FILE - Actors Polly Holliday, center, and Vic Tayback, left, appear with actor Danny DeVito after receiving their Golden Globe awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Jan. 26, 1980. (AP Photo/George Brich, File)
Polly Holliday, theater star famous as the tart waitress Flo on sitcom ‘Alice,’ dies at 88
NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Polly Holliday, a Tony Award-nominated screen and stage actor who turned the catchphrase 鈥淜iss my grits!鈥 into a national retort as the gum-chewing, beehive-wearing waitress aboard the long-running CBS sitcom 鈥淎lice,鈥 has died. She was 88.
NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Polly Holliday, a Tony Award-nominated screen and stage actor who turned the catchphrase 鈥淜iss my grits!鈥 into a national retort as the gum-chewing, beehive-wearing waitress aboard the long-running CBS sitcom 鈥淎lice,鈥 has died. She was 88.
Holliday died Tuesday at her home in New York, said her theatrical agent, Dennis Aspland. She was the last surviving member of the principal cast of 鈥淎lice;鈥 who played the title character, died last year.
鈥淎lice鈥 ran from 1976 to 1985, but Holliday had turned into such a star that the network gave her her own short-lived spin-off called 鈥淔lo鈥 in 1980. It lasted a year.
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Holliday earned four Golden Globe nominations and won one in 1980 for 鈥淎lice,鈥 as well as four Emmy Award nominations, three for 鈥淎lice鈥 and one for 鈥淔lo.鈥
As for the 鈥淜iss my grits!鈥 line, the Alabama-born Holliday was quick to distance herself from it, telling interviewers that the line was 鈥減ure Hollywood鈥 and not a regional saying. But she identified with Flo.
“She was a Southern woman you see in a lot of places,鈥 she told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2003. 鈥淣ot well educated, but very sharp, with a sense of humor and a resolve not to let life get her down.鈥
Holliday’s career included stints on Broadway 鈥 including a Tony nod opposite Kathleen Turner in a 1990 revival of 鈥淐at on a Hot Tin Roof鈥 鈥 and lots of TV, including playing the blind sister to Betty White’s character in 鈥淕olden Girls.鈥 On the big screen, her credits included John Grisham 1995 legal thriller series 鈥淭he Client鈥 and portraying a protective secretary in 鈥淎ll the President鈥檚 Men.鈥
Her Broadway credits include 鈥淎ll Over Town鈥 in 1974 directed by Dustin Hoffman, 鈥淎rsenic and Old Lace鈥 in 1986 with Jean Stapleton and Abe Vigoda, and a revival of 鈥淧icnic鈥 with Kyle Chandler in 1994.
Some of her more memorable credits include the wicked Mrs. Deagle in 鈥淕remlins,鈥 Tim Allen鈥檚 sassy mother-in-law on 鈥淗ome Improvement鈥 and off-Broadway in 鈥淎 Quarrel of Sparrows,鈥 in which The New York Times said she radiated “a refreshingly touching air of willed, cheerful imperturbability.鈥
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