Kelsey Grammer is best known for portraying the flawed and pompous, yet iconic and lovable Dr. Frasier Crane for 20 consecutive years across three TV series: Cheers (1982-93), Frasier (1993-2004), and a brief appearance on Wings (1990-97). Despite his televised success, Grammer's personal life was plagued by tragedy. 

In 1968, when Grammer was 13 years old, his estranged father was fatally shot by a cab driver. As the Emmy-winner explained during his 2001 E! Celebrity Profile (via the New York Post), "A man who was proven to be, at least in court, of questionable sanity, I suppose, lit a ring of fire around his house and as my father came down to investigate what was going on, he shot him...several times and, uh, dad died." 

In 1975, violence struck again when Grammer's 18-year-old sister, Karen, was abducted, raped, and fatally stabbed 42 times by "spree killer" Freddie Glenn and two accomplices, according to Vanity Fair. The actor identified her body. In 2009, Glenn was up for parole—which Grammer successfully opposed. "I miss her in my bones," he wrote to the parole board (via Vanity Fair). "I was her big brother. I was supposed to protect her—I could not... It very nearly destroyed me."

In 1980, Grammer's half brothers, Stephen and Billy, died in a scuba accident off St. Thomas. According to People, when Billy failed to surface, Stephen dove in to try to find him but "suffered a fatal embolism during an improper ascent. Billy's body was never recovered." His mother believes "he was eaten by sharks."

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