The Woman Who Gave America ‘Kiss My Grits!’
Polly Holliday, the Tony-nominated actor who became a television icon with her memorable role as Flo on the CBS sitcom Alice, has died at the age of 88. Her death occurred Tuesday at her home in New York, her theatrical agent Dennis Aspland confirmed, according to the Associated Press.
Holliday rose to national fame in the late 1970s for her portrayal of Flo, the sassy, gum-chewing waitress with a beehive hairdo and a signature catchphrase—“Kiss my grits!” The role turned her into a household name during Alice‘s run from 1976 to 1985. Her performance was so popular that it led to a spinoff, Flo, which aired for one season beginning in 1980.
With the passing of Holliday, the principal cast of Alice is now gone. Linda Lavin, who played the title character, died last year at 87.
But Flo was just one part of Holliday’s wide-ranging and respected career. As The New York Times noted, she appeared in several notable film and television roles, including the villainous Mrs. Deagle in Gremlins (1984), as well as roles in All the President’s Men (1976) and the TV adaptation of John Grisham’s The Client in the 1990s.
On stage, Holliday enjoyed success on Broadway, with credits including All Over Town (1974), directed by Dustin Hoffman, as well as Arsenic and Old Lace, Picnic, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Her performance in the latter earned her a Tony Award nomination in 1990.
Over the course of her career, Holliday was nominated for four Emmy Awards—three for Alice and one for Flo—and won a Golden Globe in 1980.
Despite being forever linked to the phrase “Kiss my grits!,” Holliday often clarified that the line wasn’t rooted in Southern vernacular. “It was pure Hollywood,” she told interviewers, although she acknowledged feeling a connection to her character. “She was a Southern woman you see in a lot of places,” Holliday said in a 2003 interview with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. “Not well educated, but very sharp, with a sense of humor and a resolve not to let life get her down.”
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