Frasier Stars We've Sadly Lost

"Cheers" was a pillar of NBC's much-vaunted "Must See TV" Thursday night lineup when the beloved barroom comedy said goodbye in 1993. Yet that wasn't the end of the story; in September of that same year, new sitcom "Frasier" launched, focusing on tavern regular Dr. Frasier Crane, played by Kelsey Grammer. 

The new series followed Frasier as he relocated to his hometown of Seattle, where the Harvard-educated psychiatrist took his skills to radio and offered advice to callers along with his on-air catchphrase: "I'm listening." The show became an instant hit, with Grammer joined by David Hyde-Pierce as his brother Niles; John Mahoney as Martin, the Crane boys' retired cop father; Jane Leeves as Martin's caregiver, Daphne; and Peri Gilpin as Frasier's producer, Roz. "Frasier" ran for 11 hit seasons before ending its run in 2004 — with a reboot later premiering in October 2023.

In the years since "Frasier" went off the air, some of the familiar faces from the show have since left us, including one of the show's series regulars and numerous guest stars. Read on to remember the "Frasier" stars we've sadly lost.

Martin Crane's dog, Eddie, became one of television's most popular canine characters. Eddie was played by Moose, reported "Today," a Jack Russell terrier who passed away at the ripe old age of 16 in 2006. In addition to playing Eddie, Moose had also played the titular dog in the movie "My Dog Skip."

According to the New York Post, Moose retired midway through the course of "Frasier," and was replaced by his own son, Enzo. As the dogs' trainer Mathilde DeCagney told the Post, father and son did not get along. In fact, she admitted the two dogs "actually hate each other with a passion" and needed "to be separated at all times, which is pretty common in Jack Russell males." Like his dad, Enzo lived until age 16, dying in 2010.

Moose also wasn't particularly fond of his onscreen owner, as the late John Mahoney recalled in an interview with Fox News. "He bit me twice," said Mahoney of his canine co-star, but conceded that on the whole he and Moose "got along all right." Joked Mahoney: "He was a temperamental actor as far as I'm concerned."

"Frasier" attracted some A-list guest stars during its run. Among these was Oscar nominee Bob Hoskins, who played Frasier's abusive high school gym teacher in a series of flashbacks to his school days. Just over a decade after he guest starred in that 2003 episode, BBC News reported that Hoskins died at age 71. "Bob died peacefully at hospital last night surrounded by family, following a bout of pneumonia," his wife and children said in a statement.

Hoskins' role on "Frasier" was one small piece of an impressive acting career, noted the late actor's IMDb page, beginning on British television in the early 1970s. Hoskins caught Hollywood's attention thanks to standout performances in the 1978 British TV miniseries "Pennies From Heaven," which was followed by starring roles in the films "The Long Good Friday" and "Mona Lisa" — the latter earning Hoskins' his first and only Oscar nomination (he lost out to Paul Newman).

Hoskins went on to even bigger fame in numerous Hollywood productions, but will always be best remembered for playing Toontown PI Eddie Valiant in Disney's blend of live action and animation "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

René Auberjonois had already developed a well-established career as a character actor when he guest starred on "Frasier." First seen in the series' eighth season, Auberjonois portrayed Frasier's Harvard professor, Dr. William Tewksbury. When Frasier is set to receive a lifetime achievement award, he takes offense at the seemingly innocuous note of congratulations sent by his one-time mentor. This leads Frasier to a confrontation with Tewksbury, which results in a psychiatric session that proves more revelatory than Frasier expected. The character makes another appearance later that same season, when Frasier experiences the surprise of discovering that Tewksbury is dating his producer, Roz. 

Appearing on "Frasier" was a brief pit stop for Auberjonois, who died in 2019 at age 79 (via CBS News). For sci-fi fans, the actor will remain best known for playing Odo, the shape-shifting head of security on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Other significant roles include playing Father Mulcahy in director Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" (a role he didn't reprise for the small-screen version that followed), and chief of staff Clayton Endicott III on sitcom "Benson."

In the first few seasons of "Frasier," Martin was known to down a few beers at Duke's, his favorite local bar. The bar's owner, Duke, was frequently referenced throughout the series. However, Duke only appeared in the flesh in two episodes of "Frasier," both times played by actor John LaMotta. 

LaMotta's Duke is first seen in a 1994 episode in which Frasier and Niles join a lucrative investing group, only to discover one of the items on the agenda is to tear down Duke's. LaMotta doesn't appear again as Duke until a 1998 episode, when he's one of a few pals seen playing poker with Martin. 

According to LaMotta's IMDb page, he died in 2014 at the age of 75. In addition to "Frasier," LaMotta had racked up an extensive list of screen credits spanning several decades, ranging from "Dark Shadows" to "Baretta" to "Barney Miller" to "ALF," in which he played the lovable alien's nosy neighbor. LaMatta wasn't exactly a fan of his work on the wacky sitcom, subsequently telling TMZ he thought "the show 'ALF' was a piece of s*** ... worst work I ever did."

Of the many, many guest stars to drop by "Frasier" during the course of the show's 11-season run, arguably one of the most legendary was Donald O'Connor. A song-and-dance man of the highest order, O'Connor's storied roster of screen credits, via IMDb, include the classic Hollywood musical "Singing in the Rain," and umpteen "Francis the Talking Mule" movies. 

Prior to his 2003 death at age 78 (via The New York Times), one of O'Connor's final roles was playing wealthy timber baron Harlow Safford in the "Crane vs. Crane" episode of "Frasier." Niles is hired as an expert witness by Safford's son in his effort to have his father legally declared senile; Frasier, however, gets to know the elder Safford and comes to believe his mental faculties are intact, but that he's just an eccentric with a zest for life. As a result, Frasier agrees to testify against his brother in the trial. 

The same year he appeared on "Frasier," O'Connor also appeared in a guest spot on "The Nanny." O'Connor's final screen role was in the 1997 cruise ship comedy "Out to Sea," which re-teamed "The Odd Couple" stars Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

David Ogden Stiers was a familiar face to television viewers of the 1970s and 1980s for his portrayal of snobbish Major Charles Emerson Winchester III on "M*A*S*H," the hit military-medical sitcom that ran from 1972 until 1983. More than a decade after that series wrapped, Stiers made a guest-starring appearance on "Frasier." In Stiers' 2003 episode, titled "Fathers and Sons," he plays Leland Barton, the former research assistant to Hestor Crane, later mother of Niles and Frasier. After spending some time with Leland, Martin notices some marked similarities between Leland's characteristics and those of her sons, leading him to question whether Leland is their real father, and not him. 

Prior to Stiers' 2018 death from bladder cancer at age 75 (via Variety), he had amassed a staggering array of screen credits. In addition to his "M*A*S*H" role, these included voice roles in several of Disney's animated films, appearing in "Beauty and the Beast," "Pocahontas," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and "Lilo & Stitch." Stiers also had recurring roles in "Stargate Atlantis," "The Dead Zone" and the sitcom "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place." 

One "Frasier" fan favorite feature was the show's cavalcade of guest stars — not the ones who appeared onscreen, mind you, but the celebrities who called in to Frasier Crane's radio show in search of Frasier's help with their always-absurd psychological problems. Of the more than 100 stars who called in, many of them are sadly no longer with us.

"Superman" star Christopher Reeve, who died at 52 in 2004, called in to discuss his agoraphobia. Rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who died in 2020, was a clueless caller named Hank who couldn't figure out if Frasier could hear him. "Star Wars" actress and novelist Carrie Fisher, who died in 2016, was hilarious as an insomniac caller who droned on for so long about her inability to get any sleep that she sent both Frasier and Roz snoozing. 

Other stars who called into "Frasier" and have since died include Mary Tyler Moore, Bruno Kirby, Carl Reiner, Dominick Dunne, Rosemary Clooney, Dr. Timothy Leary, Sandra Dee, Sydney Pollack, Billy Barty, Jerry Orbach, Patty Duke, Jill Clayburgh, Neil Simon, Harold Prince, Bobby Short, Larry Gelbart, and Penny Marshall.

Actors Jack Sydow and Rosemary Murphy made two appearances on "Frasier" as Alfred and Carol Larkin, who lived in Niles Crane's (David Hyde Pierce) posh apartment building. The characters first appeared in Season 4 episode "To Kill a Talking Bird," and again in Season 6's "Taps at the Montana."

The title of that first episode, in fact, was likely meant to reference what is arguably Murphy's best-known role, as Maudie Atkinson in the 1962 screen classic "To Kill a Mockingbird." During a career that spanned from the late 1940s until 2010, Murphy appeared in numerous films and TV series, ranging from "Magnum, P.I." to the Woody Allen-directed "Mighty Aphrodite." Murphy died in 2014 at age 89.

Sydow's roster of screen credits isn't nearly as extensive as Murphy's, but that's because he devoted much of his career to the stage, as an actor and director in both on- and off-Broadway productions — even receiving a Tony nomination for directing a 1966 revival of "Annie Get Your Gun." After retiring from more than 15 years as a university professor in Seattle, Sydow relocated to Los Angeles in 1986 and resumed his acting career. He died at 88 in 2010 (via The Hollywood Reporter).