Polly Holliday, a Tony-nominated stage actor who found her signature role on television when she played the wisecracking waitress Flo on the longrunning CBS sitcom Alice, died Tuesday, September 9, at her home in New York City. She was 88.
Her death was announced to The New York Times by her theatrical agent Dennis Aspland. She was the last surviving member of the comedy’s principal cast.
Holliday’s portrayal of the flame-haired, irreverent, gum-chewing diner waitress landed many of the show’s laughs. In a Southern drawl loaded with deadpan, Holliday’s Flo made a national catchphrase of “Kiss my grits.” The barbs were frequently aimed at the gruff owner of Mel’s Diner played by the late Vic Tayback.
Born Polly Dean Holliday in Jasper, Alabama, on July 2, 1937, Holliday studied theater arts at the Alabama College for Women and Florida State University before beginning her professional acting career at the Asolo Theatre Company in Sarasota, Florida. After moving to New York City she landed a role at the Public Theater Off Broadway in 1972.
Shortly thereafter, Holliday appeared on Broadway in the hit All Over Town directed by Dustin Hoffman. The two would reunite in the 1976 film All The President’s Men, the same year she was cast in Alice as Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry.
Polly Holliday, Linda Lavin, Vic Tayback, Philip McKeon, Beth Howland in Alice
Everett Collection
Holliday remained with the series until 1980 when she left to star in the short-lived spin-off titled Flo. Her place on Alice was filled by Diane Ladd as new character Belle Dupree (Ladd had played Flo in the Martin Scorsese 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the movie that inspired the sitcom.)
That show was canceled in 1981. Two years later, Holliday joined the cast of CBS’ short-lived Private Benjamin to replace Eileen Brennan, who had been injured after being hit by a car.
On TV’s The Golden Girls, Holliday played the part of Lily, the blind sister of Betty White’s Rose Nylund. She also had TV roles on Tim Allen’s Home Improvement and the John Grisham 1995 legal thriller series The Client. Her final TV credit was an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street in 1996.
In addition to All The President’s Men, in which she played a protective secretary who almost foils Dustin Hoffman’s attempts to interview her boss about the Watergate scandal, Holliday also appeared in the films W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), Gremlins (1984), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), The Parent Trap (1998) and The Heartbreak Kid (2007). Her final film credit was Fair Game in 2010.
On Broadway, in addition to All Over Town, Holliday appeared in Arsenic and Old Lace (1986), was nominated for her portrayal of Big Mama in the 1990 revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She returned to Broadway in 1994’s revival of Picnic. In 2000, she appeared in the Lincoln Center revival of The Time of the Cuckoo.
Holliday was the last surviving original cast member of Alice: Lavin died last year, Tayback in 1990, Beth Howland in 2015 and Philip McKeon in 2019.
Holliday left no immediate survivors.
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