Kelsey Grammer, “I’m a guy who needed love.”
August 26, 2007— Kelsey Grammer, renowned actor, made heaven’s headlines, with the confession, “I’m a guy who needed love.” (Excerpts taken from an interview printed in Parade section of the Washington Post.)
“I liked the addictions,” he tells me. “I’m not going to lie about it. But I got in too deep. I probably would’ve died if I hadn’t stopped.”
“I’ve been through my share of tough times,” says Grammer. “I’m a very different guy now.”
Family misfortunes occurred at a young age. When Kelsey was just 12, his grandfather suddenly died, and a year later, his dad, Allen, the owner of a small magazine on the island of St. Thomas, was shot to death. “Those early losses took a big bite out of any joy,” he says. “But they helped me understand that we’ve only got a limited time, so you can’t yield to anxieties or even to tragedies. Giving up was not an option. You persevere.”
And then another tragedy struck that would change his life. In the summer of 1975, his sister, Karen Grammer, was abducted in Colorado Springs, raped and slashed. Abandoned, she bled to death. She was 18.
Kelsey went to Colorado and brought his little sister’s body home to Pompano Beach for burial. Her death opened an emotional hole he found impossible to close. “I was young, 20. It was very hard,” he quietly tells me. “I was disconsolate. I tried to understand why people I loved died. Why did they have to suffer? There is no uplifting answer.
The horror of his sister’s death led Grammer to heavy alcohol and drug abuse. “It was probably the catalyst that got me into a really big problem for at least the next 15 years,” he says.
At 29, he was cast as the pompous but good-hearted psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers. He stayed on TV for nine seasons. The popular show led to the 1993 spin-off Frasier, where he starred for an additional 11 seasons and ended up winning four Emmys. Despite his professional success, his drinking worsened, and he experimented with a variety of drugs, including Ecstasy, Valium and cocaine. He was arrested twice and later served 90 days house arrest and three years probation as part of his sentencing.
In 1982, he married dancer Doreen Alderman. They had a daughter, Spencer, now 23, who is starring in Greek, a series on the ABC Family channel about a college campus. The marriage lasted two years. “We tried therapy at one point, and the doctor just looked at us and said: ‘You guys don’t have a chance.’” He went on to other partners—including makeup artist Barrie Buckner, with whom he had his second daughter, Greer, now 15. There also was a long love affair with former professional ice skater Cerlette Lamme, a tumultuous nine-month marriage to an exotic dancer and a two-year engagement to model Tammi Baliszewski.
His serial monogamy ended in 1996 when he fell in love with Camille Donatacci at a dinner with his agent in New York. “It was love at first sight,” he says, “but I was scared. I’d been with girls before who I believed were right for me, and it turned out I was wrong. I was afraid of making another mistake, another failed marriage. But, corny as it sounds, I think Camille saw in me a great guy who needed love. It takes a lot of courage to love. Isn’t that why we’re here—to love, regardless of the cost? She decided to give me love.” In 1996, with Camille’s support, Kelsey entered the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and started straightening out his tangled life. He has been sober ever since. The next year, he and Camille wed. “We take care of each other equally. That’s something new for me.”
He smiles, adding, “I am a very lucky man. Somehow, love just came out of the world toward me, and with it, a sense of fulfillment and joy.”
I don’t read the newspaper much at all, nor do I watch the news on television. I especially don’t make it a habit to read up on all the celebrities. But some things catch my eye and I get confirmed in the reality of the eternal realities. This story was just another one of those eye-catching episodes of someone being honest with this world of sin.
The details may tend to not square with a gospel story, yet the general tendency reveals the power of a God of truth. Mr. Grammer said, “Corny as it sounds, I think Camille saw in me a great guy who needed love. It takes a lot of courage to love. Isn’t that why we’re here—to love, regardless of the cost? She decided to give me love.” To the great multitudes who read the Washington Post, self-sacrificing love does sound childish, unmanly, and laughable. Many of it’s vast readership see love as something that only serves self rather than forgets self, a fact that Kelsey was unable to bravely refute. Nevertheless his strength of character comes through in his confession borne of love.
Camille didn’t ask anything of Mr. Grammer, and was willing to wait as long as need be for him to be helped out of his addictions before she accepted marriage to a famous man. She must have also learned about the cruelties of life and been humbled.
I believe the Holy Spirit works with the whole world, as we wind down to the end of this Investigative Judgment, allowing the devil to control this sinful race, and showing the grace and power of God in those who are honest with themselves and with their true condition. His work is seen in bringing them out of the confusion of Babylon into the glorious liberty of the sons and daughters of God.
Mr. Grammer needs to understand that his isn’t a special case in needing love, i.e. “I’m a guy who needed love.” The whole world needs to know that love is the only cure for it’s troubles. Nothing except love will accomplish this. A just love that allows us to reap what we sow and to feel the pinch of consequences, and a merciful love that shows itself faithful and ready to help, even in the light of the facts of our sin-filled past.
Do we really know the love of God? Have you wrestled with the Bible until His love came shining through? Has it captured you and made you a prisoner? Has divine love saved you from sin?
“I liked the addictions,” he tells me. “I’m not going to lie about it. But I got in too deep. I probably would’ve died if I hadn’t stopped.”
“I’ve been through my share of tough times,” says Grammer. “I’m a very different guy now.”
Family misfortunes occurred at a young age. When Kelsey was just 12, his grandfather suddenly died, and a year later, his dad, Allen, the owner of a small magazine on the island of St. Thomas, was shot to death. “Those early losses took a big bite out of any joy,” he says. “But they helped me understand that we’ve only got a limited time, so you can’t yield to anxieties or even to tragedies. Giving up was not an option. You persevere.”
And then another tragedy struck that would change his life. In the summer of 1975, his sister, Karen Grammer, was abducted in Colorado Springs, raped and slashed. Abandoned, she bled to death. She was 18.
Kelsey went to Colorado and brought his little sister’s body home to Pompano Beach for burial. Her death opened an emotional hole he found impossible to close. “I was young, 20. It was very hard,” he quietly tells me. “I was disconsolate. I tried to understand why people I loved died. Why did they have to suffer? There is no uplifting answer.
The horror of his sister’s death led Grammer to heavy alcohol and drug abuse. “It was probably the catalyst that got me into a really big problem for at least the next 15 years,” he says.
At 29, he was cast as the pompous but good-hearted psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers. He stayed on TV for nine seasons. The popular show led to the 1993 spin-off Frasier, where he starred for an additional 11 seasons and ended up winning four Emmys. Despite his professional success, his drinking worsened, and he experimented with a variety of drugs, including Ecstasy, Valium and cocaine. He was arrested twice and later served 90 days house arrest and three years probation as part of his sentencing.
In 1982, he married dancer Doreen Alderman. They had a daughter, Spencer, now 23, who is starring in Greek, a series on the ABC Family channel about a college campus. The marriage lasted two years. “We tried therapy at one point, and the doctor just looked at us and said: ‘You guys don’t have a chance.’” He went on to other partners—including makeup artist Barrie Buckner, with whom he had his second daughter, Greer, now 15. There also was a long love affair with former professional ice skater Cerlette Lamme, a tumultuous nine-month marriage to an exotic dancer and a two-year engagement to model Tammi Baliszewski.
His serial monogamy ended in 1996 when he fell in love with Camille Donatacci at a dinner with his agent in New York. “It was love at first sight,” he says, “but I was scared. I’d been with girls before who I believed were right for me, and it turned out I was wrong. I was afraid of making another mistake, another failed marriage. But, corny as it sounds, I think Camille saw in me a great guy who needed love. It takes a lot of courage to love. Isn’t that why we’re here—to love, regardless of the cost? She decided to give me love.” In 1996, with Camille’s support, Kelsey entered the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and started straightening out his tangled life. He has been sober ever since. The next year, he and Camille wed. “We take care of each other equally. That’s something new for me.”
He smiles, adding, “I am a very lucky man. Somehow, love just came out of the world toward me, and with it, a sense of fulfillment and joy.”
I don’t read the newspaper much at all, nor do I watch the news on television. I especially don’t make it a habit to read up on all the celebrities. But some things catch my eye and I get confirmed in the reality of the eternal realities. This story was just another one of those eye-catching episodes of someone being honest with this world of sin.
The details may tend to not square with a gospel story, yet the general tendency reveals the power of a God of truth. Mr. Grammer said, “Corny as it sounds, I think Camille saw in me a great guy who needed love. It takes a lot of courage to love. Isn’t that why we’re here—to love, regardless of the cost? She decided to give me love.” To the great multitudes who read the Washington Post, self-sacrificing love does sound childish, unmanly, and laughable. Many of it’s vast readership see love as something that only serves self rather than forgets self, a fact that Kelsey was unable to bravely refute. Nevertheless his strength of character comes through in his confession borne of love.
Camille didn’t ask anything of Mr. Grammer, and was willing to wait as long as need be for him to be helped out of his addictions before she accepted marriage to a famous man. She must have also learned about the cruelties of life and been humbled.
I believe the Holy Spirit works with the whole world, as we wind down to the end of this Investigative Judgment, allowing the devil to control this sinful race, and showing the grace and power of God in those who are honest with themselves and with their true condition. His work is seen in bringing them out of the confusion of Babylon into the glorious liberty of the sons and daughters of God.
Mr. Grammer needs to understand that his isn’t a special case in needing love, i.e. “I’m a guy who needed love.” The whole world needs to know that love is the only cure for it’s troubles. Nothing except love will accomplish this. A just love that allows us to reap what we sow and to feel the pinch of consequences, and a merciful love that shows itself faithful and ready to help, even in the light of the facts of our sin-filled past.
Do we really know the love of God? Have you wrestled with the Bible until His love came shining through? Has it captured you and made you a prisoner? Has divine love saved you from sin?
posted by David | 5:17 AM
1 Comments:
I find I have to go to the true Source of unconditional love every day.
I need that love and am grateful that God gives it so freely. Each day His grace and love enable me to love more freely my husband and children. God's Word has it right that we love because He first loved us.
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