Kelsey Grammer Had No Idea That a ‘Cheers’ Guest Star Had a Connection to His Tragic Past

Kelsey Grammer is primarily known for making TV comedies, with a specialization in farcical dinner parties. But the Frasier star recently penned a very serious, very personal, book about his late sister Karen Grammer, who was tragically kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1975. Karen: A Brother Remembers is also very much also about Grammer’s efforts to cope with grief and trauma, which for a time involved “too much drinking and drug abuse."

Seemingly, a big part of his healing process was writing this earnest memoir, and one of the key moments in the book is when Grammer connects with his sister’s boyfriend from that time. After learning his name from the police report, Grammer meets with a man named John, who it turns out was the reason that Karen Grammer initially traveled to Colorado where the tragedy occurred.

John shared previously-unseen photos and letters with Grammer, filling in “gaps” in his understanding of his sister’s life. And, remarkably, it turned out that years after Karen’s death, John once visited the fake Boston bar where everybody knows your name.

“Rather extraordinary is the fact that John made his way in time to Florida State University and then to California. Los Angeles in fact … to be an actor,” Grammer wrote. “And on one occasion he booked a job on a very popular sitcom called Cheers.”

Grammer went on to explain that “the man who could offer me insight into my sister’s final days was a guest star on the show. Neither of us knew it. Somehow, John did not connect that I was Karen’s brother. And I could have had no idea until recently that he had been with her in the winter of ’75. And in Colorado Springs. And in her life when she was killed.”

While it’s not surprising that Grammer didn’t know about John, somehow, Karen’s boyfriend didn’t realize that the guy playing Dr. Frasier Crane was her older brother. “As he tells it, it wasn’t until a few years after his appearance on Cheers that he read an article in TV Guide that spoke of my tragic past and my sister Karen. He finally made the connection,” Grammer noted.

Despite learning about this wild coincidence, John still didn’t reach out. “He did not contact me. And I think it is likely that the moment we spoke on the phone … he had the chance to finally say what he had come to say all those years ago,” Grammer theorized. “He said our home was cold when he visited after Karen’s funeral. It was. Maybe he didn’t feel safe. Safe enough to explain their connection. And why she had gone there.”