West News Wire: Kirstie Alley, a two-time Emmy winner who became one of the biggest performers in American comedy in the late 1980s and early 1990s because to her appearances on the TV phenomenon “Cheers” and in the “Look Who’s Talking” movies, passed away on Monday. She was 71.
Alley’s children True and Lillie Parker wrote on Twitter that she passed away from cancer that had only recently been identified. The death was verified by Donovan Daughtry, manager of Alley, in an email to The Associated Press.
According to a statement from her daughters, “as iconic as she was on television, she was an even more great mother and grandmother.”
She starred opposite Ted Danson as Rebecca Howe on “Cheers,” the beloved NBC sitcom about a Boston bar, from 1987 to 1993. She joined the show at the height of its popularity after the departure of original star Shelley Long.
Alley would win an Emmy for best lead actress in a comedy series for the role in 1991.
“Kirstie was one of the most special relationships I’ve ever had,” Travolta said, along with a photo of Alley. “I love you Kirstie. I know we will see each other again.”
She would play a fictionalized version of herself in the 2005 Showtime series “Fat Actress,” a show that drew comedy from her public and media treatment over her weight gain and loss.
She dealt with the same subject matter in the 2010 A&E reality series “Kirstie Alley’s Big Life,” which chronicled her attempt to lose weight and launch a weight-loss program while working as a single mother in an unconventional household that included pet lemurs.
Alley said she agreed to do the show in part because of the misinformation about her that had become a tabloid staple.
“Anything bad you can say about me, they say,” Alley told the AP at the time. “I’ve never collapsed, fainted, passed out. Basically, anything they’ve said, I never. The only true thing is I got fat.”
In recent years she appeared on several other reality shows, including a second-place finish on “Dancing With the Stars” in 2011. She appeared on the competition series “The Masked Singer” wearing a baby mammoth costume earlier this year.
She appeared in the Ryan Murphy black comedy series “Scream Queens” on Fox in 2015 and 2016.
