Kelsey Grammer

Kelsey Grammer
During Fleet Week, New York 2006
Born	Allen Kelsey Grammer February 21, 1955 (1955-02-21) (age 55) Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Occupation	Actor, comedian, producer, director, writer, voice artist
Years active	1980–present
Spouse	Doreen Alderman (1982–1990) Leigh-Anne Csuhany (1992–1993) Camille Donatacci (1997–2010)-filed for divorce

Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955), best known as Kelsey Grammer, is an American actor and comedian. He is most widely known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane in the NBC sitcoms Cheers (nine years) and Frasier (eleven years). He has been nominated for numerous Emmys, including one for playing Frasier Crane on three sitcoms (the third being a guest appearance on Wings), and has also worked as a television producer, director, writer, and a voice artist. He has received many accolades for his role as Sideshow Bob within The Simpsons.

Personal background

Grammer was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands to Sally (née Cranmer), a singer, and Frank Allen Grammer, Jr., a musician and owner of a coffee shop and a bar & grill.^[1][2][3]

Grammer studied singing in high school.^[4]

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 on the front lawn of his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands.^[2] In 1975, his younger sister, Karen, was raped and murdered^[5] after being abducted outside a Red Lobster restaurant in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where her boyfriend worked.^[6] In 1980, his fraternal twin half-brothers were killed in a freak scuba diving accident.^[7][8] Grammer has sworn to prevent his sister's murderer, Freddie Lee Glenn, from being paroled;^[9] in July 2009, Glenn was denied parole at least in part due to a letter Grammer submitted to the parole board.^[10][11]

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, losing to his co-star Douglas Hodge.

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.^[12] 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.^[13]

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 Nov 11, 2009, saying at the end, "Honestly, it just wasn't very funny." ^[14]

Voice work

Grammer's smooth, deep voice and Mid-Atlantic accent make 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".^[15] 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

His production company, Grammnet Productions, produces the CW sitcoms Girlfriends and The Game, the NBC drama Medium, and is involved in many other projects.

Other work

His film work includes the role of Dr. Hank McCoy (also known as the Beast) in X-Men: The Last Stand, and he was the voice of Snowball in the live-action film adaptation of the George Orwell book Animal Farm. Grammer co-starred in the movie Swing Vote, playing the Republican incumbent. He played General George S. Patton in An American Carol.

Grammer's voice has 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 Santa Fe, Hyundai Veracruz, and Hyundai Azera.

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.^[16] 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. ^[17] 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.

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 Grammer (born October 9, 1983), an actress on the CBS Daytime 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 shot a gun at him,^[18] and that, after talk of divorce, she attempted suicide, which resulted in the miscarriage of their child.^[19] During this marriage, Grammer had a daughter out of wedlock, Greer Kandace (born February 15, 1992), with hair and makeup stylist Barrie Buckner.^[7]

In 1994 he met 28-year-old Tammy Baliszwewski, also known as Tammy Alexander, at a bar in Manhattan Beach, California. In December 1994, the two of them appeared on the cover of People magazine announcing their engagement and Grammer's substance abuse problems. They broke up in 1995.

In August 1997, Grammer married Camille Donatacci, a former Playboy model. They met on a blind date in 1996.^[20] They have a daughter, Mason Olivia (born October 24, 2001), and a son, Jude Gordon (born August 28, 2004), both born to a surrogate mother.^[7] Grammer and Donatacci have several homes that have been featured in InStyle magazine and Architectural Digest. Some are: Malibu, California(February 2001, InStyle magazine), Maui (May 2004, InStyle magazine), Hamptons, Long Island, New York (April 2008, InStyle magazine), Bachelor Gulch, Colorado (Architectural Digest), and Bel Air (Architectural Digest). On June 14, 2010, Camille and Kelsey appeared together at the Tony Awards. Camille was unaware that Kelsey had already impregnated another woman. It was announced on July 1, 2010 that Camille, furious that he did not speak to his two children with her on Father's Day, filed for divorce.^[21]

On August 12, 2010 Grammar announced that he was going to be a dad for the 5th time with girlfriend Kayte Walsh.^[22]. Camille only found out through tabloid media reports that his 28-year-old girlfriend was already expecting. TMZ filmed the two shopping for a ring at Harry Winston in mid-August 2010.

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.^[23]

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.^[24] 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."^[25] 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."^[26]

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.^[27]

Substance abuse

Grammer began drinking at age nine^[28] 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.^[29]

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 paddle-boating with his wife, Camille.^[30] He was released on June 4, 2008, and was listed as "resting comfortably" at his Hawaiian residence.^[31] 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.^[32]

Grammer blamed Fox's decision to cancel his TV sitcom Back to You for 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!"^[33]

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.

Politics

Grammer is a member of the Republican Party and has expressed an interest in someday running for United States Congress.^[34]

Grammer was a guest at President George W. Bush's first inauguration.^[35]

Grammer endorsed Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 presidential primary and later campaigned for John McCain in the general election.^[36][37]

When asked by Maxim magazine about his political ambitions, Grammer replied, "It's a notion I have about the future, to run for office, to do the world some good. Maybe in 15 years or so, there may be a run for office. But I don’t know what I’d run for."^[26]

Filmography

Video games

The Simpsons Game (2007) – Sideshow Bob

References

External links

• Official website

• Kelsey Grammer at the Internet Movie Database
• Kelsey Grammer at the Internet Broadway Database
• Kelsey Grammer at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Kelsey Grammer at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)