An American actress, Elizabeth Howland was born on May 28, 1939, and passed away on December 31, 2015. Howland was raised in Brighton, Massachusetts. She moved away from home at the age of 16 to go to New York City with a dancer buddy.
After some hardship, Howland made her Broadway debut in 1959 as Lady Beth in the musical Once Upon a Mattress, which was brought to Broadway from off-Broadway.
She later appeared in the musicals Bye Bye Birdie, High Spirits, and Drat! The Cat!, and Darling of the Day.
Beth Howland Movies And TV Shows
Beth’s role as waitress Vera Gorman in the sitcom Alice made her a household name. She also performed on stage and on television.
Howland created the character of Amy in Stephen Sondheim’s Company’s original Broadway cast, in which she also debuted the schmaltzy song “Getting Married Today.”
In the chorus of the 1959 film Li’l Abner, Howland, Valerie Harper, and others can be seen performing and dancing as Clem’s wife.
She moved to California after her role in Company, where she made cameos such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Love, American Style, Cannon, Little House on the Prairie, Eight Is Enough, and The Love Boat.
Howland was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards for her work on Alice. She later took on a number of telefilm parts, including Essie in You Can’t Take It with You and a mystery in the Caribbean.
She stayed on Alice for all nine of its seasons. Howland transitioned into semi-retirement after the sitcom’s cancellation in 1985.
She occasionally had cameos on television shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Tick, Murder, She Wrote, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. She also starred in the ABC Afterschool Special “Terrible Things My Mother Told Me.”