Tony-winning Broadway actress Linda Lavin, star of TV sitcom ‘Alice,’ dies at 87

Tony Award-winning stage actor Linda Lavin, who also starred in the hit TV sitcom “Alice," has died. She was 87.

Lavin died Sunday in Los Angeles from complications from recently discovered lung cancer, a spokesperson for the actress told the Associated Press. 

Lavin transition from Broadway to Hollywood in the mid-1970s and won the leading role in a new CBS sitcom based on the Martin Scorsese-directed film  “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” 

The rejoinder “kiss my grits” that the actors used on one another became an icon American catchphrase.

Lavin grew up in Portland, Maine, and moved to New York City after graduating from the College of William and Mary, also according to the wire service.