Polly Holliday

Polly Dean Holliday (July 2, 1937 – September 9, 2025) was an American actress of stage and screen. Holliday was best known for her portrayal of sassy waitress Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry on the 1970s sitcom Alice, winning two Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actress on the series. Her character's catchphrase "Kiss my grits!" enjoyed widespread popularity, and she reprised the role on Flo, a short-lived spin-off. Holliday won the 1984 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress portraying Ruby Deagle in Gremlins.

Early life Polly Dean Holliday was born in Jasper, Alabama, on July 2, 1937, the daughter of Ernest Sullivan Holliday, a truck driver, and Velma Mabell Holliday (née Cain). She grew up in Childersburg; her brother Doyle was a boyhood friend of Jim Nabors, who lived in nearby Sylacauga.

Holliday attended the Alabama College for Women at Montevallo (now known as the University of Montevallo) in the late 1950s where she excelled in the theater department, playing the lead roles in The Lady's Not for Burning and Medea. She graduated in 1959 with a degree in piano. She made appearances on television shows, including in The Golden Girls as Rose Nylund's blind sister Lily, in a recurring role as Jill Taylor's mother on Home Improvement, and as a regular character on The Client.

Personal life Holliday was an Episcopalian who sang in the St. Andrews Episcopal Choir in Montevallo, Alabama. In January 2010, she appeared as herself in an official advertising campaign for the Episcopal Church. In New York City, she sang in the Episcopal Grace Church Choral Society in Greenwich Village and ran a chamber music series there.

Death After a decline in her health, Holliday died from an apparent bout of pneumonia at her home in Manhattan, New York City, on September 9, 2025, at the age of 88. She was the last surviving member of the original cast of Alice. She is buried at Green Hill Memorial Gardens in Childersburg, Alabama, with her mother.

Filmography Film

Stage + Year Title Role Notes 1971 Candida Candida Asolo Theatre Company 1971 The House of Blue Leaves Bananas Asolo Theatre Company 1972 Wedding Band Annabelle The Public Theater, Off-Broadway 1974 All Over Town Philomena Hopkins Booth Theatre, Broadway 1985 Black Coffee Miss Caroline Amory GeVa Theatre 1986 Arsenic and Old Lace Martha Brewster 46th Street Theatre, Broadway 1988 The Glass Menagerie Amanda Wingfield Guthrie Theatre 1990 Cat On A Hot Tin Roof Big Mama Eugene O'Neill Theatre, Broadway 1993 A Quarrel of Sparrows Rosanna Promenade Theater, Off-Broadway 1994 Picnic Flo Owens Criterion Center Stage Right, Broadway 1998 Marco Polo Sings a Solo Mrs. McBride Signature Theatre Company, Off-Broadway 2000 The Time of the Cuckoo Mrs. Edith McIlhenny Lincoln Center Theater, Off-Broadway 2001 Chaucer in Rome Dolo Lincoln Center Theater, Off-Broadway 2002 A Few Stout Individuals Mrs. Grant Signature Theatre Company, Off-Broadway 2002 Every Good Boy Deserves Favour Teacher Wilma Theater 2004 Free and Clear Matron Asolo Theatre Company