Polly Holliday

Polly Holliday was an American actress whose career took in theater, television, and film. Born in Jasper, Alabama, in 1937 and raised in Childersburg, she graduated from Alabama College for Women at Montevallo in 1959 and spent ten years with the Asolo Theatre Company in Sarasota, Florida, before moving to New York City in 1972. There she appeared in Alice Childress's play Wedding Band and in the Broadway hit All Over Town, and she later had a role in All the President's Men (1976). Her breakthrough was as waitress Flo Castleberry on the sitcom Alice from 1976 to 1980, which earned her two Golden Globe Awards and led to the spin-off Flo. She won a Saturn Award for playing Ruby Deagle in Gremlins (1984), and her other films included Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and The Parent Trap (1998). On Broadway she was nominated for a Tony for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She died in 2025.