The normally erudite, soft-spoken and well-mannered Alabama-born actress Polly Holliday had accumulated an extensive theater background by the time she hit it big on 70s TV as the brash, uninhibited, gum-smacking waitress Florence Jean Castleberry (better known as "Flo") on the popular sitcom "Alice" (1976). As a long and respected member of the Asolo Repertory Company in Florida, Polly had toiled long and hard to disguise her Southern slang while building up a sturdy classical reputation. When she won the role of Flo in 1976, however, she let all four burners out as the scene-stealing Southern hash-slinger who delightfully redefined "trailer park trash." The two-time Golden Globe winner and Emmy-nominated actress hit it so big with fans (she introduced the catch phrase, "Kiss mah grits!" to the American vernacular) that she earned her own spin-off, aptly titled "Flo" (1980). The show barely lasted one season despite another Emmy-nomination for her. Polly lost major clout after the show's cancellation and to avoid her now-evident typecasting, she stayed out of the limelight for an indefinite period of time appearing in regional theater. She won renewed respect and critical notice for her Amanda Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie," her Tony-nominated turn as Big Mama in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," and for her part as the lonely small-town schoolteacher in "Picnic" in 1994. From time to time she has taken on flashy roles in both comic and dramatic films, such as the old crank who meets a freakish end in Gremlins (1984), and on TV, wherein she briefly replaced a seriously injured Eileen Brennan in the series "Private Benjamin" (1981) after Ms. Brennan's near-fatal car accident in 1982. Though Polly never recaptured the dazzling success of her "Alice" years, she has continued at a healthy pace -- mostly in guest spots these days as various wise and opinionated moms and grandmas.