Kirstie Alley’s ‘Cheers’ Co-Star Kelsey Grammer Speaks out After Her Death

Kelsey Grammer is remembering Cheers co-star Kirstie Alley following her death Monday from colon cancer at the age of 71. Grammer, who played Dr. Frasier Crane on the beloved sitcom, released a statement after Alley’s children, True and Lillie Parker, announced the actress had passed away following a private battle with the disease. 

“I always believed grief for a public figure is a private matter, but I will say I loved her,” Grammer told Variety. The Frasier star wasn’t the only Cheers alum remembering Alley, who made her debut on the hit NBC show as Rebecca Howe in 1987 following Shelley Long’s exit. Ted Danson, who played Sam Malone, and Rhea Perlman, who played Carla Tortelli, also released statements following news of Alley’s passing.

“I was on a plane today and did something I rarely do. I watched an old episode of Cheers,” Danson said in a statement to Deadline. “It was the episode where Tom Berenger proposes to Kirstie, who keeps saying no, even though she desperately wants to say yes. Kirstie was truly brilliant in it. Her ability to play a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown was both moving and hysterically funny. She made me laugh 30 years ago when she shot that scene, and she made me laugh today just as hard. As I got off the plane, I heard that Kirstie had died.”

“I am so sad and so grateful for all the times she made me laugh,” Danson continued. “I send my love to her children. As they well know, their mother had a heart of gold. I will miss her.” Perlman continued in her own statement that Alley was a “unique and wonderful person and friend” whose “joy of being was boundless.”

“We became friends almost instantly when she joined the cast of Cheers. She loved kids and my kids loved her too. We had sleepovers at her house, with treasure hunts that she created,” Perlman continued. “She had massive Halloween and Easter parties and invited the entire crew of the show and their families. She wanted everyone to feel included. She loved her children deeply. I’ve never met anyone remotely like her.I feel so thankful to have known her.I’m going to miss her very, very much.”