Linda Lavin's Death Has Left Some Wondering Whether the Actress Had Children

The news of Linda Lavin's death has left many wanting to learn more about the Broadway and TV star. Linda, who may be best known for her starring role on the show Alice, was 87 years old at the time of her death. According to her representative, Linda "passed unexpectedly due to complications from recently discovered lung cancer."

In the aftermath of her death, some people are wondering whether Linda had any children. Here's what we know about her family life.

Per People, Linda was first married to actor Ron Leibman in 1969, but the two of them divorced in 1981 without having any children. Linda then remarried actor and director Clifford "Kip" Niven in 1982, and she became the stepmother to his two children. They divorced a decade later, and in their divorce proceeding, Linda said that Clifford had been mentally and emotionally cruel and that he had spent her income.

Linda never had children of her own, but she did spend roughly a decade as a stepmother.

This may be surprising to some, in part because Alice was a show about a single mother, and Linda played the role so convincingly. While she never had children of her own, it's clear that she understood the many joys and burdens of parenthood and was able to accurately reflect them on screen.

Although Alice may have been the high point of her career, Linda's body of work spans decades. Before she starred in Alice, Linda worked for more than a decade on Broadway, and even earned a Tony nomination for her performance in Last of the Red Hot Lovers. She eventually made her way to Hollywood, though, and had a guest role on Barney Miller is a detective that earned her recognition.

It was that performance that ultimately landed her Alice, which was a series based on Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which earned its lead actress an Oscar.

"How can you do something that already’s been done so well?” Linda worried when she first took on the role. The series follows a struggling single mother who has lost her partner and is now working as a waitress in Phoenix.

“Alice’s foremost responsibility is to her kid, but her first responsibility is to herself,” Linda explained. “A lot of shows depict women as backbiting, clawing and competitive for the attention of men. I want this program to show women who are lonely and brave and have a sense of humor. Alice is a woman who is scared shitless. What I like to do is to make people laugh and, in the same moment, reach out to millions and say, ‘You’re not alone.’”

The show was a tremendous success, running for almost a decade and turning its star into something of a political figure. Linda may not have had any children of her own, but it's clear that she cared deeply about the world of her character.