‘Alice’ Actress Beth Howland Dead at 74

Beth Howland, who is remembered for her nine-season stint as jittery waitress Vera Louise Gorman on CBS sitcom “Alice” has died. She was 74 and she passed away on Dec. 31, 2015, but the news of her passing was just announced by her husband Charles Kimbrough. The cause of her death was lung cancer.

Born Elizabeth Howland on May 28, 1941 in Boston, Howland made her Broadway debut in 1959 as Lady Beth in the Carol Burnett musical “Once Upon a Mattress.” She went on to have roles in the musicals “Bye Bye Birdie,” “High Spirits,” “Drat! The Cat!,” and “Darling of the Day;” and her early TV roles included guest spots on “Love, American Style,” “Cannon,” The Rookies,” Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Little House on the Prairie” and “Fantasy Island.” She received four Golden Globe nominations for her role on “Alice.”

Following “Alice,” Howland acted sporadically with guest roles on series like “Murder, She Wrote” and “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.” In addition to her husband, who played the anchorman Jim Dial on sitcom “Murphy Brown,” she is survived by a daughter from her first marriage to actor Michael J. Pollard, Holly Howland.