Kelsey Grammer

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Kelsey Grammer
Grammer during Fleet Week, New York 2006
Born
Allen Kelsey Grammer
Occupation(s)actor, producer, director, writer, voice artist
Years active1983 – present
Spouse(s)Doreen Alderman (1982–1990)
Leigh-Anne Csuhany (1992–1993)
Camille Donatacci (1997–present)
Websitehttp://www.kelseylive.com

Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21 1955) is a five-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.

Background

Grammer was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, the son of Sally (née Cranmer), a singer, and Frank Allen Grammer, Jr., a musician and owner of a coffee shop and a bar and grill.[1][2][3] He is descended from Massachussets Governor Thomas Dudley. 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 maternal grandparents, Evangeline Dimmock and Gordon Cranmer.

Family tragedies

His family life has been plagued by 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.[2] In 1975, his sister was raped and murdered after being abducted outside a Red Lobster restaurant in Colorado Springs, Colorado where her boyfriend worked.[4] He has sworn to prevent his sister's murderer from being paroled.[5] In 1980, his twin half-brothers were killed by a shark in a SCUBA diving accident.[6][7] Grammer's mother died on 7 July 2008.

Career

Stage

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 then played the featured role of Cassio in a Broadway revival of Othello with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer.

Television

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 what was supposed to be a six-episode job, but ended up as a regular cast member.[8] 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.[9]

In 2005 on FOX, he attempted 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 only appeared in 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 the Sign Language sketch. Only six episodes of the show were made, and it was cancelled after only four of them had been shown.

As well as being producer, he also starred as the Angel of Death in the hit show, Medium

In 2007 he returned to the sitcom format as the central character in the short lived Back to You, co-starring Patricia Heaton and Fred Willard. The programme ended in 2008.

Voice work

Grammer's smooth, deep voice and Mid-Atlantic accent 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".[10] 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".

Production work

His production company, Grammnet Productions, produces the CW sitcoms Girlfriends and The Game, as well as being involved in many other projects.

Other work

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. 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 play the Republican incumbent, a role that aligns with his own views.

In addition to his other voice-over work, Grammer's voice has also been featured in commercials. 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 the Hyundai Sonata, Hyundai Veracruz, and the Hyundai Azera. He was chosen because his "refined and luxurious voice" would help build the up-and-coming car maker's new image as an affordable luxury automobile.

He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001.

Awards

Grammer has received at least 45 nominations for major awards of which he won on 18 occasions.[11] 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 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.

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 three times. His first marriage, to dance instructor Doreen Alderman, lasted from 1982 to 1990. They had one daughter, Spencer (born October 9 1983), 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.[12] During this marriage, Grammer had a daughter, Greer Kandace, (born February 15 1992) with hair and makeup stylist Barrie Buckner.[6] His engagement to Tammi Alexander broke up due to rape allegations and her leaks to the tabloid press.

Grammer has been married since August 1997 to Camille Donatacci, a former Playboy model. They have a daughter, Mason Olivia (born October 24 2001), and a son, Jude Gordon (born August 28 2004), both born via surrogate mother.[6] Grammer and Donatacci have homes in Malibu, California, Colorado, and New York, and a holiday home in Maui.

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 half hours for paramedics to arrive. He was hospitalized in Hawaii after he had symptoms while paddle boating with his wife, Camille.[13] He was released on June 4, 2008 and was listed as resting comfortably at his Hawaiian residence.[14] Seven weeks after his attack, Grammer told Entertainment Tonight that, while 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.[15]

On July 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.

Politics

He is a member of the Republican Party and has expressed an interest in someday running for United States Congress.[16]

He was a celebrity guest at President George W. Bush's first inauguration, along with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Fred Thompson.

In 2008, he endorsed Rudy Giuliani for president, after the candidate pulled out, Grammer then campaigned for John McCain.

Filmography

References

  1. ^ "Grammer's Lesson" from Smoke magazine
  2. ^ a b "A suitable case for treatment" from Ginny Dougary's blog
  3. ^ Kelsey Grammer Biography (1955-)
  4. ^ Murder of Kelsey Grammer's sister
  5. ^ "Kelsey Grammer Vows to Speak for Sister if Killer Pursues Parole" from FOXNews
  6. ^ a b c Profile — Kelsey Grammar
  7. ^ Showbiz - News - Ten Things You Never Knew About Kelsey Grammer - Digital Spy
  8. ^ Yahoo Movies: Kelsey Grammer
  9. ^ TV Guide: Kelsey Grammar
  10. ^ Grammer wins Emmy for Simpsons a July 2006 Reuters article via CNN
  11. ^ ["http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001288/awards" "Kelsey Grammer - Awards"]. IMDb. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  12. ^ "A suitable case for treatment" from Ginny Dougary's blog
  13. ^ Fleeman, Mike (2008-06-02). ""Kelsey Grammer Suffers Mild Heart Attack"". People. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  14. ^ Kelsey Grammer Out of the Hospital from E! Online
  15. ^ Kelsey Grammer Nearly Died After Heart Attack from The New York Times
  16. ^ Transcript: Twenty Years of 'Frasier' from Fox News

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Kelsey Grammer.
Template:S-awards
Preceded by Golden Globe - Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
for Frasier
1996 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Golden Globe - Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
for Frasier
2001 		Succeeded by

Template:Simpsons cast

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