What Is Linda Lavin's Net Worth?
Linda Lavin is an American actress, singer, director, and producer who has a net worth of $6 million. Linda Lavin is best known for playing the title character on the CBS sitcom "Alice" (1976–1985) and for her roles in stage performances.
Linda started acting on Broadway during the 1960s and has gone on to appear in more than 15 Broadway productions, such as "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" (1969–1970), "Broadway Bound" (1986–1987), "Gypsy" (1990), and "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1998). She won a Tony for "Broadway Bound." Lavin has more than 60 film and television credits to her name, including "Damn Yankees!" (1967), "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (1984), "The Back-up Plan" (2010), "Wanderlust" (2012), "The Intern" (2015), "Being the Ricardos" (2021), "Room for Two" (1992–1993), "Conrad Bloom" (1998), "Sean Saves the World" (2013–2014), "9JKL" (2017–2018), and "B Positive" (2020–2022). Linda directed 10 episodes of "Alice" and the 1990 "CBS Schoolbreak Special" episode "Flour Babies," and she has produced the TV movies "Another Woman's Child" (1983), "A Place to Call Home" (1987), and "Stolen Memories: Secrets from the Rose Garden" (1996). Lavin was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2011.
Early Life
Linda Lavin was born on October 15, 1937, in Portland, Maine. Her mother, Lucille Potter Lavin, was an opera singer, and her father, David Joseph Lavin, was a businessman. Linda's family was active in the local Jewish community, and both sets of Lavin's grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Russia. Linda comes from a musical family, and she first performed on stage at the age of 5. She studied acting at New York City's HB Studio, and she attended the Waynflete School and the College of William & Mary. At William & Mary, Lavin performed in numerous school productions, and in 1958, she starred in the Paul Green outdoor drama "The Common Glory." By the time she graduated from William & Mary, Linda had earned her Actors' Equity Association card. In the late '50s, she joined the Compass Players, America's first improvisational theatre, and she made her Broadway debut in a 1962 production of "A Family Affair." She appeared on the 1966 cast recording of the musical revue "The Mad Show," performing the Stephen Sondheim song "The Boy From…"
Career
Lavin's first onscreen acting credit was a 1963 episode of the TV series " The Doctors and the Nurses," and in 1967, she played Gloria Thorpe in a television adaptation of the musical "Damn Yankees." She guest-starred on "Rhoda" (1974), "Phyllis" (1976), "Family" (1977), "The Mary Tyler Moore Hour" (1979), and "The Muppet Show" (1979), and she had a recurring role as Det. Janice Wentworth on "Barney Miller" from 1975 to 1976. From 1976 to 1985, Linda starred as Alice Hyatt on the sitcom "Alice," which aired 202 episodes over nine seasons and earned Lavin two Golden Globes and a Primetime Emmy nomination. Lavin also performed the show's theme song and directed 10 episodes of the series.
Linda's first feature film was 1984's "The Muppets Take Manhattan," and in the '80s, she appeared in the TV movies "The $5.20 an Hour Dream" (1980), "A Matter of Life and Death" (1981), "Another Woman's Child" (1983), "Maricela" (1986), "A Place to Call Home" (1987), and "Lena: My 100 Children" (1987) and the films "See You in the Morning" (1989) and "I Want to Go Home" (1989).
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From 1992 to 1993, Lavin starred as Edie Kurland on the ABC sitcom "Room for Two" alongside Patricia Heaton, then she appeared in the TV movies "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story" (1995), "Stolen Memories: Secrets from the Rose Garden" (1996), "The Ring" (1996), "For the Future: The Irvine Fertility Scandal" (1996), and "Best Friends for Life" (1998). In 1998, Linda played Florie Bloom on the NBC sitcom "Conrad Bloom," which also starred Mark Feuerstein and Lauren Graham. Lavin guest-starred on "Touched by an Angel" (1999), "The Sopranos" (2002), and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (2002), and she had a recurring role as Sophie Cohen on "The O.C." from 2004 to 2005.
She co-starred with Jennifer Lopez in the 2010 romantic comedy "The Back-up Plan," and in 2012, she appeared in the comedy "Wanderlust" alongside Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, Malin Åkerman, Kathryn Hahn, Lauren Ambrose, and Alan Alda. From 2013 to 2014, Lavin played Lorna Harrison, the mother of Sean Hayes' Sean Harrison on the NBC sitcom "Sean Saves the World," and she had a recurring role as Joy Grubick on "The Good Wife" from 2014 to 2015.
Linda appeared in the films "A Short History of Decay" (2013), "Bakery in Brooklyn" (2016), "Manhattan Night" (2016), "How to Be a Latin Lover" (2017), "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase" (2019), "Naked Singularity" (2021), and "Being the Ricardos" (2021), and she co-starred with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway" in 2015's "The Intern." She guest-starred on "Bones" (2015), "Mom" (2016), "Madam Secretary" (2018), "Brockmire" (2018), and "Room 104" (2020), and she had a recurring role as Jean on "Santa Clarita Diet" in 2019. From 2017 to 2018, Lavin starred as Judy Roberts on the CBS sitcom "9JKL" alongside her "Conrad Bloom" son Mark Feuerstein, and in 2020, she starred in the title role in the web series "Yvette Slosch, Agent." From 2020 to 2022, she portrayed Norma Goldman on the CBS sitcom "B Positive."
Personal Life
Linda married actor Ron Leibman on September 7, 1969. After their 1981 divorce, Lavin wed Kip Niven, who played Steve and Travis Marsh on "Alice," on August 22, 1982. Linda and Kip divorced in July 1992, then Lavin married musician/artist Steve Bakunas on February 14, 2005. Linda and Steve formerly lived in Wilmington, North Carolina, where they launched the Red Barn Studio community theatre. Lavin established The Linda Lavin Arts Foundation there in 1997 to "promote and foster the advancement of the performing and visual arts, with special emphasis on arts in education." Linda also directed plays in Wilmington, including a Brazilian jazz style version of Shakespeare's "As You Like It," and she taught acting and singing classes there.
Awards and Nominations
For her theatre work, Lavin has earned six Tony nominations, winning Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for "Broadway Bound" in 1987. Her other nominations were for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" (1970) and "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1998) and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" (2001), "Collected Stories" (2010), and "The Lyons" (2012). Linda also won Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Play for "Broadway Bound" (1987) and Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for "The New Century" (2008) and Obie Awards for Outstanding Actress for "Death Defying Acts" (1994–1995) and Performance for 'The Lyons" (2012).
Lavin earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for "Alice" in 1979, and she received three Golden Globe nominations for Best TV Actress in a Musical or Comedy for the series, taking home the prize in 1979 and 1980. In 2007, "Alice" earned her The "She Works Hard for the Money" Award (Favorite Working Mom) at the TV Land Awards. In 1990, Linda received a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Children's Special for the "CBS Schoolbreak Special" episode "Flour Babies" (which she directed and executive produced), and in 2015, she earned a Critics Choice Television Award nomination for Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series for "The Good Wife." For "Call Me Back: The Uncommon Wisdom of Yvette Slosch," Lavin won a Film Jury Award for Best Acting – Comedy at the SENE Film, Music and Art Festival and a Festival Award for Best Actress (Comic Performance in an American Indie Short) at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and received a nomination for Best Actress in a Short at the Golden Door International Film Festival of Jersey City.
Real Estate
In 2008, Lavin and Bakunas paid $949,000 for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom Manhattan apartment, and in 2012, they purchased the apartment across the hall for $975,000. They put the $949,000 unit on the market for $1.25 million in 2016. In 2022, the couple bought a 2,272 square foot, four-bedroom home in Toluca Lake, California, for $2.2 million.
