Polly Holliday, actor who played Flo on 'Alice,' dies at 88

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Promotional portrait of American actress Polly Holiday as the titular character in the television comedy 'Flo,' 1980. The show was a spin-off of the comedy 'Alice.' (Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)

Polly Holliday, the award-nominated actor who played Flo on the hit sitcom "Alice," has died. 

Holliday died Tuesday at her home in New York, her theatrical agent, Dennis Aspland, confirmed. She was 88 years old. 

Polly Holliday’s life

The backstory:

Holliday was a Tony-nominated and Golden Globe-winning screen and theater actor who was best known for Flo’s catchphrase "Kiss my grits!" The gum-chewing, beehive-wearing waitress was so popular on "Alice," Holliday got a brief spinoff called "Flo" in 1980. "Alice" ran from 1976-1985. 

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She was the last surviving member of the principal cast of "Alice;" Linda Lavin, who played the title character, died last year.

Holliday earned four Golden Globe nominations and won one in 1980 for "Alice," as well as four Emmy Award nominations, three for "Alice" and one for "Flo."

Holliday didn’t much identify with the "Kiss my grits!" line, but the Alabama-born actor did identify with Flo. 

"She was a Southern woman you see in a lot of places," Holliday told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2003. "Not well educated, but very sharp, with a sense of humor and a resolve not to let life get her down."

Holliday’s other roles

Holliday’s career included stints on Broadway — including a Tony nod opposite Kathleen Turner in a 1990 revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" — and lots of TV, including playing the blind sister to Betty White’s character in "Golden Girls." On the big screen, her credits included John Grisham 1995 legal thriller series "The Client" and portraying a protective secretary in "All the President’s Men."

Her Broadway credits include "All Over Town" in 1974 directed by Dustin Hoffman, "Arsenic and Old Lace" in 1986 with Jean Stapleton and Abe Vigoda, and a revival of "Picnic" with Kyle Chandler in 1994.

Some of her more memorable credits include the wicked Mrs. Deagle in "Gremlins," Tim Allen’s sassy mother-in-law on "Home Improvement" and off-Broadway in "A Quarrel of Sparrows."