Actress Polly Holliday died from pneumonia September 9th in Manhattan, New York City. She was 88. Holliday was best known for her role as Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry in the 1976-85 TV series Alice. The sitcom was based on Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore that starred Ellen Burstyn. While the movie was subtle in its portrayals, the TV version was played for broad laughs. Alice (Linda Lavin) was a widow with a young son who worked at Mel’s Diner as a waitress along with scatterbrain Vera (Beth Howland) and sharp-tongued Flo, whose catchphrase was “Kiss my grits!” Flo proved so popular she was given her own self-titled spin-off in 1980. It was initially a ratings success, but CBS kept moving the show around its schedule and canceled it in 1981.
Polly Dean Holliday was born in Jasper, Alabama on July 2, 1937. She attended the Alabama College for Women, where she found success in the Theatre Department playing lead roles in several productions. Polly graduated in 1959 with a piano degree and worked as a piano teacher in Alabama and Florida. She began her professional acting career as a member of the Asolo Theatre Company in Sarasota, Florida.
In 1972, Holliday moved to New York City and appeared at the Public Theater and in All Over Town, a farce directed by Dustin Hoffman. Her film debut came in 1975’s Burt Reynolds comedy W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings. She had roles in All the President’s Men (1976) and a few TV movies, including Bernice Bobs Her Hair (’76) with Shelley Duvall. She also received recognition for her role as the greedy Mrs. Deagles in the horror/comedy Gremlins (1984). Other film credits were Moon Over Parador, Mrs. Doubtfire, and the 1998 version of The Parent Trap. Polly made her last film appearance in 2010’s Fair Game.
She came back to Broadway in 1986 in Arsenic and Old Lace; alongside Kathleen Turner in 1990’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Big Mama, which garnered her a Tony nomination; and with Ashley Judd in Picnic in 1994, where she once again played a character named Flo.
On the small screen she guest starred in The Golden Girls (where she played Rose’s blind sister), Amazing Stories, The Equalizer, Home Improvement, and other shows. Holliday appeared in several episodes of 1982-83’s Private Benjamin (filling in for series co-star Eileen Brennan while she healed from a traffic accident), and she was a regular in a 1995-96 drama based on John Grisham’s The Client.
Holliday was nominated four times for an Emmy Award, three times for Alice (in the supporting category) and once for Flo as Outstanding Lead Actress. She won two Golden Globes for Alice, and took home a Best Supporting Actress Saturn Award for Gremlins.