Kirstie Alley’s Cheers Costars Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, and Kelsey Grammer Share Memories of the Late Actor

On Monday, the children of Cheers star Kirstie Alley shared that the actor had passed away at 71 after a short bout with cancer. By Tuesday, her costars from the 1980s sitcom shared their remembrances. Ted Danson, who played Sam Malone, Alley’s character Rebecca Howe’s love interest at the Boston bar where everybody knows your name, said in a statement that he’d put on an old episode while on a flight shortly before hearing the news.

“I was on a plane today and did something I rarely do. I watched an old episode of Cheers,” Danson told Vanity Fair. “It was the episode where Tom Berenger proposes to Kirstie, who keeps saying no, even though she desperately wants to say yes. Kirstie was truly brilliant in it. Her ability to play a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown was both moving and hysterically funny. She made me laugh 30 years ago when she shot that scene, and she made me laugh today just as hard. As I got off the plane, I heard that Kirstie had died. I am so sad and so grateful for all the times she made me laugh. I send my love to her children. As they well know, their mother had a heart of gold. I will miss her.”

Alley replaced Shelley Long as the female lead in 1987 for the sixth season of the hit show, a difficult thing to do. The actor previously told People that she dressed up as Long—blonde wig and all—to break the ice when she first came to set. The transplant took, and eventually she earned a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for the performance.

Other members of the show also shared their memories of Alley, including Rhea Perlman, who played waitress Carla Tortelli. “Kirstie was a unique and wonderful person and friend. Her joy of being was boundless,” Perlman said in a statement. “We became friends almost instantly when she joined the cast of Cheers. She loved kids and my kids loved her too. We had sleepovers at her house, with treasure hunts that she created. She had massive Halloween and Easter parties and invited the entire crew of the show and their families. She wanted everyone to feel included. She loved her children deeply. I’ve never met anyone remotely like her. I feel so thankful to have known her. I’m going to miss her very, very much.”

Even Kelsey Grammer, who played Dr. Frasier Crane before his spin-off show, said, “I always believed grief for a public figure is a private matter, but I will say I loved her.”