Kirstie Alleyhad big shoes to fill when she joinedCheersin 1987, so she dressed like her predecessor,Shelley Long.
“I wanted to break the ice and get off to a fresh start,” the actress told PEOPLE in an interview at the time.
When Alley arrived on set, she wore a blond wig, brightened her dark eyebrows and donned a “goody-two-shoes” dress, all of which endeared her to theCheerscast, as she made her entry onto the hit show as its new female lead, Rebecca Howe.
It worked too. “If you ever want to leave,” co-star John Ratzenberger told Alley at a cast party after her first week of filming, “you’ll have to shoot your way out.” To help her do it, Ratzenberger and co-star George Wendt gifted Alley with a shotgun as a welcome gift.
Ted Dansonwas just as enamored with Alley’s arrival, telling PEOPLE: “Stand us next to each other and it spells sex. I mean, sparks fly.”
Alley’s role onCheersultimately served as a breakout for the star who died Monday aged 71 from colon cancer, earning her a Golden Globe for best actress and an Emmy for outstanding lead actress for her part in the Boston-based series in 1991.
Ted Danson and Kirstie Alley on Cheers.NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty
At the time, Alley downplayed her easy transition into the role (and sex appeal), as she embarked on her journey as the acerbic businesswoman Howe, adding a different vibe to the half-hour comedy show after Long’s more intellectually-minded Diane Chambers.
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“I see someone with a crooked nose; my right eye’s bigger than my left, and sometimes I have zits,” she told PEOPLE.
Kirstie Alley.Vinnie Zuffante/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Her fellowCheersalums are left to remember their oftenself-deprecatingand forever-gifted star with fondness.
“I was on a plane today and did something I rarely do,” Danson told PEOPLE in a statement on Monday. “I watched an old episode ofCheers. It was the episode whereTom Berengerproposes to Kirstie, who keeps saying no, even though she desperately wants to say yes.Kirstie was truly brilliantin it.”
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He continued, “Her ability to play a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown was both moving and hysterically funny. She made me laugh 30 years ago when she shot that scene, and she made me laugh today just as hard. As I got off the plane, I heard that Kirstie had died. I am so sad and so grateful for all the times she made me laugh. I send my love to her children. As they well know, their mother had a heart of gold. I will miss her.”
source: people.com
