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Five-time Emmy–winning actor Kelsey Grammer, 69, stars in the reboot of the hit comedy Frasier, now streaming on Paramount+. AARP spoke to the actor for the April/May issue of AARP The Magazine.
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Catching the acting bug
I was in 10th grade in the show The Little Foxes, playing a 50-year-old guy at age 16, when the thrill first hit me. After my performance, I got a standing ovation. It wasn’t just “I love this.” You learn to love the kiss of their eyes, and it was a window onto my future.
Everybody knows his name
After 35 years embodying Frasier Crane, he’s as alive to me as life itself. Day to day, week to week, year to year, we’ve walked the same streets together, although we’re very different. Frasier’s the fastidious, neurotic Felix Unger to my Oscar Madison. But I adore how he’s in it with his whole heart. It’s like what Ralph Waldo Emerson once said of Shakespeare: He regards all of creation “like a bauble” in his hands. High or low, life is forever a wonder.
Waking up at 69
If this stage was a chapter in a novel, I’d call it “Rejuvenation.” There are more opportunities for me to be delighted than ever before. My seven children range from age 40 down to 7. With my oldest daughters especially, I missed occasions and wasn’t as present as I should have been. Now we’re reconnecting, healing. The new batch is a total do-over. We’re like a pack. The three youngest still sleep in our room, and around 3 a.m. this morning, James, the 7-year-old, rolled over with a little kick and I thought, This is the best thing that ever happened to me.
Listening to loss
Next year will be 50 years since my sister was murdered when she was almost 19. I had stowed away some of that pain, but two years ago I got a sort of message from her. It was connected to me starting to write a book about the loss, which bubbled up emotions and a sense of faith I had locked away. This voice came that said, “I’ve always been there.” Since then, all the good things I had with my sister are now more in focus than the bad.
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