Polly Holliday

Polly Holliday
Holliday in Alice (1976).
Born	Polly Dean Holliday (1937-07-02) July 2, 1937 Jasper, Alabama, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1963–2010

Polly Dean Holliday (born July 2, 1937) is an American actress who has appeared on stage, television and in film. She is best known for her portrayal of sassy waitress Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry on the 1970s sitcom Alice, which she reprised in its short-lived spin-off, Flo. Her character's tagline of "Kiss my grits!" remains perhaps the most memorable line associated with the series Alice.

Early life

Holliday was born in Jasper, Alabama, the daughter of Ernest Sullivan Holliday, a truck driver and Velma Mabell Holliday (née Cain). She grew up in Childersburg and Sylacauga, where her brother Doyle's boyhood friend Jim Nabors lived. Prior to acting, Holliday worked as a piano teacher in her native Alabama, and then in Florida. She began her acting career as a member of the Asolo Theatre Company in Sarasota, Florida, where she stayed for 10 years. Holliday is an Episcopalian who sang in the St. Andrews Episcopal Choir in Mobile, Alabama and in January 2010 she appeared as herself in an official advertisement campaign for the Episcopal Church.

Career

In 1973, Holliday moved to New York and appeared in Alice Childress's play Wedding Band at the Public Theater. More than a year later, she was cast in the Broadway hit All Over Town. While working on All Over Town, she befriended the play's director, Dustin Hoffman, who would later work with her on the 1976 movie All the President's Men.

In 1976 Holliday was cast — in what would be her major break — as sassy, man-hungry waitress Flo Castleberry on the American sitcom Alice. Her character coined the popular catchphrase, "Kiss my grits!" The phrase became part of the American vocabulary. Holliday starred in Alice from 1976 to 1980, and then moved to her own short-lived spin-off show, Flo, in which Flo left her residence in Arizona and moved back home. The show was successful during its abbreviated first season, but ratings declined during the following season due to a time change, and it was canceled in 1981.

In 1983, Holliday joined the cast of the CBS-TV sitcom Private Benjamin as a temporary replacement for series regular Eileen Brennan, who was recovering from a serious car injury. However, the show was suffering low ratings before Holliday arrived and was soon canceled. As a result, only one of the two episodes she filmed was aired.

Holliday also made appearances on television shows such as The Golden Girls, where she played Rose Nylund's blind sister Lily, in a recurring role as Jill Taylor's mother on Home Improvement, and a regular on The Client.

Holliday's notable roles in films include All the President's Men, Mrs. Doubtfire, the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap and her role as Mrs. Ruby Deagle in the 1984 box office smash Gremlins.

On the Broadway stage, she has appeared in revivals of Arsenic and Old Lace (1986) as Martha Brewster, one of the dotty, homicidal, sweet old aunties; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1990), for which she was nominated for a Tony for her portrayal of "Big Mama"; and Picnic (1994). She also appeared in the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap as the director of Camp Walden. In 2000, she appeared at Lincoln Center in a revival of Arthur Laurents's The Time of the Cuckoo.

In 2000, she was inducted into the Alabama Stage and Screen Hall of Fame.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974	Search for Tomorrow	Prison Inmate Leader	TV series
1974	Wedding Band	Annabelle	TV movie
1975	W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings	Mrs. Cozzens
1975	The Silence	Mrs. Watson	TV movie
1975	The Catamount Killing	Miss Pearson
1975	Distance	Mrs. Herman
1976	All the President's Men	Dardis's Secretary
1976	NBC Special Treat	Mrs. Cronkite	Episode: "Luke Was There"
1976	Bernice Bobs Her Hair	Mrs. Harvey	TV movie
1976–1980	Alice	Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry	90 episodes Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (1979-80) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (1978-80)
1978	The One and Only	Mrs. Crawford
1979	You Can't Take It with You	Miriam Kirby	TV movie
1980–1981	Flo	Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry	29 episodes Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
1981	All the Way Home	Aunt Hannah	TV movie
1982	American Playhouse	Mrs. Wooster	Episode: "The Shady Hill Kidnapping"
1982	Missing Children: A Mother's Story	Mary Gertrude	TV movie
1982–1983	Private Benjamin	Capt. Amanda Allen	3 episodes
1983	The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story	Aunt Minerva 'Min'	TV movie
1984	Gremlins	Ruby Deagle	Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1985	Lots of Luck	Lucille	TV movie
1985	Stir Crazy	Captain Betty	Episode: "Pilot"
1985	Konrad	Berti Bartolotti	TV movie
1986	The Golden Girls	Lily Lindstrom	Episode: "Blind Ambitions"
1986	Amazing Stories	Elma Dinnock	Episode: "The Pumpkin Competition"
1988	The Equalizer	Sister Sara	Episode: "Regrets Only"
1988	Moon Over Parador	Midge
1991	A Triumph of the Heart: The Ricky Bell Story	Ruth	TV movie
1993	Mrs. Doubtfire	Gloria Chaney
1993–1999	Home Improvement	Lillian Patterson	5 episodes
1995–1996	The Client	Momma Love	21 episodes
1996	Mr. Wrong	Mrs. Alston
1996	A Loss of Innocence	Christina Eriksen	TV movie
1996	Homicide: Life on the Street	Mrs. Rath	Episode: "The Heart of a Saturday Night"
1998	The Parent Trap	Marva Kulp, Sr
2004	It Must Be Love	Mama Bell	TV movie (aka Surviving Love)
2006	Stick It	Judge Westreich
2007	The Heartbreak Kid	Beryl
2010	Fair Game	Diane Plame

External links

• Polly Holliday at IMDb
• Polly Holliday at the Internet Broadway Database
• Polly Holliday at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Polly Holliday biography as part of the cast of Alice
• Polly Holliday(Aveleyman)