Ted Danson

As the star of the NBC sitcom "Cheers" (1982-1993), Emmy-winning Ted Danson was one of the most popular television stars of the 1980s, but also enjoyed critical praise in a string of character-driven roles on "Damages" (FX/Audience Network, 2007-2012), "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS, 2000-2015) and "The Good Place" (NBC, 2016-19). Born Edward Bridge Danson III in San Diego, California, he was raised near Flagstaff, Arizona and attended Stanford University, where he developed an interest in drama during his second year. Danson transferred to Carnegie-Mellon and earned his bachelor's degree in fine arts in 1972; initial fame as a contract player on daytime soap prompted a move to Los Angeles in 1978, where he trained at the Actor's Studio while finding steady work as a guest actor on episodic television. He received early positive notices as an ill-fated police officer in the Joseph Wambaugh-penned crime drama "The Onion Field" (1979), but the film's success did little for his career, and Danson soon returned to guest work, as well as a series of widely-seen television commercials for Aramis cologne. But perseverance, as well as a well-received turn as William Hurt's lawyer pal in Lawrence Kasdan's "Body Heat" (1981), eventually led to his breakout showcase as ex-baseball pitcher turned bar owner Sam Malone on "Cheers." Though the lowest-rated program on television in its debut season, "Cheers" slowly built an audience over successive seasons and became one of NBC's biggest hits of the 1980s; Danson's talent for light comedy and romance - especially in concert with co-star Shelley Long's Diane Chambers - helped to make the comedy appointment television, and earned Danson 11 consecutive Emmy nominations and nine Golden Globe nods, of which he won two apiece. The success of "Cheers" naturally led to other acting opportunities for Danson in features, though few of these could generate similar responses from audiences save for "3 Men and a Baby" (1987), a charming comedy with Danson, Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg as bachelors pressed into raising an infant. However, he scored a personal triumph in a challenging role - a father convicted of incest - in the TV-movie "Something About Amelia" (ABC, 1984), which earned him a third Golden Globe - and remained one of television's most popular actors as "Cheers" drew to a close in 1993. But Danson nearly derailed his standing with a widely publicized affair with actor/comedian Whoopi Goldberg; the news of Danson leaving his second wife, Cassandra "Casey" Coates, who had suffered a stroke during the birth of their second child, as well as his disastrously-received appearance in blackface at a Friars Club tribute to Goldberg undid some of the goodwill generated by his work on "Cheers." Though Danson remained busy in the wake of the incident, the work was largely unremarkable, save for a brief appearance in Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), though Peter Medak's "Pontiac Moon" (1994) would introduce him to actress Mary Steenburgen, who would become his third wife in 1995. He eventually returned to television, first in "Ink" (CBS, 1996-97) with Steenburgen, and later in the more successful "Becker" (CBS, 1998-2004), with Danson as a cantankerous doctor, and recurring appearances as a more exasperated version of himself on "Curb Your Enthusiam" (HBO, 2000-) But in 2007, Danson underwent something of a career renaissance when he was cast as a scandal-shrouded billionaire in the first season of "Damages." His performance - equal parts charm and malevolent - wowed critics and audiences alike, and earned Danson two Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe nod. More importantly, it opened up a new venue of characters to the actor, who stepped nimbly into character roles that were far afield from Sam Malone: the prickly forensic botanist D.B. Russell, who stepped into William Petersen's shoes on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"; the giddy, pot-smoking editor friend of Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman) on the cult favorite "Bored to Death" (HBO, 2009-2011); a phlegmatic Midwestern sheriff on Season 2 of "Fargo" (FX, 2014-); and a demon with a moral crisis on "The Good Place," which earned him two additional Emmy awards. In 2019, Danson was announced as the lead of a new series by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock ("30 Rock", NBC, 2006-2013) about a businessman who runs for mayor of Los Angeles for entirely wrong reasons.