Dr. Frasier Crane, M.D., Ph.D. is a fictional TV character known mostly from the "Cheers" TV-Series. He also appeared in the TV shows Wings, "Frasier" (as the lead character) and "The John Larroquette Show" in a cameo. In each of his appearances, he was portrayed by Emmy Award-winning actor Kelsey Grammer.
Bio[]
Dr. Frasier Crane is an accredited psychiatrist, writer and radio personality. Born in Seattle, Washington on March 7, 1953, he was born the son of police captain Martin Crane and psychiatrist Hester Crane. He also has a brother named Niles. At one time in his life, he claimed Martin was a research scientist as well as deceased, all due to a fight with his father over the phone. During his life in Boston, he never once mentions his brother, Niles.
As children and young adults, both Frasier and Niles are nurtured and inspired by their mother to pursue mental health as a procession. Due to their prim and cultured preferences, they are both bullied in high school, but they lose contact with each other before college. Frasier goes on the study medicine and psychiatry at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School and Oxford University. It is possibly in these years that he meets and falls in love with Nanette Guzman, and although they get married, the marriage doesn't last.
In 1984, Frasier working in Boston, Massachusetts met and started seeing an intellectual named Diane Chambers reeling from a bad break-up. She also called on him to help her former love, former Boston pitcher Sam Malone, also reeling from the break-up. Both Diane and Sam recovered under Frasier's therapy, but when Frasier and Diane came close to getting married in Italy, she left him at the altar. Afterward, Frasier began to realize she had unrequited feelings for Sam.
Suffering through his break-up, Frasier gave up his practice in Boston as well as his opportunity for a job lecturing at a university in Europe. He instead began regularly spending his time at Cheers drinking heavily, but in order to snap him out of his alcoholic binge, Diane convinced Sam to feign depression so Frasier could help him. However, he eventually saw through the deception and declared himself sober, soon re-opening his practice.
Reverting back to a casual drinker, Frasier soon became friends with Sam and Woody Boyd, the other Cheers bartender. He also began associating with the other bar flys, such as Cliff Clavin and Norm Peterson. During this period, he often served as their voice of reason or source for therapeutic advise. During his time in the bar, he began acting like "one of the boys," ignoring his preferences to fit in better but nevertheless attempting to bring a degree of class to the bar and the group even when they ignored him. The other barflies also often mocked him or plagued him with pranks and distraction, including a "Snipe hunt" abandoning him in the woods, because of his elitist and often pompous character quirks. During his time in the bar, he often reacted with pedantic, persnickety and overly-scrupulous characteristics. Nevertheless, Frasier formed a loving bond with the gang as his ersatz family.
In 1985, Frasier met and became romantically involved with Dr. Lilith Sternin, who he had initially described as "an intelligent, ice queen." The two of them felt a mutual attraction toward each other, and with Diane guiding Lilith, Frasier and Lilith started living together. After a year together, they got married after Lilith discovered she was pregnant. Together, they had a son named Frederick Crane.
During the marriage, Lilith was shocked to learn that Frasier had been married before, meeting Nanette now working as the popular children's entertainer, Nanny G. She also learned Nanette was still in love with him, but they stayed married. In 1992, Frasier wrote a self-help book and went on a book tour to promote it with Lilith accompanying him. Through the tour Lilith became dismayed with Frasier's constant remarks about the son being held in the bosom of Dagmar, Freddie's nanny. On Nantucket, however, Frasier ended up clashing with local girl Helen Chapel, who blamed his book for sending her to New York City unprepared on her music career. The ordeal opened up all of the bad blood between Helen, her ex-boyfriend Joe Hackett and Joe's brother, Brian Hackett. Frasier promised to pay Helen back for the price of the book, but Lilith started putting together notes on the harm caused by get-well books.
Several months after Nantucket, Frasier learned that Lilith was intimiately seeing her colleague, Dr. Louis Pascal, and even announced that she wanted a trial separation from him for a year in order for her to participate in his eco-pod experiment. He retaliated by feigning suicide to keep her from participating, and although Lilith talked him back, she still attended the experiment. In her absence and overcome with depression, Frasier came close to cheating on her with Rebecca Howe, the Cheers manager. The attempt was however interrupted by Lilith returning and declaring the experiment was a disaster after Pascal realized he was claustrophobic. After Lilith confessed to infidelity with Pascal, the professor attempted holding them hostage with a gun at the bar. Lilith eventually talked him down with Frasier very hesitantly reconciling with her afterward.
Deep down, Frasier knew his marriage was over. and with the gang at Cheers, he decided to conduct an experiment in voter psychology by getting Woody on the ballot for city council. He soon became shocked by the results as Woody ended up getting elected.
After his divorce with Lilith and his humiliation with his suicide attempt, Frasier realized that his life and career had grown stagnant, and he returned to his original hometown of Seattle, reuniting with his father, Martin, and brother, Niles. He acquired a job as a radio host and psychologist for KACL which made him a local celebrity, burgeoning his buried egotistical pursuits since his time at Cheers. He also acquired a penthouse apartment, inviting his father to come with him along with a physical therapist named Daphne Moon to care for him with an old bullet wound. He also became friends with Roz Doyle, who helped him produce his radio show. Over time, his pedantic attitude often came into conflict with the blue-collar values of his father. Both Sam, Woody and Diane visited him in Seattle separately with Martin and Niles learning on how he had distanced himself from his past in Seattle. Despite this distancing, Diane warmly reunited with Frasier's family having met them at some point in the past.
Single once more, Frasier started dating again, but his relationship with his father was often contested over the living arrangements and each other's personalities. Frasier focused on more intellectual, elitist, and mild-mannered desires, while Martin considered himself a rugged man of simple tastes. Though bonded by family ties, but he had little in common with his father, Martin.
Frasier even learned that Niles was attracted to Daphne, a fact which Niles tried to pursue after a long arduous wife with his wife, Maris Crane. While Daphne was treating Frasier over his bad back, he accidentally revealed to her Niles was in love with her, and despite several hurdles, both Niles and Daphne ended up getting married.
Lilith also visited Frasier intermittently bringing along his son, Frederick, who turned out to be not be neither gifted for science or athletics. Frederick bonded with Martin, and Lilith married again, losing her husband to his gay lover. In an attempt to reconcile with Lilith, Frasier learned that she and Niles had once had a one-night stand.
In 2002, Frasier returned to Boston for a psychiatric conference, and unexpectedly reuniting with Cliff Clavin, even getting invited to Cliff's retirement party the following evening. He is also reunited with the waitress, Carla Tortelli, Norm Peterson, Paul Krapence among the other bar flys. The experience leads to Martin and Niles learning more about Frasier's life in Boston, but also leading to Cliff canceling his plans to retire in Florida.
In 2003, Frasier falls in love with match-maker Charlotte Connor, but their romance turns out to be short-lived when she moves to Chicago. His ex-wife, Nanette Guzman visits him to rekindle their relationship, but Frasier refuses. Guided by the memories of his mother, he ends up psychoanalyzing his relationship with her, Diane and Lilith. Shortly after getting offered a job as the host of his own television talk show in San Francisco and accepting the job, he boards a plane to Chicago to be with Charlotte.
Episode(s)[]
Trivia[]
- Dr. Frasier Crane also has bios on the "Cheers" Fandom Wiki and the "Frasier" Fandom Wiki
- For his performance in Planes, Trains, and Visiting Cranes, Kelsey Grammer was nominated for an "Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series" Emmy. This nomination made Grammer the only actor to be Emmy nominated for the same role on three different series ("Cheers," "Wings" and "Frasier"). Grammer went on to win four "Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series" Emmys for his work on "Frasier."
