IF HOLLYWOOD scriptwriters are ever struggling to find a definition for the expression 'tragi-comic' then they should call Kelsey Grammer. All he would have to say is 'me'. The much-loved star of long-running sitcoms Frasier and Cheers has savoured h
uge success, but also endured agonies exacerbated by his self-destructive streak and a talent for calamitous relationships.
These last few days have provided plenty evidence of the tempestuous nature of Grammer's life. First it was announced that, not long after his last television show Back To You had been cancelled, Grammer would bounce back in the lead role of the new sitcom Roman's Empire, an American version of a BBC show. Then, while out paddle boating off the coast of Hawaii with his third wife Camille, the 53-year-old star felt chest pains and was later diagnosed as having suffered a mild heart attack.
Able to leave hospital after four days, he has been told to rest. But he will be able to play his part in Roman's Empire and should attend the premiere in a few weeks' time of his new film, Swing Vote, in which Grammer plays a fictional Republican president. It's a role Grammer might want to play in real life, having already stated his interest in a political career. And unlike almost all his Hollywood contemporaries, Grammer is a committed Republican who has been a guest at the White House and who has endorsed John McCain's candidacy.
Best known for playing Dr Frasier Crane for 20 years – in America, only James Arness as Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke has rivalled such television longevity – the enduring appeal of the character has enabled the actor to set records. He has had more Emmy nominations than any other television actor, and became the highest-paid star on television, earning a reputed $1.6m per show for the last series of Frasier, which ended in 2004 after 11 years.
A naturally lugubrious-looking individual, Grammer made Crane his own creation from the start when the psychiatrist from Seattle was introduced into the cast of Cheers, the ground-breaking sitcom set in a Boston bar. When Cheers ended, Grammer took the character west to Seattle as a radio psychiatrist whose own personal problems often outdid those of his callers.
With the finely written humour revolving around his failed dealings with women and his sparky relationships with brother Niles, faithful producer Roz, English carer Daphne, father Martin and family dog Eddie, Grammer's Frasier was a worldwide hit. The character of the troubled psychiatrist struck a chord.
Grammer knew all about inner torment. Born in the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean in 1955, his musician parents separated when he was a year old, and he was largely raised by his grandparents in New Jersey. It was a difficult childhood, his grandmother being abusive and his mother often absent at work – although in later years she was ever-present when her son was filming his Frasier shows.
Grammer often took refuge in books and childhood acting. "When I was about 12, I read Julius Caesar," he once said. "I didn't know what it was, but that was it –- I was hooked." His ambition to be an actor, preferably in Shakespearean roles, had taken root.
At the age of 13, Grammer's father was murdered in the Virgin Islands, but the youngster hardly knew him as he had seen his father only twice after his parents' divorce. Much worse was to follow. Grammer's younger sister Karen, on whom he doted, was raped and murdered by three men on a killing spree in Colorado in 1975 when she was just 18 and Grammer was 20. Grammer had to fly from California to identify her body. He found that her throat had been cut. "The worst day of my life," he has called it.
Karen's murder had a devastating effect on Grammer, who wanted the death penalty for the killers, and who opposes any chance of parole for them, even three decades later. There was more tragedy to come. In 1980, his twin half-brothers were killed by a shark which attacked while they were scuba diving. "My grandfather on my father's side said he thought the family was cursed," Grammer said later.
By then, he had already embarked on an acting career, having studied at New York's famous Juilliard school - he was expelled for missing classes – and spent three years as an intern at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. He looked set for a long stage career, but television claimed him instead. In 1983 Grammer was asked to audition for the already successful sitcom Cheers. He played Frasier Crane for the next two decades, breaking off only to make commercials and guest appearances in shows like The Simpsons where he is the voice of villainous Sideshow Bob.
While he was piling up the awards and the wealth, Grammer was also making the wrong sort of headlines as his heavy drinking and cocaine use spiralled out of control. His first marriage in the 1980s ended in divorce, with custody of his daughter Spencer – herself now a sitcom star in the US show Greek – awarded to her mother. He had a second daughter out of wedlock to make-up artist Barrie Buckner, and also had a long affair with former ice skater Cerlette Lamme. Much later he reportedly had to pay her a seven-figure sum not to sell a video of them having sex.
His second marriage was nightmarish. It was to stripper Leigh-Anne Csuhany whom he met in 1992. Grammer became a high-profile victim of 'spousal abuse', before ending the marriage after eight months, just as Frasier was about to start its first run. By then, Grammer was hooked on drugs and drinking heavily. He served a short period in jail, ostensibly for a driving offence, but more because his drinking caused him to miss court appearances. In 1996 he checked into the Betty Ford Clinic for rehab.
A year later, Grammer met and married former Playboy model Camille Donatacci, who is 15 years his junior. The couple have two children, both born to a surrogate mother. Grammer credits his wife with helping him control his demons. He has not touched drink or drugs for years, but their happiness almost ended in tragedy when Camille became seriously ill and almost died in 2004. She survived and Grammer took almost two years off work to care for her.
Grammer's love of the stage is undoubted, and he has returned to play major roles in American theatres several times over the years. In 2000 he fulfilled his ambition of playing Macbeth on Broadway, reprising the role which started his stage career almost 20 years previously. The critics savaged the production and his performance. Grammer responded with almost Crane-like imperiousness: "The New York critics were lost in a provincial whirlwind of self-importance."
You've been Googled• His second wife physically abused Grammer. He said: "She'd spit in my face. Slap me. Punch me. Kick me. Break glasses over my head. Break windows. Tear up pictures of my loved ones."
• One of the most popular video clips on YouTube was of Grammer falling off the stage during a rehearsal. The actor was not seriously hurt and was able to carry on with the show.
• Those trademark velvety tones have made him the voice of choice for many makers of television commercials. In America, for instance, he has long been the voice of Hyundai.
• When his autobiography So Far… was published in 1995 some critics thought that because of the quality of the writing it was ghosted for him. The actor indignantly pointed out that he wrote every word himself.
• In Cheers, Grammer's Dr Crane played opposite fellow psychiatrist and equally loopy Lilith Sternin, played by Bebe Neuwirth, above. Even though the characters divorced, Neuwirth later made 12 appearances in Frasier.
The full article contains 1348 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
