Kirstie Alley is an actress whose breakout role as the career-minded Rebecca Howe on the sitcom Cheers catapulted her career and earned her an Emmy and a Golden Globe , she died on Monday. She is 71 years old.
According to a statement released by her family, the cause was cancer Twitter.
Ms. Alley quickly won over millions of viewers playing Rebecca on “Cheers,” the classic NBC show that ran for 11 seasons in the 1980s and 90s. In 1987, at the height of the show’s popularity, she joined the cast, succeeding Shirley Long, and stayed on until the final season.
Critics noted how Allie brought a refreshing new energy to the character, and the script gave her a funnier arc, helping to create a “denser joke machine,” as one writer put it. At times, Rebecca, who manages the bar on the show, seems like a hapless gold digger. At other times, Ms. Allie portrays Rebecca in a bravado and indifference to other people’s romantic pursuits.
Her personality gradually evolves from a company-pleaser manager to a mature, affable gang member who is feisty but always disappointed.
In a 2019 interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” Ms. Allie reflected on her “Cheers” years, a somewhat chaotic time on set that included co-stars like Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson, Misbehavior of all kinds is the norm.
“We never paid attention, we were always in trouble,” she said. “We never showed up on time.”
In addition to winning an Emmy in 1991 for Outstanding Lead Actress in the comedy series “Cheers,” Ms. Elle also won a 1994 Emmy for her lead actress in the miniseries “David’s Mother,” which tells the story of a The story of a mother who raised her autistic son alone.
Ms. Alley was a regular performer for approximately four decades, and she also appeared on the NBC sitcom “Veronica’s Closet,” which aired from 1997 to 2000. Her character is the head of a successful lingerie company.
“Veronica’s Closet” creator and executive producer Marta Kauffman said of Allie in 1997: “She’s crazy most of the time, I mean is the best meaning of the word.”
Ms. Allie was born January 12, 1951 in Wichita, Kansas, and was raised in a Roman Catholic home. She is particularly close to her grandfather, who owned a lumber company.
She attended Kansas State University, but dropped out to become an interior designer. Around that time, she became addicted to cocaine.
She eventually moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in Narconon, a rehabilitation program affiliated with the Church of Scientology.
When Barbara Walters asked her in 1992 why she had joined a religion with a problematic past, Ms Allie said she had “never encountered any” negative things.
“It answered a lot of questions for me,” Ms. Allie said of the church in 1997. “I’m a very capable person. I’m not looking for that. But I want to get rid of the barriers that prevent me from being an actor. It’s just a part of my life.”
While living in Los Angeles, Ms. Allie became interested in acting. In 1982, she made her film debut in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan as a half-Vulcan, half-Romulan lieutenant with pointy ears.
In 1989, she starred alongside John Travolta in “Look Who’s Talking,” a film about babies’ thoughts by Bruce Willis comedy. The Times film critic Vincent Canby wrote that “cute” was the “key word” for the film, which has “some good actors and not great material”.
In 2005, Ms. Allie turned her attention to a mock reality show about her weight. She said at the time that the show, called “Fat Actress,” was based on her experience as a woman in Hollywood who didn’t fit the industry’s stereotypically thin aesthetic. Another show, “The Big Life of Kirstie Alley,” also focuses on Ms. Alley’s weight loss journey.
Ms. Alley was married to Bob Alley, and the couple eventually divorced. Her subsequent marriage to Parker Stevenson also ended in divorce.
She is survived by two children, True and Lillie Parker. A full list of survivors is not yet available.
Ms. Allie told The New York Times in 1997 that she had been looking for TV shows throughout her career in order to have a regular schedule and be closer to her family.
“It’s the best way to live,” Ms Allie said.