Colleagues of David Angell, the creator of award-winning TV comedy Frasier, have paid tribute to him after his death in Tuesday's terrorist attacks.

Mr Angell's colleagues Peter Casey and David Lee, who worked with him on the comedy Wings, paid tribute to him in a joint statement.

"He was a kind and gentle man with a quiet exterior that masked one of the sharpest comedy minds ever to write for television," they said.

"His fingerprints are all over some of the funniest moments in Cheers, Wings and Frasier."

Family wedding

Paramount, which produced Frasier, said the company was "devastated", adding that Mr Angell would be missed for his "grace, humour and talent".

Production of Frasier was suspended on hearing the news.

The NBC executive producer, 54, was on one of the doomed flights with his wife Lynn - American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles, which crashed into the north tower of World Trade Center.

The information came first from Mr Angell's brother, the Most Reverend Kenneth Angell, who is bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington in Vermont.

Near record

The Reverend Angell said that the Angells were returning from their summer home in Chatham, Massachusetts, where they had just spent a family wedding weekend.

Frasier was nominated for two Emmy awards at the Primetime Emmys, originally due to take place on Sunday night but now postponed.

The show was nominated for best comedy, while actor Kelsey Grammer was nominated for best comedy actor for his role in the series.

It also won three awards at last Saturday's craft and technical Emmys.

This took its overall Emmy total to 27 - approaching the record 29 achieved by The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Actress

Another victim of the hijacking of American Airlines flight 11 was Berry Berenson, former wife of film star Anthony Perkins

Actress and photographer Berenson, 53, married Perkins in 1973.

She appeared in the 1978 film Remember My Name, which starred her husband, as well as the 1980 TV mini-series Scruples.

She was returning to her Hollywood Hills home after a holiday on Cape Cod.

Perkins died of Aids on 12 September 1992.