Kelsey Grammer
A Life of Full of Tragedy.

Show Notes:
*This is not an exact transcript, but rather an outline of my notes.

**Who’s who:

Frank Grammer (Kelsey’s dad)

Sally (Kelsey’s mom)

Karen (Kelsey’s sister)

Spencer Karen Grammer (Kelsey’s daughter)

Arthur B Niles (murdered Frank)

Freddie Lee Glenn & Michael Corbett (murderdered Karen)

**Who’s who:

Frank Grammer (Kelsey’s dad)

Sally (Kelsey’s mom)

Karen (Kelsey’s sister)

Spencer Karen Grammer (Kelsey’s daughter)

Arthur B Niles (murdered Frank)

Freddie Lee Glenn & Michael Corbett (murderdered Karen)

Camille (Kelsey's ex-wife)

Kelsey Grammer was born on Feb. 21, 1955 in St Thomas (one of the US Virgin Islands).

Allen Kelsey Grammer was born on February 21, 1955, in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, the son of Sally (née Cranmer; 1928–2008)^] a singer and actress, and Frank Allen Grammer Jr. (d. 1968), a musician and owner of a coffee shop and a bar and grill called Greer's Place. He had one younger sister, Karen. (Wikipedia)

Kelsey’s parents divorced when he was two, and he and his sister were raised by their mom and her parents in New Jersey (where her parents lived). He goes back to the Bahamas often and calls himself a “caribbean kid”. They moved to Ft Lauderdale, Florida when he was 12 (1967ish).

Shortly after that, his grandfather died of cancer.

His father, Frank, remarried and had 4 children with his new wife:

Elizabeth, and their four children (Betty, John, Billy and Stephen).

On April 25, 1968, a man named Arthur B. Niles set fire to Frank Grammer’s car outside the St. Thomas home he shared with his second wife and kids.

When Frank Grammer went outside, Niles shot him twice. During the trial, Elizabeth Grammer testified that she pulled her husband’s body from in front of Niles’ car because he had threatened to run over him as well. Kelsey Grammer was only 13 years old at the time of his father’s murder.

Contemporary news reports said that Grammer’s father was murdered by a “virulently anti-white” man, Arthur Bevan Niles, as part of a nearly month-long frenzy of racially motivated violence.

For 12 years, Frank Grammer lived and prospered in St. Thomas. Then an event happened nearly 2,000 miles away that would eventually mean the death of Frank Grammer. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee.

On April 9, the date of King’s funeral, U.S. Virgin Islands resident Arthur Bevan Niles (b. 1939), a taxi driver and a “virulently anti-white islander,” painted his taxi with racist slogans. According to a newspaper report dated April 26, 1968, Niles’ “cab was ordered off the streets [by police] because it was covered with such statements as ‘Kill the white pigs.'”

Niles also tried to burn down a house and two rental cars at the Cyril E. King Airport (then named the Harry S. Truman Airport). In addition, Niles placed a bomb in the St. Thomas offices of the International Telephone and Telegraph, Co. The bomb did not explode.

Niles ended up at Frank Grammer’s house in the middle of the night, April 24, 1968. Niles set fire to Grammer’s car in order to lure him outside. When Grammer stepped outside to see why his car was on fire, Niles shot Grammer, killing him. Arthur Bevan Niles was captured. On February 10, 1969, the USVI district court decided that Niles was not insane and thus was able to stand to trial. But because Niles was “suffering from paranoia,” Niles should not be allowed to represent himself in court and counsel should be appointed to him.

Articles about the murder:

https://www.businessinsider.com/kelsey-grammers-tragic-family-life-2013-5?r=AU&IR=T

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1968/04/26/Race-Tension-Builds-Up-in-Virgin-Isles/6501528910081/

At an unknown date, possibly 1994, Arthur Niles was released from prison and ended up in Randallstown, Maryland, in the Washington, DC area. Niles’ son, Navaldo “Rico” Niles, lived in that area. Rico was born on April 9, 1968, about two weeks before Arthur Niles began his rampage.

In 2002, District Judge Richard A. Cooper issued a restraining order to prevent Niles from having contact with the 34 year-old Rico. In response, Niles wrote a threatening letter dated November 13, 2002 to Judge Cooper saying, in part, “Then, I would have to come back to Maryland to kill you, your honor.”

At a November 22 bail hearing, Niles said:

Just keep me in a jail where I can be safe and you can be safe. Or put me in the gas chamber. I do not deserve to live because I have killed people and I am not sorry for what I did. I would be content and happy to be in jail, if you could find a cell for me to be alone.

A few days earlier, Niles had been arrested at the Lowe’s Home Improvement in Waldorf, Maryland, in the company of Rico for violating the restraining order. In court, Niles claimed that the restraining order characterized him as a child abuser.

In his defense, Niles said, “I’m a killer, not a child abuser.”

Kelsey went to school at the Pine Crest School which was a private preparatory school, and that’s where he started singing and performing on stage. He later would earn a scholarship to study drama at the Julliard School of performing arts.

1971 he’s 16, starts smoking out of a pipe (with his mothers permission)

1975, Karen was kidnapped.

Kelsey was 20 years old and his sister, Karen, was 18. Karen was kidnapped by spree killer Freddie Lee Glenn, and his accomplice, Michael Corbett.

These guys, Glenn and Corbett, began a killing spree on June 19th, 1975. The first one included two other guys, some soldiers they had met. The four of them kidnapped Daniel Van Lone, a 29-year-old cook just getting off work from the Four Seasons hotel, to rob him. They later drove Van Lone to a remote area, made him lie on the ground, and shot him in the head. They got 50 cents from him.

Eight days later, the pair met Winfred Proffitt, 19, another Fort Carson soldier, at Prospect Lake, ostensibly to sell him some marijuana. Training with bayonets, Corbett stabbed Proffitt with one to see what it was like.

Corbett shot his last known victim, 21-year-old Winslow Watson, in the face on July 25 of that year.

In June 30, 1975, Karen Grammer was sitting outside the Red Lobster in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she had just finished her shift as a waitress. Glenn, Corbett and two friends had decided to rob the Red Lobster Karen worked at that night but left the restaurant without any money when they came across Karen. They forced her into their car, stopped to rob a convenience store, then drove her to their apartment where they took turns raping her for about four hours. Afterwards, they put a cloth over her head, promising to take her home. They dumped her in a trailer park instead. According to testimony during the trial, Glenn had taken LSD and when he got out of the car, he stabbed Karen in the back, on her hand (presumably from her trying to shield herself), and the neck. He then drove away with his accomplices, leaving her for dead.

Karen managed to crawl to the back porch of a nearby home that had a light on. Unfortunately, no one was at home. Detectives describe a scene where Karen had left bloody handprints and fingerprints where she had tried to ring the doorbell. From her fingerprints, she was inches away from the doorbell when she passed out. Although, given no one was home, ringing it wouldn’t have done her any good, but of course she didn’t know that. She died on that back porch and was not found until the next day. Police did not know who the girl was for about a week until Kelsey Grammer arrived and positively identify her…. and then informed his stricken mother.

In 1976, Glenn was convicted for all three murders and was sentenced to die via the gas chamber. However, in 1978, the Colorado Supreme Court overturned the death penalty sentence. Later, in a 2009 parole board hearing statement, Kelsey stated, “She was so smart and good and decent. She wrote poetry … We could laugh for hours together… I was supposed to protect her — I could not. It very nearly destroyed me… When we heard this man might be paroled, the suffering began anew.” Needless to say, his parole was not approved.

Glenn was eligible for parole in 2014, but was denied twice with his request deferred for three more years. In his emotional testimony given via video conference at the parole board hearing, Kelsey Grammer offered forgiveness after being convinced that Glenn was remorseful for killing his sister. However, Grammer said that Glenn should stay behind bars for the remainder of his life sentence.

“I accept your apology. I forgive you. However, I cannot give your release my endorsement. To give that a blessing would be a betrayal of my sister’s life.”

Grammer would later repeat his position when Glenn went up for parole again in 2017, saying that Glenn does not deserve freedom.

The other guy, Corbett, died while incarcerated in 2019.

Five years after Karen's murder, Grammer's two half-brothers, Stephen and Billy, died in a scuba diving accident in Saint Thomas. When Billy failed to resurface after a dive, Stephen went back down to look for him and died of an air embolism while ascending improperly. Billy's body was never recovered.

Theater

After leaving Juilliard, Grammer had a three-year internship with the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in the late 1970s before a stint in 1980 at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He made his Broadway debut in 1981 as "Lennox" in Macbeth, taking the lead role when Philip Anglim withdrew after receiving negative reviews. Grammer then played Michael Cassio in a Broadway revival of Othello, with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. In 1983 he performed in the demo of the Stephen Sondheim–James Lapine production Sunday in the Park with George, starring Mandy Patinkin.

In 1984, Grammer first appeared as Dr. Frasier Crane in the third season of NBC sitcom Cheers. Grammer's former Juilliard classmate and Broadway co-star Mandy Patinkin suggested Grammer to the New York casting director, and he got what was supposed to be a six-episode job, but ended up as a regular cast member.^[22] Cheers was created by James Burrows and aired on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993.

In September 1993 the character became the center of the spin-off Frasier, which became one of the most successful spin-offs in television history. In addition to starring, he also directed more than 30 episodes, especially during the second half of the series, and sang the closing theme "Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs." Frasier was nominated for and won many awards during its 11-year run, concluding in May 2004. In 2001, he negotiated a $700,000-per-episode salary for Frasier. The series lasted 11 seasons running from 1993 to 2004. In total, he played Dr. Frasier Crane for 20 years.

*voiced Vladimir "Vlad" Vanya Voinitsky Vasilovich in the 20th Century Fox's critically acclaimed animated movie Anastasia (1997). In 1999, Grammer voiced the main antagonist Stinky Pete in Pixar's Golden Globe Award-winning Toy Story 2 (1999).

Grammer has a history of substance abuse.^[40] He says he was struggling with what happened to his sister.

"The first two years were the hardest. I did some drugs, I did some alcohol, but that was mostly earlier on," revealed Grammer in a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey. "My love affair with cocaine, which was my drug of choice, was motivated by a few other things, about not really deserving the things I had got. Also, I liked it."

In 1988, Grammer was charged with drunk driving and cocaine possession and sentenced to 30 days in jail.^[80] In August 1990, Grammer was charged again with cocaine possession and was sentenced to three years' probation, fined $500, and required to perform 300 hours of community service.^[80] In January 1991, Grammer was given an additional two years' probation for violating his original probation through additional cocaine use.^[80]

The cast and producers of both Frasier and Cheers held interventions to help him. Grammer's personal problems affected his work; co-star Bebe Neuwirth and writer Ken Levine cited delays with rehearsals and filming due to his erratic behavior.^[81] Writer Dan O'Shannon recalled, however, that^[81]

He would ooze into the studio, his life all out of sorts. Jimmy would say "Action," and he would snap into Frasier and expound in this very erudite dialogue and be pitch-perfect. And Jimmy would yell "Cut!" and he would ooze back into Kelsey—glazed-over eyes, half asleep, going through whatever he was going through. It was the most amazing transformation I'd ever seen.^[81]

In September 1996, he crashed his Dodge Viper while intoxicated, and subsequently checked into the Betty Ford Center (an alcohol rehabilitation clinic) for 30 days.^[80]

But while Grammer was originally a functioning addict, a series of drunk driving and cocaine possession arrests soon followed and he ultimately flipped his car while intoxicated. The latter incident led to him checking into the Betty Ford Center in 1996 and Grammer has remained clean of cocaine ever since. "It was fun, I had fun, it just eventually becomes something you can't keep doing... I finally quit blow in 1996, that's when I was done... It's a fond a memory, but it's no longer a friend..." he says. But as far as alcohol, he hasn't cut ties with that "friend" completely, admitting: "I still have a drink sometimes."

In 1998 he filed a lawsuit against Internet Entertainment Group (IET) for stealing a sex tape of him. The charges were later dropped by him as the firm claimed to have no such tape.

In the suit, Grammer admitted to creating a video of himself and his gal-pal "voluntarily engaging in sexual and intimate relations...with the intention [of the tape] forever remaining for his entirely private and confidential use."

The sealed lawsuit became public this week, after IEG President Seth Warshavsky denied having such a tape and countersued Grammer and after, as IEG puts it, Grammer dropped his complaint "like a red-hot crack pipe."

But then, they Warshavsky came out and said "We have been presented with another Kelsey Grammer tape. But we have no plans to air it. We are still evaluating it at this time."

IEG countersued Grammer, denying it was in possession of such a tape, and Grammer's suit was eventually dropped.^[90] IEG President Seth Warshavsky later said, "We have been presented with another Kelsey Grammer tape. But we have no plans to air it. We are still evaluating it at this time.

In 1994, a teenaged girl who was working as Kelsey’s babysitter allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with Kelsey when she was only 15 years old.

The allegations first came to light 16 months ago when a lawyer representing the girl's family telephoned Mr. Bissell with hearsay evidence obtained from her friends. But the girl reportedly refused to cooperate with investigators, and the case was closed.

The girl, 15 at the time the two allegedly had sex, at first denied they had a relationship, believing they were in love, said her lawyer, John C. Esposito. But after a year of therapy, she changed her story.

Grammer, star of NBC’s “Frasier” and the psychiatrist-barfly on “Cheers,” has denied her claims, maintaining that the girl’s family is after his money.

The girl, now 17 and living in Arizona, claims she had sex with Grammer at least three times in 1993.

She was baby-sitting Grammer’s 9-year-old daughter in a Somerset Hills Hotel suite when she claims the two first had sex. She claims they had sex again at an Arizona resort.

The girl initially gave Grammer’s lawyer a statement saying the two never had sex.

“She had a sense that she was in love with him and that he was in love with her,” Esposito said, “Her reluctance to cooperate at first was simply a matter of protecting this person she was in love with.”

Prosecutors had said they might present evidence about the girl’s sexual history and alleged drug use. They must present evidence that could exonerate Grammer.

The young woman testified before the grand jury on Thursday. The panel also listened to tapes of what were purported to be messages left by the actor on a voice-mail service for teen-agers operated by a Phoenix telephone company. And they heard conversations between the two that the young woman has said she taped to keep as "mementos."

Lawyers for Mr. Grammer went into Federal court last week in an unsuccessful attempt to block prosecutors from playing the tapes for the grand jury. John Esposito, a Brooklyn lawyer representing the young woman, has said the tapes included "sexually suggestive" comments made by Mr. Grammer.

A Somerset County grand jury has refused to indict Kelsey Grammer, the star of the television series "Frasier," on sexual assault charges based on a teen-ager's complaint that he had sex with her at a local hotel in 1993, when she was 15.

The young woman's delay of more than a year in pressing charges against Mr. Grammer made it difficult to support her claim, the County Prosecutor, Nicholas L. Bissell Jr., said today.

The delay also meant there was no physical evidence to support a prosecution, he said.

"I have said from the outset that there was no basis for the allegations," he said in a statement released through a public relations firm, Sitrick and Company. "I look forward to putting this all behind me."

He previously had described the allegations as an attempt to extort money from him.

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/25/nyregion/a-grand-jury-refuses-to-indict-frasier-star-on-a-sex-charge.html

His ex-wife, Camille, who he married in 1997 after this whole thing happened, actually tweeted about this.

"Kelsey had a sexual encounter with his [sic] daughters babysitter. The girl was a young teenager. He was in his late thirties. He hired Roy Black," Camille tweeted.

In 2005, Grammer returned to television. He produced and appeared in an American adaptation of the British show The Sketch Show, which aired on Fox.

In 2008 he suffered what was termed to be a mild heart attack while he was holidaying at Hawaii. He attributed the attack to stress generated after his sitcom ‘Back to You’ was cancelled by FOX TV.

"It was a very stressful time for me, and a surprise that it was cancelled. But you know, everything that doesn't kill us—which it almost did—makes us stronger!"

After three failed marriages, he found love with British former flight attendant Kayte Walsh, but after he survived a heart attack in 2008, she suffered several miscarriages.

“Kayte and I had a couple of miscarriages before we had our first child,” he admitted. “That was devastating. These things are hard. But when it’s good, it’s magnificent.”

In 2008, Grammer reprised his role of Dr. Frasier Crane in a commercial for Dr Pepper (Frasier and Cheers co-star Bebe Neuwirth also reprised her role as Lilith Sternin in the same commercial, albeit in voice only).

Thanks to his marriages, he is a proud father of seven: 33-year-old Spencer, 25-year-old Greer, 15-year-old Mason, 12-year-old Jude, 5-year-old Faith, 2-year-old Kelsey Jr., and 8-month-old Auden.

The former Playboy model lashed out at the actor for taking his three-month-old daughter Faith to the party last month because he couldn't get a babysitter.

"It has nothing to do with the Playboy Mansion it has to do with where you bring your baby."

The 57-year-old actor previously defended his decision to bring his daughter and his wife Kayte, 32, to the party and sources close to the family have hit back at Kendra calling the mum-of-one - who is married to Hank Baskett and has a two-year-old son Hank Jr. - a hypocrite.

A spokesperson for Kelsey mockingly told The Huffington Post: "Then, that settles it. He must be disgusting."

A friend close to the former 'Frasier' star also said: "It's remarkable that Kendra would judge anyone's life. Who does she think she is? Kelsey doesn't judge her life or the fact that she once worked as a stripper."

So, here's my input. I don't like to parent shame. But the Playboy Mansion is disgusting. I mean, the place isn't hygienic for a baby and it's really not an appropriate place for a child. And Kendra probably knows more about the cleanliness of the place than a lot of guests do.

And for Frasier to turn around and call her a hypocrite is so unfair. She's not bashing the adult entertainment industry here, she's stating that it's not a place for children. And if you want to talk about Kendra like she's some kind of dirty person with no boundaries, doesn't it speak volumes that even SHE sets limits for children? Like even SHE wouldn't cross this line.

https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/kendra-wilkinson-lashes-out-at-kelsey-grammer-for-taking-baby-to-playboy-mansion-party-8334788.html

In July 24, 2020, Grammar’s daughter Spencer had a crazy thing happen to her.

Spencer Grammer is also an actress. She’s well known for doing the voice of Summer in Rick & Morty. She’s also in the show Greek. She actually got her start as an uncredited role in Cheers.

The “Rick and Morty” star was dining at an outside patio with a friend, identified by sources as 32-year-old Jan Mueller, at The Black Ant restaurant on Second Ave. near E. 4th St. around 11:45 p.m. Friday when an intoxicated man walked up and demanded to be served.

When restaurant workers refused, he began arguing with them.

Grammer, 28, and Mueller tried to quell the situation, but the drunk man lashed out.

”She was hysterical, screaming at everyone to stop fighting,” said a witness who identified himself as a Lower East Side resident. “Then, she looked down and realized that she was bleeding.”

Grammer was slashed in the forearm with an “unidentified sharp instrument,” though she initially thought she was hit by a chair, police sources said. Mueller was slashed in the back.

Police released a picture of the suspect on Saturday night. The bartender described the knife-wielding man as a “big guy.”

“It took a lot of people to restrain him and calm him down,” said the bartender. He added that he didn’t see a knife — but “there was lots of broken glass.”

The assailant ran away. No arrests have been made.

Grammer and Mueller were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where they were treated and released.

July 2021, he said:

I don’t complain about my life,” he said. “It was an extraordinary challenge a lot of the time, and there’s been a lot of pain and a lot of great joy. I wouldn’t trade a moment of it except to possibly bring back some people I care about.”

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