10 Things we learned about Kelsey Grammer

Kelsey Grammer is an award-winning American actor, producer, director and writer whose definitive role is Frasier, first in Cheers, then in the long-running eponymous sitcom. It proved him to be one of the finest comedy actors of his generation.

From Broadway to the voice of Sideshow Bob in The Simpsons, he has spent decades filling our lives with laughter but has experienced, alongside this, profound personal tragedy. In a heartfelt and honest interview, he speaks to Kirsty Young about faith, family and golf with Frank Sinatra.

Kelsey Grammer is not just an acclaimed actor, but also a producer, writer and a director. He admits that he’s “a person who likes panic in a weird way” and prefers – when directing or producing – to be doing something that he’s never done before. He states: “I like it to be a little bit over my head, so that I can rise to it, so I set myself up for, I guess failure. And hope to find triumph.”

Kelsey Grammer: "The beauty of playing Frasier was you could pretty much do anything."

2. He never got bored of playing Frasier

The actor claims that, despite the show running for over a decade, he never tired of playing the lead role – it was “a joy always.” He explains why: “The beauty of playing Frasier was you could pretty much do anything. I mean I could pull out every trick I’ve got in my bag and it would still fit on Frasier. It was loud and big and boisterous and then subtle and beautiful and touching.”

3. Frank Sinatra was a fan

Kelsey selects Frank Sinatra’s “Fly me to the Moon” as his first song choice because he sees the singer as “one of the great voices, one of the great performers of all time.” But Frank was also impressed by Kelsey. The actor was invited to Sinatra’s 75th birthday party and to play in his golf tournament. It was there that the crooner offered his seal of approval. Kelsey recalls how, “once at the golf tournament Frank walked by… and he looked at me and he said ‘you’re doing good kid.’”

Kelsey is famous for his voiceover work and is currently singing in a West End show. He has learnt to protect his biggest asset: “I do wrap my voice up a bit more now because I used to sort of make fun of opera singers – I’d see them walking round with their scarves on all the time and I’d think, oh come on, just go use your voice, just go sing. I have discovered that when you do eight shows a week, it wears out.” He now spritzes and steams his throat along with the best of them.

5. His granddad was the light of his life

When asked what mattered to him when he was a little boy the actor replies, without wavering, “My granddad.” He recalls how, “Just spending time with him was the best thing in the world.” They would chop wood together, or visit a friend to do a spot of target shooting.

When Kelsey was 12, his family moved to Florida where his grandad lived. They had plans to do “a lot of great things together” but within a week of the move, his grandad had died. Kelsey was devastated but, suddenly finding himself the only man in the house, had to “bite the bullet” and “show up.”

6. He was playing piano in a bar and in walked…

After shooting a commercial in LA, Kelsey and the production team all went to “one of those, you know, rock n’ roll hotels”. With a few drinks under his belt he decided to play the piano and “who walked in but Joe Cocker.” The two of them played together for a while – something Kelsey will never forget: “That was one of the great joys of my life.”

In tenth grade, Kelsey was on a student council that passed a rule that there was no more hair code. But when a new dean came in the following year he reinstated the rule that haircuts had to be above the collar. Kelsey’s response was to hide his locks under a hairpiece: “I said, well I’m buying a wig. It was a Jane Fonda wig that I cut the back off of. I put my hair in a ponytail, put it on top of my head, put the wig on.”

8. He proposed to his wife naked in a vegetable garden

Kelsey’s wife of seven years is Kayte Walsh, who he describes as “wonderful”. His marriage proposal was far from ordinary: he popped the question in a vegetable garden when they were both naked, which was, in his words, “beautiful”.
They have since had five different marriage ceremonies, because “it just became something fun for us”!

9. He has three young children

Kelsey Grammer has seven children in total, the three youngest are with his wife Kayte Walsh. When asked what sort of dad he is or wants to be Kelsey replies: “I want to be fair. I want to hopefully have enough time to impart the things I think are important, which are basically just common decency, loving people for who they are and not judging prematurely. Judgement without knowledge is the greatest of all crimes... and if you judge after you have knowledge then you’re kind of a jerk.”
The actor explains how when his daughter Faith was born, she took her first breath to the track “Shooting Star” by Bad Company – another of his song choices. And every one of his and Kayte’s children since has been born to the same music.

10. His faith is very important to him

The actor’s faith sustained him when he was younger, and through his grandfather’s death. He says: “I went through a great relationship for years with the sense of God all around me, at all times”. But it is something that he lost when his sister Karen died and he is grateful that he has now found it again. He believes there isn’t a problem that doesn’t have “a god solution in it,” and describes his faith now as “a growing tide.”