Polly Holliday, the versatile actress best remembered for bringing sass and charm to Flo on the long-running sitcom Alice, has died at age 88.
Her death was confirmed by Dennis Aspland, her theatrical agent and close friend to The New York Times.
Holliday passed away on Tuesday at her home in Manhattan, less than a year after the death of her former co-star Linda Lavin, who played the series’ title character.
Holliday shot to fame in the late 1970s as Florence Jean ‘Flo’ Castleberry, the witty, gum-snapping waitress with a sharp tongue.
Audiences quickly fell in love with her signature line, the deadpan, ‘Kiss my grits’, delivered in her sweetest Southern drawl whenever someone managed to get under her skin.
Alice, which debuted on CBS in August 1976, was loosely adapted from Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
For her role, she earned two consecutive Golden Globes, in 1979 and 1980, as well as multiple Emmy nominations.
Polly Holliday, the versatile actress best remembered for bringing sass and charm to Flo on the long-running sitcom Alice, has died at age 88
In addition to her TV career, Holliday made a name for herself on Broadway with her performance in a revival of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
In 1990, she even secured a nominated for a Tony Award.
In 1992, she revealed to The Tampa Bay Times that theater was always her first love.
‘An actor is unfortunate if he doesn’t get to spend a lot of time onstage,’ she said. ‘When you’re onstage, you get to practice every night.’
From a young age, she was recognized for her excellence.
At Childersburg High School she was voted most talented in her senior class, before heading off to Alabama College for Women (now the University of Montevallo), where she majored in piano.
During her undergraduate years, she participated in a few school productions.
After graduating, she began working as a music teacher, then enrolled to study music education at Florida State University.
