS sitcom based on Ellen Burstyn's Oscar-winning comedy-drama Waitress, Alice doesn't live here anymore.

Back on Broadway, Lavigne starred in a Paul Rudnick comedy New centuryhad a concert show called Songs and Confessions of a One-Time Waitress and won a Tony nomination in Donald Margulies Collected stories.

“A star in every medium, but a pure theatrical genius. Blissfully funny, deeply emotional, and the audience adored him. He never disappointed. I worked with him and just watching him rehearse and create the show was an education and a great joy.” Rudnick wrote in X:

The AP's Michael Kuchwara blasted Lavigne Collected storieswriting that she “gives one of those full, nuanced performances, capturing the woman's intellectual vigor, her wry sense of humor and her growing physical vulnerability with startling fidelity. And Lavigne's sense of timing is superb, whether she's joking or slashing fiercely.” : the work of his protégé.

Lavigne gained renewed attention in her 70s with a Tony nomination for Nikki Silver. The Lyons. He also starred Other desert cities and revival Nonsense before they moved to Broadway.

AP raved about Lavigne again The Lyonscalling her “an absolute blast to watch as Rita Lyons, a screaming mother with a collection of strong convictions and eye rolls, a matriarch who both stifles and keeps everyone at arm's length.”

He also starred in the film Wanderlust with Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd and released her first CD, possibilities. She played Jennifer Lopez's grandmother Backup plan.

When asked for guidance from up-and-coming actors, Lavigne emphasized one thing. “I say what happened for me was that work begets work. As long as it wasn't morally reprehensible to me, I did it,” he told the AP in 2011.

She and Steve Bakunas, an artist, musician and her third husband, converted an old garage into a 50-seat theater at the Red Barn Studio 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-Abair and The tale of the allergist's wife by Charles Bush, in which Lavigne also starred on Broadway, receiving a Tony nomination.

She returned to television in 2013 Sean saves the worldin the lead role Will & Grace's Sean Hayes, a show that lasted one season.Lavin also performed Mother and: 9 JKL.