Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is a six-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe-winning American actor best known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane in the NBC sitcoms Cheers (nine years) and Frasier (eleven years). He was nominated for Emmys for playing his character on three different sitcoms (the third being a guest appearance on Wings). He has also worked as a television producer, director, writer, and a voice artist
Grammer was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands to Sally Cranmer, a singer, and Frank Allen Grammer, Jr., a bar owner and musician. His parents' marriage ended when he was young; his mother took him to live with her, and he was partly raised in New Jersey by his grandparents, Evangeline Dimmock and Gordon Cranmer. His family life has been plagued by repeated tragedies. In 1968, when Grammer was thirteen, his father, whom he had only seen twice since his parents' divorce, was murdered on the front lawn of his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands; in 1975, his sister was raped and murdered after being abducted outside a Red Lobster restaurant in Colorado Springs, Colorado where her boyfriend worked. In 1980, his twin half-brothers were killed in a SCUBA diving accident. He has sworn to prevent the murderer of his sister from being paroled.
After leaving Juilliard, he had a three-year internship with the Old Globe Theater in San Diego in the late 1970s before a stint in 1980 at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He made his Broadway debut in 1981 as Lennox in Macbeth, taking the lead role when Philip Anglim withdrew after receiving negative reviews. In 1983 he performed on the demo of the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine production Sunday in the Park with George starring Mandy Patinkin. Also featured on the demo was Christine Baranski who later starred as Mrs. Lovett to his Sweeney in the 1999 LA Reprise! production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He was then the featured role of Cassio in a Broadway revival of Othello with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer.
His television career began in the early 1980s when he portrayed Stephen Smith in the NBC mini-series Kennedy. Grammer came to broader public attention as Dr. Frasier Crane in the TV sitcom Cheers. Grammer's former Juilliard classmate and Broadway co-star Patinkin suggested Grammer to the New York casting director, and he got the job. The character became the center of the successful spin off Frasier.
He won a number of Emmys and Golden Globes for his work on Frasier. He was the first American actor ever to be nominated for multiple Emmy awards for portraying the same character on three different television shows (Cheers, Frasier, and Wings). His US$1.6 million per episode salary for Frasier was the highest in the history of American television at the time, and his 20-year run playing Dr. Frasier Crane ties a length set by James Arness in playing Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1975. The German Actor Wilfried Klaus played the role of Kommisar Horst Schickl in the ZDF TV series "SOKO 5113" from 1978 to 2008.Grammer's smooth, deep voice makes him popular for voiceover work. He has provided the voice of Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons, winning an Emmy for his work in the episode "The Italian Bob". He has appeared in ten episodes since the show's inception in 1989. He also supplied the voices for "Stinky Pete the Prospector" in Toy Story 2, Vladimir in the Fox animated movie Anastasia, Zozi the Bear in the subsequently-produced prequel Bartok the Magnificent, and the title character in the short-lived animated series Gary the Rat. He also provided the opening speech and piano in The Vandals' song "Phone Machine" from the album Fear of a Punk Planet.He also sang a rewritten version of the "grinch" on an episode of "just shoot me".
His production company, Grammnet Productions, produces the CW sitcoms Girlfriends and The Game, as well as being involved in many other projects.
He returned to series television on Fox's The Sketch Show. Prior to that he guest starred as The Angel of Death on Medium, which he also produces. In film, his recent work includes the role of Dr. Hank McCoy (a.k.a. Beast) in X-Men: The Last Stand and the film adaptation of the George Orwell classic book, Animal Farm. Grammer currently co-stars in the FOX sit-com Back to You with Patricia Heaton.
Kelsey Grammer has received at least 45 nominations for major awards of which he won on 18 occasions. He has received fourteen individual Emmy Award nominations for four different television shows (plus an additional two as part of the Frasier ensemble) and has won on five occasions. At the Golden Globes he has received eight nominations and twice been victorious. He has received two People's Choice Awards and in 1999 his directorial skills were recognised with a nomination for a Directors Guild of America award for directing an episode of Frasier. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actorfor his role in X-Men: The Last Stand. On May 22, 2001 he was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Grammer has been married three times. His first marriage, to dance instructor Doreen Alderman, lasted from 1982 to 1990 and had one daughter, Spencer, an actress on the American soap opera As the World Turns and the ABC Family show Greek. His second marriage, to stripper Leigh-Anne Csuhany in 1992, lasted one year. Grammer says that she was abusive and that, after talk of divorce, she attempted suicide, which resulted in the miscarriage of their child.
In 1992, Grammer had a daughter, Greer, with hair and makeup stylist Barrie Buckner. His engagement to Tammi Alexander broke up due to rape allegations and her leaks to the tabloid press. Since August 1997 Grammer has been married to Camille Donatacci, a former Playboy model. They have a son, Jude Gordon, and a daughter, Mason Olivia, both born via surrogate mother. Grammer and Donatacci have homes in Malibu, California, Colorado, and New York, and a holiday home in Maui.Grammer suffered a mild heart attack on May 31, 2008. He was hospitalized in Hawaii after he had symptoms while paddle boating with his wife, Camille. He was released on June 4, 2008 and was listed as resting comfortably at his Hawaiian residence.
Grammer is a member of the Republican Party and has expressed an interest in someday running for United States Congress.
He was a celebrity guest at President George W. Bush's first inauguration, along with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Fred Thompson.
He endorsed Rudy Giuliani for president in 2008, before the candidate pulled out of the election and currently campaigns with Giuliani for John McCain.
Kelsey will star in the upcoming movie Swing Vote, a film whose plot is based in part on the recent tight races for President of the United States, in which the vote is so tight that it comes down to one man's vote to determine the winner.
Kelsey will be one of the main characters of upcoming fox show "SHAFF".
He is also the artist "Kris" for comic Cyanide and Happyness (www.explosm.com)
Kelsey Grammar preparing for his role in Frasier series 27.
"I became an actor, and because I had success as an actor, I became famous. I was acting for quite a while before I got famous; television made me famous. I guess that it's television that is responsible for everybody's desire to be famous."
- Kelsey Grammer
Kelsey Grammar
1913 - 2008
You will be missed, Becker.
