Linda Lavin, star of 'Alice', dies

Renowned actress Linda Lavin has died at the age of 87 in Los Angeles. The cause of death was complications from lung cancer.

The information was confirmed by Michael Gagliardo, one of her representatives. Lavin, a Broadway actress and Tony Award winner, became known for her role as a waitress and single mother in the comedy Alice.

"Alice ran from 1976 to 1985 and earned Ms. Lavin two Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy nomination. After the show ended, she promptly returned to her first love, the New York stage, and in 1987 won the Tony Award for best actress in a play for her role as Kate Jerome, a 1940s Brooklyn matriarch facing the postwar world, in Mr. Simon’s “Broadway Bound," The New York Times detailed.

The star was born on October 15, 1937 in Portland, Maine. She was the second child of David Joseph Lavin, a businessman, and Lucille (Potter) Lavin, who in her youth was an operatic soprano. Her four grandparents were Jews who emigrated from Russia.

Lavin was married three times. In addition, The New York Times detailed that she married Steve Bakunas, an actor, artist and musician, in 2005. Together they founded the Red Barn Theater in Wilmington, North Carolina, before moving back to New York.