Linda Lavin

Linda Lavin was barely off the bus from the College of William and Mary when she landed her first professional New York engagement in the chorus of the off-Broadway revival of the Gershwin musical "Oh, Kay!" (1960). Two years later she made her Broadway debut in "A Family Affair," but she really came to prominence in 1966 for her work in the musical revue "The Mad Show" and as the show-stopping Sydney singing the Strouse-Adams score's best song, "You've Got Possibilities," in the Robert Benton-David Newman musical "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman." A role in Alan Arkin's off-Broadway revival of Jules Feiffer's black comedy "Little Murders" and her Tony-nominated turn in Neil Simon's "The Last of the Red Hot Lovers" (both 1969) proved Lavin was more than just a musical actress, as did her participation in Paul Sills' experimental "Story Theatre" (1970), but with the downturn in NYC's theater fortunes during the early 70s, she decided to try her luck in California.