Allen Kelsey Grammer was born on February 21, 1955 inSaint Thomas,U.S. Virgin Islands.[2][1] Grammer's mother, Sally Cranmer (1928–2008), was a dancer who performed under the name of Sally Sullivan.[6] His father, Frank Allen Grammer Jr. was a musician who owned a coffee shop, Greer's Place;[7][8] and owned and edited a magazine,Virgin Islands View.[9] Kelsey had a younger sister, Karen, and four half-siblings from his father's second marriage.
Grammer's personal life has been shaped by many family tragedies. Following his parents' divorce, Grammer was raised in New Jersey by his mother and maternal grandparents, Gordon and Evangeline Cranmer.[10] The family later relocated toPompano Beach, Florida. When Grammer was twelve years old, his grandfather died of cancer.[10] In 1968, his father was murdered in Saint Thomas during awave of racial violence following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.[9][11][12] In 1975, his sister was kidnapped, raped, and murdered inColorado Springs, Colorado, by spree killerFreddie Glenn.[13] In 1980, his two teenage half-brothers died in a scuba diving accident.[13]
Grammer attendedPine Crest School, a private preparatory school inFort Lauderdale, Florida.[10] It was there that he first began to sing and perform on stage.[10] Grammer later won a scholarship to study drama at theJuilliard School, where he was a member of Group 6 from 1973 to 1975.[10][14] However, after his sister's murder, Grammer failed to attend classes and was eventually expelled.[10]
Grammer described himself as "a Caribbean kid", and he enjoys vacationing in the Bahamas, the US Virgin Islands, and British Virgin Islands.[15]
In 1984, Grammer first appeared as Dr.Frasier Crane in theNBC sitcomCheers. Grammer's Broadway co-star and former Juilliard classmate, Mandy Patinkin, suggested Grammer to the New York casting director. He was supposed to appear for only six episodes, but ended up as a regular cast member.[16] The character of Frasier first appears in thethird season and continues to appear until thefinal season of the series in May 1993. Frasier Crane also had acrossover appearance in the 1992Wings episode "Planes, Trains, & Visiting Cranes".
Grammer's voice has been featured in many commercials. In 1998, he appeared in a commercial forHoney Nut Cheerios, where he voices the wolf inLittle Red Riding Hood. Since 2006, Grammer has provided the voice for television commercials advertisingHyundai. In 2008, Grammer reprised his role of Dr. Frasier Crane in a commercial forDr Pepper (Frasier andCheers co-starBebe Neuwirth also reprised her role asLilith Sternin in the same commercial, albeit in voice only). In 2000, Grammer again playedMacbeth on Broadway, in a production that closed after only 10 days.[21]
In 2005, Grammer produced an American adaptation of theBritish showThe Sketch Show, which aired onFox. The main cast consisted ofMalcolm Barrett,Kaitlin Olson,Mary Lynn Rajskub andPaul F. Tompkins, as well asLee Mack from the British version of the show. Grammer appeared in only short opening and closing segments in each episode. Many of thesketches from the British version were re-created. Only six episodes of the show were made, and it wascancelled after just four of them had aired. In 2007, Grammer starred withPatricia Heaton in the American sitcomBack to You, which Fox cancelled after its first season. His next lead role,ABC'sHank, was cancelled after only five episodes had aired. Grammer later commented, "Honestly, it just wasn't very funny."[22]
In 2011, he was originally announced to provide the voice of Henry J. Waternoose III in the prequel toMonsters, Inc.,Monsters University, and he was meant to replaceJames Coburn, following Coburn's death in 2002. The character, however, got cut from the film.
Grammer has been married four times, and has eight children and one grandchild, Emmett.[36] His first marriage, to a dance instructor, Doreen Alderman,[37] lasted from 1982 to 1990, although they wereseparated for the last six years of that period.[38] They have one daughter, the actressSpencer Grammer (born October 9, 1983).[39] Through Spencer, Grammer has one grandson, born on October 10, 2011.[37]
After his divorce from Alderman, Grammer had a daughter,Kandace Greer Grammer (born February 15, 1992), with a hair and makeup stylist, Barrie Buckner. Greer was later a cast member onMTV's showAwkward.[38][40][41]
His second marriage, to Leigh-Anne Csuhany in September 1992,[42] lasted one year. When Csuhany was three months pregnant, Grammer filed for anannulment and evicted her from their home;[38] Grammer claimed she wasabusive and fired a gun at him.[8][43] The pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.
In August 1997, Grammer married the dancer and modelCamille Donatacci. They met on ablind date in 1996.[45] They have a daughter, Mason, born October 2001, and a son, Jude, born August 2004, both born to agestational carrier.[40] During their marriage, several of Grammer and Donatacci's homes were featured in magazines, including ones inMalibu (February 2001,InStyle),Maui (May 2004,InStyle),Long Island (April 2008,InStyle),Bachelor Gulch (Architectural Digest),[46] andBel Air, Los Angeles (Architectural Digest). In New York City, they lived at15 Central Park West.[47][48] On July 1, 2010, it was announced that Camille had filed for divorce.[49] The pair's divorce was finalized on February 10, 2011.[50]
On August 12, 2010, Grammer announced that he was going to be a father to a fifth child, this time with his girlfriend, Kayte Walsh, an English flight attendant 25 years his junior and daughter of the former soccer playerAlan Walsh.[51] In October, Grammer announced that Walsh hadmiscarried six weeks earlier.[52] The couple announced their engagement in December 2010[53] and married atthe Plaza Hotel in New York City on February 25, 2011, two weeks after the dissolution of Grammer's third marriage.[54] Grammer and Walsh have a daughter, born July 2012,[55] and two sons, born July 2014[56] and November 2016.[57] On January 18, 2023, it was reported that Grammer had purchased a house in his wife's hometown ofPortishead, Somerset, England.[58] In June 2025, it was revealed that Walsh is expecting their fourth child together, which will be Grammer’s eighth overall.[59]
On July 1, 1975, Grammer's younger sister, 18-year-old Karen Grammer, was raped and murdered byspree killersFreddie Glenn and three other men. Grammer identified his sister's body and informed their mother shortly after. According to Grammer, his bouts of alcoholism and drug abuse were driven, in part, by guilt and depression over his sister's death, as the pair had been close in childhood.[61]
In a 2012 interview withOprah Winfrey, Grammer said he would be willing to forgive the perpetrators if they would take responsibility for the crime, though they all claimed innocence. In the same interview, Grammer expressed his loss of faith for several years after Karen's death.[62] He subsequently forgave Glenn in a 2014 parole hearing after being convinced of Glenn's contrition, but refused to support his release, saying that it would "be a betrayal of my sister's life".[61] He named his daughterSpencer Karen Grammer in part for his sister.[39]
ANew York magazine profile published in 2010 described Grammer as "pro-choice".[67] In 2015, however, his wife posted anInstagram photo of Grammer wearing a T-shirt from theanti-abortion group Abort73.[68]
In a December 2023 interview withBBC'sToday to promote the new series ofFrasier, Grammer confirmed he still supports Trump.[83] Grammer expressed support for Trump again in a May 2025 interview withThe Times.[84]
Grammer has a history ofsubstance abuse.[38] In 1988, he was charged withdrunk driving andcocaine possession and sentenced to 30 days in jail.[85] In August 1990, Grammer was charged again with cocaine possession and was sentenced to three years'probation, fined $500, and required to perform 300 hours ofcommunity service.[85] In January 1991, Grammer was given an additional two years' probation for violating his original probation through additional cocaine use.[85] In September 1996, he crashed hisDodge Viper sports car while intoxicated, and subsequently checked into theBetty Ford Center for 30 days.[85] Grammer's personal problems affected his work. The cast and producers of bothFrasier andCheers heldinterventions to help him; co-starBebe Neuwirth and writerKen Levine cited delays with rehearsals and filming due to his erratic behavior.[86] The writerDan O'Shannon recalled:[86]
He would ooze into the studio, his life all out of sorts. Jimmy would say "Action," and he would snap into Frasier and expound in this very erudite dialogue and be pitch-perfect. And Jimmy would yell "Cut!" and he would ooze back into Kelsey—glazed-over eyes, half asleep, going through whatever he was going through. It was the most amazing transformation I'd ever seen.[86]
Grammer credits his religious faith for helping him confront his personal problems.[60]
On May 31, 2008, whilepaddleboarding with his then-wifeCamille inHawaiʻi, Grammer had a heart attack. Their personal assistant, Scott MacLean, was essential in saving his life.[87] Grammer was discharged on June 4, 2008, and was said to be "resting comfortably" at his Hawaii residence.[88] Seven weeks after the attack, Grammer toldEntertainment Tonight that, although his spokesman described the attack as mild, it was more severe as hisheart had stopped.[89] Grammer thought Fox's decision to cancel his television sitcomBack to You contributed to his health problems, saying: "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!"[90]
In 1988, Grammer was arrested for possession of one-quarter gram of cocaine, after being pulled over in a traffic stop for driving with expired plates inNorth Hollywood, California. A year earlier, he had been arrested for a DUI inVan Nuys, California, and would go on to serve 14 days of a 30-day sentence. Grammer later served 10 days of community service after failing to comply with the requirements of his parole in 1990. Later in the same year, Grammer was sentenced to 90 days ofhouse arrest, ordered to pay a $500 fine, underwent drug and alcohol abuse counseling, and performed 300 hours of community service for his 1988 cocaine possession case.[91]
In 1995, Grammer was accused of having sex with his child's underage babysitter. A grand jury chose not to indict the actor, stating: "The young woman's delay of more than a year in pressing charges against Mr. Grammer made it difficult to support her claim." Grammer released a statement shortly afterward, saying: "I have said from the outset that there was no basis for the allegations."[92] In 1996, Grammer's ex-girlfriend, Cerlette Lamme, sued him fordefamation of character andinvasion of privacy over content he included in his autobiographySo Far....[93]
In 1998, Grammer filed a lawsuit againstInternet Entertainment Group (IEG), which Grammer claimed had stolen from his home avideotape of him in bed with a woman. IEG counter-sued Grammer, denying it was in possession of such a tape, and Grammer's suit was dropped.[94] IEG PresidentSeth Warshavsky later said, "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."[95]
^Malone, Michael (Spring 2000)."Grammer's Lesson".smokemag.com. Vol. 5, no. 2. Archived fromthe original on September 6, 2015. RetrievedOctober 15, 2024.
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