Where the cast of Cheers are now
It’s safe to say that the 1980s comedy show, Cheers, has to be one of the greatest shows in recent history. Run for a mighty 11 seasons, the show that ran from 1982 until 1993 sent fans wild with the crazy and memorable antics of a group of Boston “barflies”. So popular in fact in inspired spin-off, Frasier, with Cheers actor Kelsey Grammer. Frasier also aired for a whopping 11 seasons.
Now more than 30 years since it first aired, we thought it was a great time to walk down memory lane, catch up with the cast of Cheers and see where they are now. To find out what they look like today, simply scroll through the gallery above.
1. Sam Malone played by Ted Danson
One of the only three characters to appear in all of the episodes, some people say that Ted Danson's Sam Malone was an integral part of the show that held it all together.
Since Cheers, Danson has appeared in a number of lead TV roles including Becker, Fargo, CSI and a new show, The Good Place.
He has also starred in a number of popular movies like Three Men and a Baby, Made in America and Getting Even With Dad.
After being nominated for 11 consecutive Emmy Awards for playing Sam in Cheers, in 1990 he finally won Best Actor in a Comedy and then again in 1993.
He has two children and has been married and divorced twice.
2. Diane Chambers played by Shelley Long
Although she started her career on television movies and by guest starring in shows including MASH and The Love Boat, playing Diane in Cheers made Shelley Long an overnight star.
After just five seasons on the show, however, due to a desire to spend more time with her family, Long quit the show.
After starting out her career with roles in, it was during her Cheers days she made her biggest impact on the silver screen when she won a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in 1984's Irreconcilable Differences.
Long also went on to play the big screen version of Carol Brady, in the mid-90s film versions of The Brady Bunch. More recently she has also appeared on TV shows like Modern Family.
Long has been married and divorced twice and has one daughter.
3. Carla Tortelli played by Rhea Perlman
Also appearing in every episode of the show, Rhea Perlman's impatient waitress was well-known for her violent temper and disdain of almost everyone in the bar aside from Sam.
Perlman had little success before Cheers. After the show she reprised her role as Carla on a few occasions, including on The Simpsons and Cheers spin-off Frasier.
She has also made appearances in films including 1996's Matilda as the heartless mother, alongside real-life husband Danny DeVito.
Perlman married DeVito in 1982 and they have three children.
4. Norm Peterson played by George Wendt
As the theme song goes, Cheers was a place “where everybody knows your name”. This was certainly true for Norm.
The running joke on the show, Norm is famed for his constant complaints about his never-seen-on-screen wife Vera and dry one-liners.
Before getting into acting, Wendt was expelled from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana over poor grades and then moved into show business with his first job being sweeping a theatre floor.
Following his break on Cheers, he had guest roles on Taxi and MASH. After Cheers he had a self-titled sitcom on CBS, but it was cancelled after eight episodes. Since he’s had a number of guest appearances, including Only Fools and Horses spin-off, The Green Green Grass in 2007. He also played Tweedledee in Alice in Wonderland in 1999.
More recently he was in short-lived barbershop-based comedy series Clipped, while his recent Broadway credits include Breakfast at Tiffany's and Elf - The Musical.
Wendt married to Bernadette Birkett in 1978 - who actually voiced of the mysterious Vera on Cheers and they have one daughter and two sons.
5. Cliff Clavin played by John Ratzenberger
You find these types in every pub. The person who has a story/answer/useless fact for every occasion. If you go within close distance of said person, they will communicate with you, even if you don't plan on communicating with them. Cliff was this character in Cheers - a postal worker who lives with his mother and finds it very hard to talk to women and who sees Sam as a hero. Cliff had a heart of gold.
Ratzenberger actually made his way into acting while working as a house framer in London. He also had small roles in Superman, Superman II and The Empire Strikes Back.
While you won’t have seen him much after Cheers, you have almost certainly heard him, as Ratzenberger has appeared in every single Pixar film and is known as the studio's mascot, notably as Hamm the Piggy Bank in the Toy Story series.
6. Ernie “Coach” Pantusso played by Nicholas Colasanto
Working behind the bar and generally not understanding anything going on around him, Coach was the lovable doofus of Cheers, who had a dimwit and was “borderline senile”.
After a successful stint directing episodes of big name shows including Starsky and Hutch, CHiPs, Columbo and the original Hawaii Five-O, Nicholas came into Cheers.
After he developed heart disease in the mid-1970s, he was sold set to retire from acting before being offered the role in Cheers. His health got worse as the show went on, although he kept it a secret from the cast and crew.
He was eventually hospitalised during the third season in January 1985, and, although he was released in early February, he suffered a fatal heart attack on February 12 at home in Los Angeles.
He was written out of the show as having died off-screen and a picture was placed on the set as a tribute.
7. Rebecca Howe played by Kirstie Alley
Replacing Long at the start of season six, Rebecca was a businesswoman who took over running the bar after Sam sold it.
Kirstie Alley had some success before Cheers, making her film debut in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, while she earned an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Rebecca in 1991.
It was around this time she had huge success on the big screen alongside John Travolta and the voice of Bruce Willis in the Look Who’s Talking series.
More recently she has entered reality TV, competing on Dancing with the Stars in the US in 2011 and taking part in Channel 4’s Time Crashers in 2015 – which challenged celebrities to complete various daily tasks from different time periods. She also appears as Nurse Hoffel in US comedy horror series Scream Queens.
Allie has been married twice and has two children.
8. Woody Boyd played by Woody Harrelson
Woody arrived at the bar in season four and became the new bartender and helped take the show to new heights of comedy through his dim-witted yet charming antics.
Despite Cheers being Woody Harrelson’s first ever role, he is arguably the most successful of the cast, appearing in numerous hit films and television series, including Oscar Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men, the Hunger Games franchise and his Emmy-nominated role in HBO’s True Detective.
He has twice been nominated for an Oscar for The People vs Larry Flynt and The Messenger, while his work as Woody earned him an Emmy in 1989.
He is a father to three daughters with Laura Louie, whom he has been with since 1987 and married in 2008.
9. Frasier Crane played by Kelsey Grammer
After entering Cheers as a guest character at the start of season three to help Sam through his break-up with Diane, intelligent psychiatrist Frasier Crane became a fixture at the bar.
Two years before he joined Cheers, Kelsey Grammer made his television debut in 1982, with his most notable role coming in Kennedy, a miniseries based around the life of assassinated President John F Kennedy.
His career took off with Cheers, and he portrayed his character for 20 years after spinning-off into the hugely successful Frasier, for which he won four Emmy Awards. The show ended in 2004 and Grammer began appearing in more films, scoring roles in blockbusters including X Men: The Last Stand and Transformers: Age of Extinction as well while he is well-known for his voice work, notably as the evil Sideshow Bob in The Simpsons.
Grammer has been married four times and has seven children.