Polly Holliday, Theater Star Famous as the Tart Waitress Flo on Sitcom ‘Alice,’ Dies at 88

Polly Holliday, Theater Star Famous as the Tart Waitress Flo on Sitcom ‘Alice,’ Dies at 88
Actress Polly Holliday appears outside the 46th Street Theater in New York City on July 15, 1986. Waring Abbott/AP Photo
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NEW YORK—Polly Holliday, a Tony Award-nominated screen and stage actor who turned the catchphrase “Kiss my grits!” into a national retort as the gum-chewing, beehive-wearing waitress aboard the long-running CBS sitcom “Alice,” 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 “Alice;” Linda Lavin, who played the title character, died last year.