Kirstie Alley Has Died At 71 From Colon Cancer
Maybe it’s just me, but around the holidays, it feels like there are a few shocking celebrity deaths, and there was one last night. It was announced that Kirstie Alley had died after a short fight with cancer. Kirstie’s children with Parker Stevenson, True Stevenson and Lillie Parker Stevenson, said in a statement that she was only recently diagnosed with colon cancer and was getting treated at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. They were with Kirstie at the time of her death.
— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) December 6, 2022
Kirstie was 71.
In recent years, Kirstie has been getting attention more for her tweets than for her acting career. Kirstie rode hard for Scientology, spread COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories, and compared Trump getting banned from Twitter to “slavery.” And that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. So because of this, Kirstie’s legacy is completely clouded for many, but you can’t deny the performances of hers that were burned into our minds over the years. There’s a Kirstie Alley joint for nearly every point of my life. When I was a little gay, there was Summer School (1987). And when I was a teen gay who wanted to eat up anything that was remotely camp and glamour, there was Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)!
Kirstie Alley was born on January 12, 1951, in Witchita, Kansas, and moved to Los Angeles after taking classes at Kansas State University for a couple of years. Around the time that Kirstie moved to Los Angeles, she got into the bad shit and developed a coke addiction. Kirstie got help through Narconon, Scientology’s drug treatment program. Kirstie became a member of Scientology in 1979 and never looked back. She was one of Scientology’s biggest champions.
Kirstie moved to Los Angeles to be an interior designer but quickly got into the business that is show. She made her TV debut in an episode of Quark and was on the game shows Match Game and Password Plus before joining the Stark Trek nerdom by landing the role of Saavik in the 1982 movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Kirstie was then a regular on the 1983 TV series Masquerade and starred in the 1985 miniseries North and South. And in 1987, Kirstie played a teacher in Summer School, where she taught me some important obscene gestures:
1987 was a big year for Kirstie’s career because not only was it when she starred in the 80s masterpiece Summer School, but also when she ushered in the Rebecca Howe era on Cheers. When Shelley Long left Cheers after season five, Kirstie Alley was brought in to replace her. I’d sometimes watch Cheers with my mom, and Rebecca Howe was easily my favorite character. Kirstie stayed with Cheers until the show ended after its 12th season. Kirstie was nominated for five Emmys for her performance in Cheers and picked up one win in 1991.
During her run on Cheers, Kirstie starred in three Look Who’s Talking movies with her BFF John Travolta. Other movies that Kirstie starred in include Village of the Damned (1995), It Takes Two (1995), Deconstructing Harry (1997), For Richer or Poorer (1997), and of course, 1999’s Drop Dead Gorgeous, where she brilliantly played Gladys Leeman.
Kirstie won another Emmy in 1994 for her performance in the TV movie David’s Mother. And a few years later, she hit TV gold again with Veronica’s Closet, which ran for three seasons and got Kirstie another Emmy nomination.
For a big part of Kirstie’s career, she was made fun of for her body. She joined Jenny Craigs as a spokesperson in 2004 and lost a bunch of weight but gained it back when she left Jenny Craig in 2007. She went back to Jenny in 2014. And Kirstie addressed her struggles with body image in the 2005 show Fat Actress.
In the 2010s, Kirstie starred in her own self-titled sitcom and was also in Scream Queens and episodes of Hot in Cleveland. The 2010s is also when she got into reality TV. She starred in her own reality show Kirstie Alley’s Big Life, and was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars and Celebrity Big Brother 22. And this year, she was on The Masked Singer.
Kirstie was married to her high school sweetheart, Bob Alley (who shared a name with her dad, awkward) from 1970 to 1977. She married Parker Stevenson in 1983, and they got divorced in 1997.
She is survived by her two children and grandchildren.
Below are tributes to Kirstie:
From Ted Danson, via People:
“I was on a plane today and did something I rarely do,” Danson said in a statement to PEOPLE. “I watched an old episode of Cheers.”
“It was the episode where Tom Berenger proposes to Kirstie, who keeps saying no, even though she desperately wants to say yes,” the actor continued. “Kirstie was truly brilliant in it. Her ability to play a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown was both moving and hysterically funny.”
From Kelsey Grammer, via People:
“I always believed grief for a public figure is a private matter, but I will say I loved her.”
From Rhea Perlman, via People:
“Kirstie was a unique and wonderful person and friend. Her joy of being was boundless. We became friends almost instantly when she joined the cast of Cheers. She loved kids and my kids loved her too. We had sleepovers at her house, with treasure hunts that she created.”
Pic: NBCU Photo Bank