Linda Lavin, a Tony Award-winning actress who appealed to television viewers as a working-class waitress on the television sitcom “Alice,” died Sunday, her representative said. She was 87.

The actress died of complications from recently discovered lung cancer, Bill Veloric, told The Associated Press in an email.

From 1976 to 1985, Lavin played the role of Alice Hyatt, a waitress in Mel’s Diner, a greasy-spoon diner in Phoenix run by its gruff owner Mel (Vic Tayback). Polly Holliday played the wise-cracking Flo, a fellow server, according to IMDb.com.

Lavin, whose character was also an aspiring singer, sang the show’s theme song, “There’s a New Girl in Town,” the AP reported.

Lavin, who won a Tony Award for her performance in the 1986 play “Broadway Bound,” had been working as recently as this month, Deadline reported. She was promoting her new Netflix series, “No Good Deed” and was filming an upcoming comedy series for Hulu, “Mid-Century Modern,” the entertainment news website reported.

The Maine native, who grew up in Portland, played Detective Janice Wentworth in a recurring role during the first two seasons of the sitcom “Barney Miller” when she was hired to play the lead in “Alice,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show was based on the Martin Scorcese-directed movie, “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”

The show was nominated for eight Prime Time Emmy Awards and thrust Lavin into the women’s movement because of her role as a widowed mother working to make ends meet for herself and young her son.

Starring on Alice pulled her right into the women’s movement, she recalled in a 2012 interview. “I knew it behooved me to learn about single mothers and working women,” Lavin said in a 2012 interview. “So I went to Gloria Steinem, whom I had met briefly, and she hooked me up with writers and columnists and newspeople who were writing about working women.

“I learned that Alice represented 80% of all the women who work in this country who were still struggling at 69 cents to the dollar that men were making for the same quality of work. Suddenly, I had a rhetoric, I had a commitment.”

Lavin marched in support of the Equal Rights Amendment and was invited to join the National Commission on Working Women, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Lavin got her first break in the Broadway musical, “It’s a Bird ... It’s a Plane ... It’s Superman,” the AP reported. She earned her first Tony nomination in 1969 for her role in “Last of the Red Hot Lovers.”

“Mid-Century Modern,” in which Lavin starred alongside Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer and Nathan Lee Graham, had filmed seven episodes of its planned 10 episodes before the holiday break, Deadline reported. It was scheduled to resume shooting in mid-January.

In a joint statement, Hulu and 20th Television, the studio that helped create “Mid-Century Modern,” called Lavin “a legend in our industry.”

“Our deepest and heartfelt condolences go to Linda Lavin’s family and loved ones,” the companies said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “She was a legend in our industry, bringing her tremendous talent to audiences for over seven decades. She will be forever missed by her ‘Mid-Century Modern’ family, as we mourn this incredible loss together.”

Lavin made her final public appearance on Dec. 4 when she walked the carpet for “No Good Deed,” the entertainment news outlet reported.

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