Born in Portland, Maine to a musically-inclined family .
Awarded a 1987 Tony for lead actress in the play "Broadway Bound."
Lavins mother, Lucille Potter Lavin, was a coloratura soprano beside such singing notables as Ris Stevens and Paul Whiteman in concert, radio and TV.
Teaches master classes at NYUs Undergraduate Performing Arts Division.
Won Broadways 1987 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for "Broadway Bound." She was also nominated for Tonys three other times: in 1970, as Best Supporting or Featured Actress for "Last of the Red Hot Lovers;" in1998, as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) for a revival of "The Diary of Anne Frank," and in 2001, as Best Actress (Play) for "The Tale of an Allergists Wife."
Best remembered by the public for her starring role in "Alice" .
Graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1959.
Married actor/drummer Steve Bakunas in 2005 after they met during the 2002 run of the Broadway play "Hollywood Arms". They established a residence in Wilmington, North Carolina, and there converted a garage into the Red Barn Theatre which they co-run. She has appeared there in such productions as "Doubt," "Collected Stories," "Driving Miss Daisy" and "The Tale of the Allergists Wife".
(November 2002) On Broadway, playing Granny in "Hollywood Arms" written by Carol Burnett and her daughter, the late Carrie Hamilton.
She has twice been replaced by Valerie Harper , in a New York theater production, once Off-Broadway ("Death-Defying Acts") and once on Broadway ("The Tale of the Allergists Wife").
