Kelsey Grammer Biography

Kelsey Grammer is a comic actor best known for playing the fastidious Dr. Frasier Crane on two hit television shows, Cheers and Frasier. Kelsey Grammer studied drama at New York’s Juilliard School before embarking on a career on stage. He joined the cast of Cheers in 1984 as psychologist Frasier Crane, the fianceé of Diane (played by Shelley Long). He became a regular cast member and earned two Emmy nominations, leading to the spinoff show Frasier, which was a hit and ran from 1993-2004. The show moved his character from Boston to Seattle, made him the host of his own radio show, and gave him an even more neurotic brother played by David Hyde Pierce. Both Cheers and Frasier were perennial Emmy favorites, and Grammer won three best actor awards for his portrayal of the cynical and pompous Dr. Crane. Kelsey Grammer was also a sly hit as the voice of Sideshow Bob, a semi-regular character on the animated show The Simpsons. He also contributed voices to the animated features Anastasia (1997, with John Cusack) and Toy Story 2 (1999, with Tom Hanks), and has starred in feature films including the submarine farce Down Periscope (1996), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006, with Grammer as “Beast”) and the political comedy Swing Vote (2008). In 2011 he began playing a kingpin mayor of Chicago in the cable TV series Boss. Grammer’s 1995 autobiography, So Far…, openly discussed his personal problems, from family tragedies to drinking and substance abuse.