‘Alice’ star Beth Howland dies; husband Charles Kimbrough honors unusual request

Celebrity deaths in 2016

Actress Beth Howland played Vera on ’70s and ’80s TV sitcom “Alice.”

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“Alice” actress Beth Howland is dead, her husband Charles Kimbrough revealed Tuesday. She was 74.

Howland died on Dec. 31 after a battle with lung cancer, Kimbrough told The New York Times. According to the newspaper, he waited to announce her death because of an unusual request by Howland not to say anything earlier; no funeral was held, either, as she wished.

“It was the Boston side of her personality coming out. She didn’t want to make a fuss,” Kimbrough, who starred on TV’s “Murphy Brown,” said.

Howland famously played accident-prone Mel’s Diner waitress Vera Louise Gorman on the CBS sitcom that ran from 1976 to 1985. The role was played by Valerie Curtin in Martin Scorsese’s 1974 movie, “Alice Doesn’t Live Her Anymore,” but Howland’s comedic performance shined as she earned four Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.

The series also starred Linda Lavin as Alice Hyatt, Vic Tayback as Mel Sharples, Philip McKeon as Tommy Hyatt, and Polly Holliday as Flo Castleberry.

According to TV Line, Howland also performed on Broadway and appeared on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Murder She Wrote,” “Sabrina The Teenage Witch” and “The Tick.” Her last acting credit was voicing a character on Nickelodeon’s “As Told by Ginger” in 2002.

Howland is survived by Kimbrough and a daughter from a previous marriage to actor Michael J. Pollard (“Scrooged,” “Tango & Cash”).