KIRSTIE ALLEY Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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KIRSTIE ALLEY

Name: Kirsten Louise Alley                                                               
Born: 12 January 1951 Wichita, Kansas, U.S.                                               
                                                                                         
Kirsten Louise Alley (born January 12, 1951) is an American Emmy Award winning           
actress best known for her role in the TV show Cheers, where she played Rebecca           
Howe from 1987-1993, winning an Emmy as the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy         
Series for 1991. A year later, she won a Golden Globe for her performance in             
Cheers as well. She won an Emmy in 1994 for her role in the TV-drama David's             
Mother. Other critically acclaimed roles Alley is known for include: playing             
Diane Barrows in It Takes Two and a single mother in Look Who's Talking, Look             
Who's Talking Too, and Look Who's Talking Now (all co-starring John Travolta).           
Alley has won two People's Choice Awards in the years 1991 and 1998.                     
                                                                                         
Alley was born in Wichita, Kansas, where she was raised, to Robert Deal Alley,           
who owned a lumber company, and Lillian Mickie Heaton, a homemaker; she has               
two siblings, Colette and Craig. Her mother died in a car accident caused by a           
drunk driver in 1981. Alley attended Wichita Southeast High School and became a           
cheerleader. She attended college at Kansas State University and the University           
of Kansas, but dropped out in her sophomore year to pursue acting. She was first         
seen as a contestant on the game shows Match Game in 1979 and Password Plus in           
1980. On both shows she stated her occupation as an interior designer.                   
                                                                                         
Alley won a supporting role in the 1982 movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,           
playing Vulcan officer Lieutenant Saavik. Alley turned down the role of Saavik           
in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock because the producers would not meet her           
salary demands and because she didn't want to be typecast as a science fiction           
actress. Therefore, Robin Curtis assumed the role. Alley also co-starred in a             
short-lived secret agent television series, Masquerade, and in the acclaimed             
miniseries North and South. In 1984 Alley starred in the low budget theatrical           
film Blind Date. Although the movie was a critical and commercial failure at the         
time, it has become a minor cult classic due primarily to the only on-screen             
nude scene of Alley's career. She rose to prominence in her 1987–1993 role as           
the neurotic corporate executive Rebecca Howe on the long-running hit TV sitcom           
Cheers. While Cheers was the launching pad for the successful spin-off Frasier,           
Alley was the only regular actor from Cheers not to appear on Frasier. She later         
starred in the movie Look Who's Talking (1989) with John Travolta, which earned           
more than $100 million at the box office. This film was followed by two sequels           
— 1990s Look Who's Talking Too and 1993's Look Who's Talking Now. In 1992, she         
played a TV news reporter in Prince's video for "My Name Is Prince." Her second           
NBC sitcom, the critically panned Veronica's Closet, ran for three seasons in             
the late 1990s. Alley reportedly received $2 million in up-front fees for her             
work on that series and $150,000 per episode.                                             
                                                                                         
Alley has been honored with two Emmy Awards during her career. Her first two             
nominations for her work on Cheers did not earn her the award, but her third, in         
1991, garnered her the statuette for that series. In her speech, she thanked             
then-husband Parker Stevenson "for giving me the big one for the last eight               
years". Talk show hosts, as well as the creators of Cheers, poked fun at the             
quip for weeks afterward. Alley won her second Emmy for her portrayal of the             
title role in the made-for-TV movie drama David's Mother (1994). In 1997, Alley's         
career took a different turn when she appeared in Woody Allen's movie                     
Deconstructing Harry. In this movie, Alley, who was then primarily known as a             
comedic actress, displayed a strong talent for being a serious dramatic actress           
by playing a psychiatrist who is married to Woody Allen's character. She is               
angered upon learning that he has had an affair with one of her patients.                 
                                                                                         
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Kirstie Alley has a star on         
the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Blvd.                                       
                                                                                         
In 2005, after her weight ballooned to over 200 lbs., she headlined a "mockumentary"     
style comedy series for Showtime called Fat Actress. Alley played herself in the         
show, which details the (ficticious) daily life of an overweight actress trying           
to make it in Hollywood. Alley has become an advocate against obesity and was/is         
a spokeswoman for the Jenny Craig weight-loss program; TV ads document her               
weight loss, which has reached 75 lbs., according to Alley on a November 6, 2006,         
appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She appeared clad in a semi-bikini outfit,         
with a fabric midriff and several yards of translucent chiffon to hide her back-view.     
The next day on The View, Rosie O'Donnell pulled up a woman from their audience           
who was approximately the same body size as Kirstie; the woman admitted to               
weighing much more than Kirstie. It was announced in early February 2007 that             
Alley will play the lead in a new Fox network sitcom entitled The Minister of             
Divine, based upon the British show The Vicar of Dibley, which starred Dawn               
French and was first broadcast by the BBC in 1994. However, the show was not             
picked up for the Fall lineup.