Kelsey Grammer

Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor, comedian, producer and director. Grammer is best known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the hit NBC sitcoms Cheers and Frasier. He has won five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globes, and has also worked as a television producer, director, writer, and as a voice artist on The Simpsons. Grammer has been married four times and has five children. --- Grammer was born on February 21, 1955 in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, the son of Sally (née Cranmer; 1928-2008), a singer, and Frank Allen Grammer, Jr. (1929-1968), a musician and owner of a coffee shop and a bar & grill called Greer's Place. Grammer was two years old when his parents divorced. Grammer attended Pine Crest School, a private preparatory school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and later spent two years at the Juilliard School. Grammer's personal life has been affected by several tragedies: in 1968, his father, whom he had seen only twice since his parents' divorce, was shot dead; in 1975, his younger sister, Karen was abducted, raped, and murdered by spree killer Freddie Glenn; in 1980, his twin half-brothers died in a scuba diving accident; and David Angell, close friend and producer of Frasier, died in the 9/11 attacks. --- 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. Grammer then played Michael Cassio in a Broadway revival of Othello, with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. In 1983 he performed on the demo of the Stephen Sondheim–James Lapine production Sunday in the Park with George, starring Mandy Patinkin. In 2000, Grammer again played Macbeth on Broadway. On April 18, 2010, Grammer made his Broadway musical debut playing the role of Georges in a revival of the Jerry Herman/Harvey Fierste in musical La Cage aux Folles, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. --- 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. The character became the center of the spin-off Frasier, one of the most successful spin-offs in TV history. In addition to starring, he also directed more than 30 episodes, especially during the second half of the series, and sang the closing theme "Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs." Frasier won and was nominated for many awards during its 11-year run. In 2001, he negotiated a US$700,000-per-episode salary for Frasier. His 20-year run playing Dr. Frasier Crane ties a length set by James Arness in playing Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1975 and Richard Belzer in playing Det. John Munch on Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit since 1993. --- Grammer has been married four times and has five children and one grandchild as of 2012. His first marriage, to dance instructor Doreen Alderman, lasted from 1982 to 1990, although they were separated for the last six years of that period. They have 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. Through Spencer's marriage, Grammer has a grandson, Emmett Emmanual Hesketh (born October 10, 2011). After his divorce from Alderman, Grammer had a daughter, Kandace Greer Grammer ("Greer Grammer"; born February 15, 1992), with hair and makeup stylist Barrie Buckner. Greer is currently a cast member on MTV's hit show Awkward.. His second marriage, to stripper Leigh-Anne Csuhany in September 1992, lasted one year. Grammer says that she was abusive and fired a gun at him, and that after talk of divorce, she attempted suicide, which resulted in the miscarriage of their child. In 1994, he met 28-year-old Tammy Baliszewski, 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. 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. During their marriage, several of Grammer and Donatacci's homes were featured in magazines, including ones in: Malibu, California (February 2001, InStyle), Maui (May 2004, InStyle), Long Island, New York (April 2008, InStyle), Bachelor Gulch, Colorado (Architectural Digest), and Bel Air, Los Angeles (Architectural Digest). It was announced on July 1, 2010, that Donatacci had filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Grammer and Donatacci's divorce was finalized on February 10, 2011. On August 12, 2010, Grammer announced that he was going to be a father for the fifth time with his girlfriend Kayte Walsh, a British flight attendant who is 25 years his junior. However, in October, Grammer announced that Walsh had miscarried six weeks earlier. The couple announced their engagement in December 2010. At the beginning of February, Grammer and Walsh booked the ballroom at the Plaza Hotel for their wedding, at a cost of more than $100,000 for the reception, despite rumors of Grammer's divorce not being finalized. The couple wed there on February 25, 2011, two weeks after the finalization of his third divorce. In January 2012, Grammer announced that he and Walsh were expecting twins. On July 13, 2012, Walsh gave birth to the couple's first child together, a daughter named Faith Evangeline Elisa. Faith's expected twin, a boy, had died in utero.