Overview (3)

Mini Bio (1)

A six-time Emmy Award winner, Kelsey Grammer was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, to Sally (Cranmer), a singer, and Frank Allen Grammer, Jr., a musician and restaurateur. He was raised in New Jersey and Florida. Grammer was drawn to the works of William Shakespeare and spent two years at the prestigious Juilliard School. He then dove into the world of regional theater, eventually making the leap to Broadway with roles in "Macbeth" and "Othello". He joined the cast of the situation comedy Cheers (1982) in 1984.



Grammer is the first actor in television history to receive multiple Emmy nominations for performing the same role on three series. He received two nominations for his original portrayal of Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers (1982), another for his guest appearance in that role on Wings (1990), and nine nominations (earning four awards) as Outstanding Actor for his work on Frasier (1993). Over the years, Dr. Frasier Crane has become one of television's most endearing and enduring characters. In addition to his Emmy Awards, Grammer has won two Golden Globe Awards, two American Comedy Awards and a People's Choice Award for his portrait. Grammer's distinctive voice has been heard in several hit animated features, including the voice of Stinky Pete in Disney's hit Toy Story 2 (1999) and a role in Anastasia (1997). On television, he has also been seen in several mini-series and movies. In 1996, he hosted an hour-long salute to Jack Benny for which he served as executive producer. He also starred in HBO's award-winning comedy The Pentagon Wars (1998).



Grammer's autobiography, "So Far", was published in fall 1995.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Catherine Grace

Spouse (4)

Trade Mark (2)

Frequently portrays pompous, pretentious characters



Deep, baritone, smooth voice



Trivia (52)

Has filed a lawsuit against Hamptons real estate broker Bettie Wysor of Dunemere Real Estate who put him and his wife next door to a construction site. The couple rented a mansion next door to advertising executive Jay Chiat in summer 1998. Kelsey was uninformed of Chiat's extensive renovation, and is suing Wyson for $100,000 for failing to warn him but Wysor says that work on Chiat's house was finished by the time the Grammers moved in. She claims the couple only used their place for three of the four weeks they had rented it for, and never complained to her about anything. [May 2000]





Spent a couple of weeks in the Betty Ford clinic for substance abuse. [October 1996]

Served 30 days in jail for violating probation on DUI (1990).



His father was murdered in 1968 in the Virgin Islands. His sister, Karen Elisa Grammer, was murdered in 1975 while finishing a shift working at a Red Lobster in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Had two stepbrothers (from his father's second marriage) that were killed in a shark/scuba accident.





Signed a new second season deal for Frasier (1993). He will be getting about £1.1 million per episode. This makes him the highest paid television star ever (2001).



Is the only actor to be nominated for an Emmy Award for three television series, all for the same character (Frasier Crane in Cheers (1982), Frasier (1993) and a guest appearance on Wings (1990)).



Had to have his appendix removed, only a few weeks after his Toy Story 2 (1999) co-star, Tim Allen , also had to have his appendix removed. Expected to make full recovery. [October 1999]



He filed suit against his former talent agency, Artists Agency, in order to recover $1.8 million in commissions. The current lawsuit comes on the heels of a Screen Actors Guild arbitration that has ordered him to pay the agency commissions withheld since 1998. Artists Agency is claiming that it has a right to claim ongoing profit participation in Frasier (1993), which means several million dollars in commissions with the series in syndication. He is charging that Artists Agency, which has represented him since the 1980s, didn't win him the role of Frasier Crane on either Cheers (1982) or Frasier (1993). In 1996, he switched agencies but continued to pay commission up to 1998, after which Artists Agency began arbitration. The arbitrator's ruling, which was handed down August 4, 2000, upholds a renewal agreement he says he was forced into signing and orders him to pay withheld commissions. [August 2000]

Daughter, Mason Olivia Grammer, was delivered by a surrogate mother October 24, 2001 in Los Angeles, California and weighed in at 8 pounds, 5 ounces.



Has provided the voice of the Narrator for the Guthrie Theatre production of "A Christmas Carol" in 2000.





When series production of Frasier (1993) ended, Kelsey Grammer tied the record for longest role (Frasier Crane) portrayed by at single actor on prime-time television ( Cheers (1982) and Frasier (1993)), at 20 years (1984-2004) Grammer is tied with James Arness for Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke (1955) (1955-1975).



On the Fox News debate show Hannity & Colmes (1996), he said that he would like to run for public office someday, perhaps U.S. Senator from California.

In memory of his sister who was raped and murdered, he named his daughter Spencer Karen (Karen was his sister's first name).



Attended high school at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, one of the most prestigious high schools in the country.



Began his acting career at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.



Son, Jude Gordon Grammer (born August 28, 2004) in Sacramento, California, via surrogate birth.



His son was named after his maternal grandfather, Gordon Cranmer, who helped raise him and his sister. He passed away when Kelsey was 11.





Has his own production company, Grammnet Productions, which has a distribution deal with Paramount Pictures. They are behind the UPN series Girlfriends (2000), of which Grammer is an executive producer, and his new comedy series on Fox-TV, debuting in March 2005.



On one episode of The Simpsons (1989), while he portrayed the recurring character Sideshow Bob, David Hyde Pierce supplied the voice of Kelsey's brother, mimicking the relationship between the two on Frasier (1993). This joke was repeated and extended a decade later, when Pierce once again played Bob's brother, and John Mahoney once again played their father.



When the producers of Frasier (1993) asked him about approaching Bebe Neuwirth about replaying her character on Frasier (1993) as a regular, he said no. He claimed it was because "For this spin-off to work, Fraiser would have to be the only old, familiar thing there. Everything else would have to be brand-new.".

Was the original voice for the Geico Gecko.





A fictional place called "Kelsey Grammar School", which is in the comedy series Little Britain (2003), is named after him.



Leigh McCloskey 's roommate and Julliard classmate in New York City during the mid-1970s.

Suffered a mild heart attack in Hawaii on May 31, 2008.



Studied acting with Michael Howard in New York City.



Parents are Frank Allen Jr. and Sally Grammer; has one younger sister: Karen Elisa Grammer.





Wife Kayte Grammer gave birth to a daughter, Faith Evangeline Elisa Grammer, on July 13, 2012 at 1 a.m in Los Angeles, weighing 6 lbs., 2 oz.

Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on May 22, 2001.





Wife Kayte Grammer gave birth to a son, Kelsey Gabriel Elias Grammer, on July 22, 2014 at 8:28 a.m. in Los Angeles, weighing 8 lbs., 2 oz. and measuring 20.5 inches long.

Is a Republican.





Is a huge fan of the original Star Trek (1966) series.

Is a client of Stan Rosenfield and Associates.



Has English, German, Irish and Scottish ancestry.





Was considered for the role of Jafar in Aladdin (1992).



His favorite Sideshow Bob line is "Lisa, you don't spend ten years as a homicidal maniac without learning a few things about dynamite" from The Simpsons: Brother from Another Series (1997).



Singer Andy Grammer is his third cousin.

Produced a Broadway play of "The Color Purple" from 2015-2017.





After being ejected from Juilliard in New York, Kelsey auditioned unsuccessfully for a role in Star Wars (1977).



In 2017, Kelsey won another Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for playing Blinky on Trollhunters (2016): Season 1.

Personal Quotes (16)

Life is supposed to get tough.



I lost a lot of stuff when Karen died. It took about a year to get back to even thinking that there might be a reason to go on.



I got fired when I was a dishwasher at Denny's. That set me back a little bit. You don't realize how important dishwashers are until you do the job.





[on his role as Tom Kane the brutal mayor of Chicago on Boss (2011)] He's an exciting character and a lot of fun to play. Iago is one of the most liked characters in Shakespeare's canon and he's the most evil, most extraordinarily manipulative person in history. He says the worst, most politically incorrect things, even for the time the play is set in - and yet audiences adore that character. There's some similarity there with Tom Kane. The discovery of this man has been a discovery of things I've never done or said before.

Actors are observers of human life, of human behavior. If you've any smarts and any powers of observation, you kind of know what's going on inside a person like Tom Kane, and you just bring it out naturally. It's part of who you are. That's what you're good at.



The cops in Chicago have told me that I have a withering look that is just like Mayor Daley's was. A lot of them come up and say, "Man, the way you do that thing, the way you turn that Fuck you look on people, that is him." I have not been a party to that look. I don't know it personally.





[on the scripts for Boss (2011)] I think it's great writing, great writing. Why would you mess around with that? If something doesn't quite roll off the tongue or I'm having trouble memorizing it, that's often an indication that something is missing, That's always been my barometer. But this has been easy, a lot easier than it looks actually.



[on if he was happy with the way Frasier (1993) ended] Oh yeah. Yeah, that was one instance where I knew the end of the show at the same time we did the first episode. My idea was always to embrace the idea that he's going off to the other world, using the poem of Ulysses. That was always part of it, and they were - happily - not against that idea.



[on how challenging the makeup process was in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)] It wasn't as bad as you'd think. We got the process down to an hour and a half for most of it, so it was only three hours total. So it wasn't brutal. It was just the prep. If I had to sit around in it for most of the day before we shot... well, that was just planning. That happened a couple of times, but I pissed and moaned enough to make sure it didn't happen more than once or twice. [laughs]



[on playing Stinky Pete the Prospector in Toy Story 2 (1999)] Stinky Pete! What a poor, repressed little shit. [laughs] I loved him, but he was... I liked how small his thinking was. You know, how inside the box he wanted to be. He was a very interesting little character to play. The thing I remember most, though, was [co-writer/director] John Lasseter . His enthusiasm for the work he does was just breathtaking. He would run out of the sound booth and go, "Oh, my God, I can't wait to go animate that line!". He loves performance and embraces it. He likes to... well, he's just like a child. He's wonderful.



[on playing Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons (1989)] An irrepressible villain. He is a presumptive joy to play on every occasion. Sam Simon had worked on Cheers (1982), so that's how I got involved in that. He just called one day and said, "Hey, Kels, I remember you used to sing a lot on the set of Cheers (1982). Can you do a Cole Porter tune?". I said, "Yeah, absolutely!". And that was the basis of the conversation. He said, "We've got this guy on the show, he's never said anything before, he's the sidekick character of Krusty the Clown," and once he ran it down, I said, "Sure, I'll play." They were kind enough to send the song over first - you probably already know, but it was "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" - but I said, "Yeah, I can sing it.".



[on if he has a favorite Sideshow Bob episode of The Simpsons (1989)] Well, I have a favorite Sideshow Bob line, which is [in character] "Lisa, you do not spend a decade as a homicidal maniac without learning a thing or two about dynamite." [laughs] And then there's the rakes. That's just a classic.



[on playing Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers (1982) and his own spin-off, Frasier (1993)] The golden key. [laughs] When I first came onto Cheers (1982) , it was originally only going to be for seven shows. Apparently, I was funny enough to keep around. They said that to me quite openly. "He's funny enough to keep around. He makes things funny that we didn't think were funny, and that's an asset to the show." So they found a way to have him be part of it... You know, one of my favorite episodes of playing Frasier on Cheers (1982) was one I think was called Cheers: The Triangle (1986), when he actually started to do therapy on Sam and Diane and sort of ended up examining himself in the process, and had the big blowout in Sam's office with the two of them. He sort of became his own man at that point, and I liked that. It was a good episode. And it was probably also when he realized he could have his own show. [laughs]



[on if there was any hesitation to do Frasier (1993)] Oh, I quite clearly thought he should die with Cheers (1982) . But then we broke another story with Casey-Angell-Lee [writer-producers Peter Casey David Angell and David Lee ], and they wrote a great script about a completely different character. And it was [Paramount TV head] John Pike who was responsible for Frasier. He's the one who sat me down and said, "I think a sitcom should be funny, and the script you guys turned in is not." [laughs] "I want you to do Frasier." So I said, "Okay, well, there's a couple of conditions: he's not married, and I don't want any kids in there." So we found the devices to get as far away from Boston as we could, and people made an attempt to make sure this was a new guy with an old but recognizable name. But he was still the centerpiece of the show, so we got David [Hyde Pierce] to be the Frasier of the show, and we were able to let Frasier be someone a little bit different.



[on playing Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy/Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)] The first thing that comes to my mind, honestly, is that we didn't do more. I'd love to play him again. He's such a great character. I'm glad they brought him in for that one, but it's a shame we didn't get to see more of Hank. Then they moved to the prequel and everybody got young. [laughs] But it's all right... I hadn't followed X-Men so much, but when I played the role, I got so much response from people about how excited they were. I think there was just a gap in the market. I think we missed a real chance there to give the ones who loved Hank a bit more of him.



[about working on Frasier (1993)] "I'm very unprofessional and there are several episodes in which you can catch me laughing. The one about the Hungarian goose - 'It's not my date, it's dinner!' - I could never get through that. The one where they open up the restaurant together. The one with the supermodel zoologist where I go, 'What do you think of me now?' Honestly, it was just a lovely time. The happiest 11 years of my life."

Salary (3)