Polly Holliday

Holliday was born in Jasper, Alabama, the daughter of Ernest Sullivan Holliday, a truck driver, and Velma Mabell Holliday (née Cain). She grew up in Childersburg and Sylacauga, where her brother Doyle's boyhood friend Jim Nabors lived. Before acting, Holliday worked as a piano teacher in her native Alabama, and then in Florida. She began her acting career as a member of the Asolo Theatre Company in Sarasota, Florida, where she stayed for 10 years. Holliday is an Episcopalian who sang in the St. Andrews Episcopal Choir in Mobile, Alabama and in January 2010 she appeared as herself in an official advertisement campaign for the Episcopal Church. In New York City, she sang in the Grace Church (Episcopal) Choral Society in Greenwich Village and ran a chamber music series there called the Willow Ensemble (1995-2008).
In 1973, Holliday moved to New York City and appeared in Alice Childress's p…