Back in the Swim (page 3 of 3)

Paying Homage

On Frasier, Grammer paid homage to the comedy greats. “In one scene, you can identify James Mason, Jackie Gleason, Bette Davis and Sylvester the Cat,” says Hyde Pierce, “and yet it’s all Frasier.” The droll subtleties of Jack Benny appealed to him: the slow turn, the hand on the cheek, the roll of the eyes and the deadpan delivery.
“I borrow a lot of Jack, but I have done some Lucy too,” Grammer says. “Lucy went big. Frasier goes big without apology.”

Comedians use the same tricks whether they’re male or female, Grammer says. “Phyllis Diller is Bob Hope.”

But not everybody is Kelsey Grammer. “He can play supercilious, highfalutin, obnoxious, and he makes it funny,” Burrows says. “He can go over the top and make it believable. It’s in the genes. Few actors can do that.”

Grammer mastered playing a frustrated romantic in part because, in his personal life, he had his share of failed relationships. He has been married three times, once briefly to a stripper.

In 1996 he met Camille Donatucci, once known as Vanilla on New York’s Club MTV. “She looks like the classic package any guy would want, but there’s a lot of depth and character to her,” he says. They have been married since August 1997.

Does she still laugh at his jokes? “Sometimes, and sometimes she finds me annoying. This is my adult relationship,” he concedes. They have two children, daughter Mason, five, and son Jude, three. (Grammer has two other daughters: Spencer, 23, from his first marriage, who is an actress on the ABC Family show Greek, and Greer, 15, from his relationship with a makeup artist. He and Greer no longer see each other. “Maybe someday we will, but at this point, that’s not the way it works,” he says.)

When the creators of Back to You approached Grammer, who hadn’t been on a series for a few years, and offered him the leading role, he thought, What the hell. But it’s not as though he needs the dough. “It’s just that if you grow up like I did where something might happen, anything’s possible,” he says. “I like to work, and I like to provide for my family.”

At the center of the show is a tension created by Grammer and Patricia Heaton, who plays his coanchor, Kelly Carr. In the pilot, Chuck Darling does his voice exercises before going on the air, much to the annoyance of Heaton’s character, who calls him a “preening gasbag.”

“Chuck will be frustrated with her because she’ll probably be right about almost everything, which has been my experience in marriage,” Grammer says. The show will also offer a surprise twist for Chuck, a plotline involving family complications that, Grammer admits, hits close to home. “I have a lot of grist to bring to the mill,” he says.

Which is to say that after 20 years in Hollywood, Grammer is right back where he belongs: making himself and everyone else laugh by playing a character trying to find his way through the angst of everyday relationships and life.

From Reader's Digest - September 2007

 

• Actors
• • TV Personalities

• Kelsey Grammer Bio on biography.com
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