Cheers, Frasier
Advertisements:
$60 Million
"There are a million things I still want to know and things I still hunger for. I can't find the right word for it. I'm not "fulfilled," but I'm very full. I guess I'm just full of life." Not many actors can lay claim to the distinction of having won six Emmy Awards, but Kelsey Grammer is not just any actor. His portrayal of Dr. Frasier Crane on the hit television shows Cheers and Frasier made him one of television's all-time most beloved actors.
From small screen to the silver screen to Broadway, Kelsey Grammer has enjoyed a prolific career. And while his life has not been without its share of struggle and heartache, he's emerged on the other side that much stronger for it. Here's a closer look at the inimitable career of Kelsey Grammer.
A Childhood Marked By Tragedy
Allen Kelsey Grammer was born on February 21, 1955 on the island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. His parents divorced when he was just two years old, and he was raised by his mother and grandparents in New Jersey and Florida.
Grammer discovered Shakespeare as a teen, and started acting while a student at Pine Crest, a private school in Florida. A teacher there encouraged him to pursue a career in theater. This led Grammer to enroll in New York City's prestigious performing arts school, Juilliard, where his classmates included Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve. After spending two years there, Grammer dropped out and moved to San Diego to pursue his acting goals.
Unfortunately, this time in Grammer's life was marked by tragedy. His father was killed by a deranged gunman when he was a child; his younger sister was violently murdered in 1975; and his two half-brothers both died in a scuba diving accident five years later. "Ordinary human unhappiness is life in its natural color. You have a responsibility to keep going," he has said of handling these losses. This attitude helped him persevere through the dark times.
While in San Diego, Grammer joined the Old Globe Theatre company. He also landed a series of regional theater and Off-Broadway roles. Soon, Grammer transitioned to television with jobs on soap operas including Another World, One Life to Life, and Guiding Light.
Going Where Everybody Knows His Name
Grammer's first big break in the business came when he joined the cast of the sitcom Cheers in 1984. Dr. Frasier Crane, AKA "Frasier," was a fan favorite. In fact, he was not originally intended to be a series regular, but Grammer's performance charmed audiences so much that the show kept him around. While a run-in with the law and subsequent arrest threatened his career in 1988, Grammer bounced back and stayed on the series until it ended in 1993.
The Frasier spinoff debuted the following season, and went on to become a massive and long-running hit. (By Frasier's final season in 2004, Grammer had been playing the character for 20 years.) The show was a commercial and critical success, and Grammer won multiple Emmy Awards and Golden Globes. Grammer's Frasier character also appeared on the television show Wings, for which he was also nominated for an Emmy making him the only actor to have received multiple nods for portraying the same character on three different shows.
Grammer once said of the powerful impact Frasier had on his life, "The greatest gift I got from the show was to understand what it was like to have a father, and a brother [David Hyde Pierce]. These are things I did not actually have."
Since Frasier's end, Grammer has continued to work in both movies and television, although none of these engagements experienced the same phenomenal success as Cheers and Frasier. Most recently, he appeared alongside Kirsten Bell in the 2018 movie Like Father. He also plays a crooked prosecutor on the legal television drama Proven Innocent, which debuted in 2019.
In addition to acting, Grammer enjoyed success as a voice artist and on stage, including on Broadway. In 2010 he appeared in La Cage Aux Folles, which took home the Tony Award for best revival of a movie. Roles in the musicals Big Fish and Man of La Mancha also found him performing on the London stage.
Like many actors, Grammer has also explored the production side of the business, and his production company, Grammnet Productions, had a distribution deal with Paramount.
While there's no shortfall of roles for Grammer, he hs expressed interest in taking his career in an entirely different direction: politics. Until then, when he's not acting, writing or directing, you can find him in the water. "I loved to surf as a young man. Now I paddle-board and snorkel. Water releases the things that are not helping, cleanses off the old concerns. You come out fresh and look at the world with new eyes. I do believe that happens to us even when we take a shower. It helps us face the day with courage," he told AARP.
Kelsey Grammer's personal life hasn't been easy, but he's come to a place of peace over the years. He has especially enjoyed having more time to focus on fatherhood. "I'm in a place that I've never been happier work-wise, and I do have time to see my family a lot. What I regretted earlier in my life was that I seemed to be so busy sometimes that suffered. Honestly, the beauty of being an older dad is you get a chance to kinda try it again. That's been a real gift."
Given recent reboots of everything from 90210 to Full House, you may be wondering if we can look forward to catching up with Dr. Frasier Crane in the future. While Grammer hasn't ruled out the possibility, he's not convinced that it's the right thing to do. "It would be quite a breathtaking failure to try to do it and not do it better than the previous show – and I think that's almost impossible. To pick up that responsibility would be a very brave thing to do. And you know, maybe I don't have the courage," he told The Guardian.
->
