- Holliday's success as the brassy, cynical, gregarious Flo on Alice (1976) (for which role she wore a red wig) reportedly did not endear her to the titular star of the show, Linda Lavin. The friction between the two actresses was such that Holliday left for her own short-lived spin-off series, Flo (1980). Alice (1976) remained on the air for several more seasons but Holliday never returned, even to make a guest appearance. Holliday's successor, actress Diane Ladd (who had played "Flo" in the film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), on which the television series was based but adopted the role of "Belle Dupree" for the series), also did not get along with Lavin, and left. Ladd was succeeded by Celia Weston, who remained until the series ended. Both Holliday and Ladd were both unsuccessfully nominated for the highest awards in their respective media for playing "Flo": Ladd for the Oscar and Holliday for an Emmy.
- Holliday was friends with Academy Award-winning actor Dustin Hoffman in whose iconic film, All the President's Men (1976), she had a small role. He tried to get her cast (in the role that ultimately went to Doris Belack, as Rita, the hard-nosed producer of the fictional soap opera ("Southwest General") within the movie in Tootsie (1982), and reportedly based his characterization of "Dorothy Michaels" in the same film at least partially on Holliday's impression of "Flo".
- Holliday is a member of The Episcopal Church and was featured in ad campaign for the church.
- Holliday made her Broadway debut, following the end of her run in the role of "Flo" (on both Alice (1976) and Flo (1980)), in a revival of the black comedy "Arsenic and Old Lace", alongside Jean Stapleton (who was also trying to get some distance and re-establish herself after many years of playing Edith Bunker on All in the Family (1971) and Archie Bunker's Place (1979)). Before "Arsenic" landed on Broadway, Stapleton had appeared in the national tour with Marion Ross, playing the role Holliday would wind up playing when Ross was unavailable to continue in the role. Holliday appeared again on Broadway as "Big Mama" in a revival of Tennessee Williams's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", for which she was nominated for the 1990 Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in Drama or Comedy.
- Holliday attended Alabama College for Women (now the University of Montevallo, a small liberal arts college near Birmingham, Alabama).
- Retired from acting [June 2020].
- In March 2022, she announced that she would no longer honor requests for autographs both per postal mail and in person due in part to her age.
- Although she had been a liberal Democrat for the majority of her life, in the Fall of 2019 she changed her political affiliation to Republican.
- Inducted in the Alabama Stage and Screen Hall of Fame in 2000.
- As of 2024, she now resides in Charleston, South Carolina having moved out of New York, New York in 2022.
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