Who is Allen Kelsey Grammer? The entertainment and acting world knows him as Kelsey Grammer. Grammer is a 5-time Emmy Award-winning American actor and comedian. He is most widely known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane in the NBC sitcoms Cheers and Frasier. He has been nominated for fourteen Emmys, including one for playing his character on three sitcoms (the third being a guest appearance on Wings), as well as portraying the part on an episode of The John Larroquette Show, and has also worked as a television producer, director, writer, and as a voice artist. He has received many accolades for his role as the voice of Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons.Early life and family tragedies
Grammer was born February 21, 1955 in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands to Sally Grammer (née Cranmer, 1928 – July 7, 2008),[1] a singer, and Frank Allen Grammer Jr., a musician and owner of a coffee shop and a bar & grill called Greer's Place.[2][3][4] His parents divorced when Grammer was two.[5] He attended Pine Crest School, a private preparatory school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for high school. Grammer then spent two years at the Juilliard School.[6]Grammer's family life has been plagued by tragedies. In 1968, when Grammer was thirteen years old, his father, whom he had seen only twice since his parents' divorce, was shot and killed.[3] In 1975, his younger sister Karen was abducted, raped, and murdered.[7][8][9][10][11] In 1980, his twin half-brothers died in a scuba diving accident.[12][13]
Career
Stage
After leaving Juilliard, he had a three-year internship with the Old Globe Theatre, 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 Grammer's Sweeney Todd in the 1999 LA Reprise! production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Grammer then played Michael Cassio in a Broadway revival of Othello, with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer.On April 18, 2010, Grammer made his Broadway musical debut playing the role of Georges in a revival of the Jerry Herman/Harvey Fierstein musical La Cage aux Folles, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.
Television
His television career began in the early 1980s when he portrayed Stephen Smith in the NBC miniseries Kennedy. Grammer came to broader public attention as Dr. Frasier Crane in the NBC sitcom Cheers. Grammer's former Juilliard classmate and Broadway co-star Patinkin suggested Grammer to the New York casting director, and he got what was supposed to be a six-episode job but ended up as a regular cast member.[14] The character became the center of the spin-off Frasier, arguably the most successful spinoff in TV history. In addition to starring, he also directed many episodes, especially during the second half of the series. In 2008, Grammer reprised his role of Dr. Frasier Crane in a commercial for Dr Pepper.In 2001, he negotiated a US$700,000-per-episode salary for Frasier, 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.[15]
In 2005, he returned to series television on Fox, by attempting to create an American adaptation of The Sketch Show, a British sketch show. The main cast consisted of Malcolm Barrett, Kaitlin Olson, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Paul F. Tompkins, as well as Lee Mack from the British version of the show. Grammer appeared in only short opening and closing segments in each episode. Many of the sketches from the British version were recreated, such as the "California Dreamin'," "English Course," and "Sign Language" sketches. Only six episodes of the show were made, and it was canceled after only four of them had aired.In addition to being producer, he guest-starred as the Angel of Death on Medium.
In 2007, Grammer returned to the sitcom format as the central character in the American sitcom Back to You, co-starring with Patricia Heaton. It was canceled by Fox after its first season.
Grammer's ABC sitcom Hank was canceled in its first season on November 11, 2009, with Grammer saying at the end, "Honestly, it just wasn't very funny."[16]
He is currently in negotiations to host the American version of the British panel game, Quite Interesting.
Voice work
He has appeared in twelve episodes since the show's inception in 1989, the most recent being "The Bob Next Door" that aired in May 2010. Grammer supplied the voices for "Stinky Pete the Prospector" in 1999 Disney/Pixar film Toy Story 2, Vladimir in the Fox animated movie Anastasia, (Rothbart) Barbie of Swan Lake, 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 provided the opening speech and piano in The Vandals' song "Phone Machine" from the album Fear of a Punk Planet, and sang a rewritten version of the "grinch" on an episode of Just Shoot Me!. He was the voice of the mad scientist, Dr. Frankenollie, in the Mickey Mouse short Runaway Brain.
Production work
Other work
Grammer's voice has been featured in commercials. One of the earliest was a 1998 commercial for Honey Nut Cheerios, where he played the voice of the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. He was the voice of the original GEICO gecko, a talking reptile created by The Martin Agency in 1999. In the commercial, the gecko pleads for people to stop calling him in error, mistaking gecko for GEICO. Since 2006, Grammer has provided the voice for television commercials advertising Hyundai.
Awards
He won a number of Emmys, Screen Actors Guild Award, 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).
Grammer has received at least 45 nominations for major awards and has won on 18 occasions.[18] He has received 14 individual Emmy Award nominations for 4 different television shows (plus an additional 2 as part of the Frasier ensemble) and has won on 5 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 recognized 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 Actor for his role in X-Men: The Last Stand. On May 22, 2001, he was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television. On April 20, 2009, Grammer was presented the inaugural Television Chairman's Award at the annual NAB Show in Las Vegas.[19] In 2010, Grammer enjoyed his first Tony Award nomination for "La Cage Aux Folles" as Best Leading Actor in a Musical.The following table gives a selection of the awards he has won.
Year | Award | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Emmy | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier) |
| 1995 | Emmy | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier) |
| 1995 | American Comedy Award | Funniest Male Performer in a TV Series (Frasier) |
| 1996 | Golden Globe | Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series Comedy/Musical (Frasier) |
| 1996 | American Comedy Award | Funniest Male Performer in a TV Series (Frasier) |
| 1998 | Emmy | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier) |
| 2001 | Golden Globe | Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series Comedy/Musical (Frasier) |
| 2004 | Emmy | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier) |
| 2006 | Emmy | Outstanding Voice-Over Performance (The Simpsons) |
Personal life
Family
Grammer has been married four times. | |
| Doreen Alderman |
After this marriage, Grammer had a daughter, Greer Kandace (born February 15, 1992), with hair and makeup stylist Barrie Buckner.[20]
 |
| Leigh-Anne Csuhany |
 | |
| Tammy Baliszewski |
 | |
| Camille Donatacci |
Lawsuits
Defamation lawsuit
In 1995, Grammer was sued by ex-girlfriend Cerlette Lamme for defamation of character and invasion of privacy over content he included in his autobiography So Far.[31]Sex tape lawsuit
In 1998, Grammer filed a lawsuit against Internet Entertainment Group, which Grammer claimed had stolen from his home a videotape of him having sex with a woman. IEG countersued Grammer, denying they were in possession of such a tape, and Grammer's suit was eventually dropped.[32] IEG President Seth Warshavsky told the New York Post, "We have been presented with another Kelsey Grammer tape. But we have no plans to air it. We are still evaluating it at this time."[33] Grammer later told Maxim, "Whether or not you’re a celebrity—even if you’re just an old slob with a video camera—you don’t realize you shouldn’t do it. So you throw the tape in the back of a dark closet until your old girlfriend remembers it’s there because you’re famous now and she’s not. But if you’re not prepared to do the time, don’t do the crime."[34]Copyright lawsuit
In August 2008, Bradley Blakeman, a former aide to George W. Bush, filed a copyright lawsuit in federal court on Long Island over Grammer's movie Swing Vote, claiming that parts of 
its plot and marketing had been stolen from him. The lawsuit claimed that Blakeman had given a copyrighted screenplay called Go November to Grammer in 2006, and that Grammer agreed to develop the project and star as a Republican president but instead ended up playing a similar role in Swing Vote, which was released on August 1, 2008. Grammer's spokesman dismissed the claims as "frivolous" and a "waste of time". The lawsuit claims that Blakeman's copyrighted screenplay had the same basic plot as Swing Vote.[35]Substance abuse and arrests
Grammer began drinking at age nine[36] and became a frequent abuser of alcohol. In 1988, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail for drunk driving and cocaine possession. He was again arrested for cocaine possession in August 1990 and was sentenced to three years' probation, fined $500, and given 300 hours of community service. In January 1991, he was given an additional two years' probation for violating his original probation through additional cocaine use. In September 1996, he flipped his Dodge Viper while intoxicated and subsequently checked into the Betty Ford Center for 30 days.[37]Health problems
Grammer suffered a heart attack on May 31, 2008. He told Jay Leno on the July 24, 2008, airing of The Tonight Show that he had to wait one and a half hours for paramedics to arrive. He was hospitalized in Hawaii after he had symptoms while paddleboarding with his then wife, Camille.[38] He was released on June 4, 2008, and was listed as "resting comfortably" at his Hawaiian residence.[39] Seven weeks after his attack, Grammer told Entertainment Tonight that, although at the time his spokesman described the attack as mild, it was in fact more severe, almost leading to his death, as his heart had stopped.[40]Grammer thought Fox's decision to cancel his TV sitcom Back to You contributed to his health problems, stating that "It was a very stressful time for me, and a surprise that it was cancelled. But you know, everything that doesn't kill us—which it almost did—makes us stronger!".[41]
On June 28, 2008, Grammer checked into an undisclosed New York hospital after complaints of feeling faint. His publicist said that it may have been due to a reaction to medication.[42]
Politics
Grammer is a member of the Republican Party and has expressed an interest in someday running for United States Congress.[43] Grammer was a guest at President George W. Bush's first inauguration.[44] Grammer endorsed Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 presidential primary and later campaigned for John McCain in the general election.[45][46]Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Galaxies Are Colliding | Peter | |
| 1995 | Runaway Brain | Dr. Frankenollie | Short film |
| 1996 | Down Periscope | Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dodge | |
| 1997 | Anastasia | Vladimir | |
| 1998 | The Real Howard Spitz | Howard Spitz | |
| 1999 | Animal Farm | Snowball | |
| 1999 | New Jersey Turnpikes | Unknown | |
| 1999 | Standing on Fishes | Verk | |
| 1999 | Toy Story 2 | "Stinky Pete" the Prospector | |
| 1999 | Bartok the Magnificent | Zozi | Direct-to-video release |
| 1999 | Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas | Narrator | Direct-to-video release |
| 2001 | 15 Minutes | Robert Hawkins | |
| 2001 | Just Visiting | Narrator | Uncredited |
| 2003 | The Big Empty | Agent Banks | |
| 2003 | Barbie of Swan Lake | Rothbart | Direct-to-video release |
| 2004 | Teacher's Pet | Dr. Ivan Krank | |
| 2005 | The Good Humor Man | Mr. Skibness | Also executive producer |
| 2006 | X-Men: The Last Stand | Dr. Henry 'Hank' McCoy/Beast | |
| 2007 | Even Money | Detective Brunner | |
| 2008 | Swing Vote | President Andrew Boone | |
| 2008 | An American Carol | General George S. Patton | |
| 2009 | Fame | Joel Cranston | |
| 2010 | Crazy on the Outside | Frank | |
| 2010 | Bunyan and Babe | Norm Blandsford | Post-production |
| 2010 | Middle Men | Frank Griffin | |
| 2010 | Alligator Point[47] | Director | TBA |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Macbeth | Ross | TV film |
| 1983 | Kennedy | Stephen Smith | TV miniseries |
| 1984 | Kate & Allie | David Hamill | Episode 1.1: "Allie's First Date" |
| 1984 | George Washington | Lt. Stewart | TV miniseries |
| 1984– 1985 | Another World | Dr. Canard | Recurring role |
| 1984– 1993 | Cheers | Dr. Frasier Crane | Appeared in 201 episodes |
| 1986 | Crossings | Craig Lawson | TV miniseries |
| 1987 | Biography | George Washington | Episode: "Benedict Arnold" |
| 1987 | J.J. Starbuck | Pierce Morgan | Episode 1.3: "Murder in E Minor" |
| 1988 | Dance 'til Dawn | Ed Strull | TV film |
| 1989 | Top of the Hill | Unknown | TV film |
| 1989 | 227 | Mr. Anderson | Episode 4.24: "For Sale" |
| 1990 | The Tracey Ullman Show | Mr. Brenna | Episode 4.12: "Maria and the Mister" |
| 1990–present | The Simpsons | Sideshow Bob | Has appeared in twelve episodes, Recurring Role. |
| 1991 | Baby Talk | Russell | Episode 1.7: "One Night with Elliot" |
| 1992 | Wings | Dr. Frasier Crane | Episode 3.16: "Planes, Trains and Visiting Cranes" |
| 1992 | Star Trek: The Next Generation | Captain Bateson | Episode 5.18: "Cause and Effect" |
| 1993 | Roc | Detective Rush | Episode 2.25: "To Love and Die on Emerson Street: Part 2" |
| 1993 | Beyond Suspicion | Ron McNally | TV film |
| 1993 | Mike & Spike | Super Dog | Episode: "Person To Sea Creature" (voice only) |
| 1993– 2004 | Frasier | Dr. Frasier Crane | Appeared in all 264 episodes; also executive producer and director of 37 episodes |
| 1994 | The Innocent | Det. Frank Barlow | TV film |
| 1995 | The John Larroquette Show | Dr. Frasier Crane | Episode 3.1: "More Changes" |
| 1996 | London Suite | Sydney Nichols | TV film |
| 1997 | Fired Up | Tom Whitman | Episodes 1.3: "Who's the Boss" and 2.3: "You Don't Know Jack"; also executive producer |
| 1998 | The Pentagon Wars | Major General Partridge | TV film |
| 1998 | Just Shoot Me! | Narrator | Episode 3.10: "How the Finch Stole Christmas" |
| 1999 | Animal Farm | Snowball | TV film |
| 2000 | Stark Raving Mad | Professor Tuttle | 1.17: "The Grade" |
| 2001 | Neurotic Tendencies | N/A | TV film; executive producer, director and writer |
| 2000– 2008 | Girlfriends | himself | Executive producer |
| 2001 | The Sports Pages | Howard Greene | TV film |
| 2002 | Mr. St. Nick | Nick St. Nicholas/Santa Claus the 21st | TV film |
| 2002– 2003 | In-Laws | N/A | Executive producer |
| 2003 | Benedict Arnold: A Question of Honor | George Washington | TV film |
| 2003 | Becker | Rick Cooper | Episode 5.13: "But I've Got Friends I Haven't Used Yet" |
| 2003 | Gary the Rat | Gary "The Rat" Andrews | Appeared in all 13 episodes; also executive producer |
| 2004 | A Christmas Carol | Ebenezer Scrooge | TV film |
| 2004 | The Soluna Project | N/A | TV film; executive producer |
| 2005 | Kelsey Grammer Presents: The Sketch Show | Various characters | Appeared in all four aired episodes; also executive producer |
| 2005 | Out of Practice | N/A | Directed episodes 1.1 and 1.18 |
| 2006 | Medium | Angel of Death/Bob | Episode 2.21: "Death Takes a Policy" Also executive producer/Double Role |
| 2006 | My Ex Life | N/A | Director |
| 2006– 2009 | The Game | N/A | Executive producer |
| 2007 | Dash 4 Cash | N/A | TV film; executive producer |
| 2007 | Everybody Hates Chris | N/A | Directed episode 2.22: "Everybody Hates the Last Day" |
| 2007– 2008 | Back to You | Chuck Darling | Appeared in all 17 episodes Also executive producer |
| 2009 | Hank | Lead role | Also executive producer[48] |
| 2010 | The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills | Himself | Filmed during his marriage to Camille Donatacci Grammer |
| 2010 | 30 Rock | Himself |
- Video games
- The Simpsons Game (2007) – Sideshow Bob
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