Kelsey Grammer’s On-Screen Father Taught Him About Dads and Sons

by Paul Batura | November 7, 2024 | Culture

The actor Kelsey Grammer has played Dr. Frasier Crane for more than 40 years.

Debuting the character on the sitcom Cheers, Grammer joined the cast of the Emmy award-winning show in its third season back in 1984. As the snobby, snooty, and emotionally complex psychiatrist, Dr. Crane’s pompous temperament contrasted perfectly with his lower brow bar mates wit and humor.

After Cheers went off the air in 1993 after 11 seasons, Grammer received his own show playing the same quirky shrink – but this time as the host of a call-in radio program in his hometown of Seattle. Frasier was another fan favorite, scoring high ratings for 11 seasons – and earning Grammer historic sitcom status.

Grammer reprised the erudite role once again last year, playing the same doctor – but this time focusing his attention on his adult son.

Asked about the role in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Grammer reflected:

What’s great about Frasier is, there’s an old poem by Jorge Luis Borges that I used to read, where he talks about how Shakespeare could take all of creation and treat it like a bauble in his hand. And I always thought that’s what Frasier’s like.

Frasier treats the universe like a bauble. It’s like it’s a magical gift that he can just go anywhere in the world with. He can go to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and we can enjoy the ride with him because it’s always just a little bit funny. Which goes back to something I learned a long time ago from a very famous old actor, who said, “You have to give the audience a wink, and you just have to let them know they’re safe, that this isn’t that serious, that we’re going someplace funny.” And Frasier knows how to wink.

But one of the more profound things that Grammer has previously shared about his role as Dr. Frasier Crane in Frasier revolved around the on-screen relationship between the doctor and his father, Martin Crane, played by the actor John Mahoney.

“The greatest gift I got from the show was to understand what it was like to have a father, and a brother,” Grammer recently reflected. “These are things I did not actually have.”

That’s an understatement.

Kelsey Grammer’s parents divorced when he was two. Raised by his mother and grandmother, his grandfather, whom he was close to, died of cancer. When he was twelve, his father was murdered – assassinated, really.

A writer in the Virgin Islands, a mentally unstable man lured his father out of his house one night by setting his car on fire. Apparently, the man objected to something his dad had written.

When Kelsey was 20, his 18-year-old sister was kidnapped, raped and murdered. Five years later, two half-brothers died scuba diving.

The string of tragedies hit Grammer like a ton of bricks. Spiraling into depression, he began abusing drugs and alcohol. Of his drinking addiction, he said, “I liked the way it made me feel.”

It’s not exactly clear where Kelsey Grammer is spiritually, but he’s previous said, “I’m kind of a Bible guy. I’ve been reading the Bible all my life. I turn it over to prayer, for reflection, for information, and I just always have. It’s just always been sort of at my fingertips throughout my life, ever since I was a boy. So, I have a relationship with the Word of God.”

Kelsey Grammer is married and has seven children ranging in age from seven to 40.

But Grammer’s reflection about learning about what it’s like to have a father by playing a son on television shines a light on something worth highlighting.

Social conservatives are often mocked and maligned for advocating for wholesome television, movies, and music. We’re accused of being uptight and even puritanical. We’re told these offerings are mere works of fiction and simply entertainment, not education.

But if an actor can learn about family from playing in one on television, how much more do audiences absorb from watching?

There is power in story – especially depictions of mothers and fathers interacting with sons and daughters. As culture continues to slide and as families fracture at alarmingly high rates, Hollywood stands in an enormously powerful position to model the beauty and meaning of our fundamental and formative relationships.

When John Mahoney passed away in 2018 at the age of 77, Kelsey Grammer paid him tribute.

“John actually played my father longer than I knew my own father, so he was more like my dad,” said a teary-eye Grammer. “He was my father. I loved him.”

Image credit NBC