CNN
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Linda Lavin, the Tony and Golden Globe-winning actress and singer best known for her nearly decade-long starring role on the CBS sitcom “Alice,” died Sunday at age 87.

According to her representatives, she died as a result of recently discovered lung cancer.

Lavin’s long, illustrious career spanned both stage and screen and began at a young age. According to her alma mater, William & Mary, Lavin was born into a family of musicians and has been performing since she was five years old.

She got her big break in New York, where she appeared in Broadway plays and musicals in the 1960s.

She starred in the 1966 musical It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman, with the New York Times review at the time praising her performance as “fresh.” “I wish she were in every musical and every revue,” wrote Times critic Stanley Kauffmann.

But it was the television show “Alice,” about a widowed mother who pursues her dream of becoming a singer while working at a restaurant, that made Lavin a household name.

She played the title character for the show’s entire nine seasons from 1976 to 1985 – during which she won two Golden Globes, was nominated a third time and was also nominated for an Emmy Award.

In the years that followed, she juggled television, film and theater, earning a Tony Award for her starring role in the 1986 play “Broadway Bound” – and additional Tony nominations for several other projects. Her work never slowed down over the years, with stints as a voice actress, director and producer, as well as teaching master classes at William & Mary.

Her most recent appearance was in the Netflix show “No Good Deed,” about three families struggling to buy the same house – which hit theaters earlier this month. She was scheduled to star in another play, “Mid-Century Modern,” in California in January.

News of her death sparked tributes and expressions of grief from people in Hollywood and Broadway, who remembered her as a respected veteran who shaped the industry.

The actress Patricia Heaton has on

“She was such a legend. “The first big role I had on television was as her daughter,” Heaton said. “She was my mentor, my guardian angel. She really took care of me and taught me a lot, not only about acting but also about life. And we had dinner a few months ago when I was in LA and she was just as sharp and funny and energetic as ever.”

“I’ll miss her. She was a good friend,” Heaton added.

CNN’s Amanda Jackson contributed to this report.