Daphne Moon
Encyclopedia
Daphne Crane is a fictional character
on the American television sitcom Frasier
, played by Jane Leeves
.
Daphne is a recent immigrant from England
who is employed by Frasier Crane
as a live-in housekeeper and physical therapist for his father, Martin
. Her quirky personality and claims of psychic abilities provided comic relief on the show, while her relationship with Frasier's brother Niles Crane
was a major dramatic plotline during the run of the series, progressing from Niles' secret infatuation at the beginning of the show to their marriage at the beginning of season ten. The role was originally to be filled by Lisa Maxwell
who left before production began due to a dispute with producers.
, England
, the only daughter in a large, working-class family of nine children. She spent much of her childhood playing nurse and housemaid to her brothers. She has a complex love-hate relationship with her domineering and ever-complaining mother, Gertrude Moon (played by Millicent Martin
); her relationship with her father, Harry (played by Brian Cox), is much warmer and closer.
As a young girl, Daphne was an actress in the hit British sitcom Mind Your Knickers (a show about "ethnically diverse" twelve year olds in a private girls boarding school
, possibly named in reference to the 1970s British sitcom Mind Your Language
). Her career ended at age 16 when she became too tall and busty to play her short, pre-teen character. During her youth, she gained considerable skill at billiards
, claiming to have won many tournaments. After working at a convenience store (which she implies was robbed) Daphne then took up a career as a physical therapist, working one-on-one with various invalids and shut-ins. At an indeterminate time, she migrates across the Atlantic to live in Seattle, seeking a new life free of her domineering family. In the third season finale "You Can Go Home Again", it is revealed that prior to being hired by the Cranes, she had a chance encounter with them at Cafe Nervosa. In the series premiere "The Good Son", Daphne is hired by Frasier Crane to assist Frasier's father, Martin Crane, with his daily activities and exercises. Martin suffers pain and discomfort from a bullet wound he received years ago while working on the Seattle police force.
, and believes herself to be "a bit psychic
". The Crane family loathes her poor cooking skills, taking jabs at English cuisine. Daphne's apparent psychic abilities are often treated with ambiguity on the show, and her various 'visions' are sometimes shown to have come true, sometimes in a roundabout way and sometimes very accurately. On the other hand, for the first seven seasons of the series, the supposedly psychic Daphne never suspects Niles' passionate infatuation with her, which is painfully evident to all the other main characters. (Indeed, she only finally learns of this when Frasier, in a tranquilized, drowsy state, tells her outright.) As the series progressed, Daphne's psychic abilities were considerably down played.
Daphne is mostly portrayed as kind and down-to-Earth, often perplexed by Frasier's snobbery and pretension. Although they fight and bicker over Martin's therapy sessions, she gets along with Martin much better as they are capable of sharing activities as she is his care-giver and constant companion.
. Unbeknownst to Daphne, Niles falls in love with her in the third episode, when they first meet; despite the increasing obviousness of Niles' infatuation, Daphne remains utterly oblivious to Niles' feelings towards her, though they become increasingly close friends. Niles says nothing to Daphne, at first because he is married, later because she is involved with numerous (frequently unsuccessful) relationships with other men. Even when she is not, Frasier has one excuse or another to prevent Niles from telling her anything.
Niles' feelings are ultimately, and accidentally, revealed by Frasier in Season 7. Shocked to discover Niles' true feelings towards her, Daphne finds herself falling in love with Niles in return, placing her in the position Niles had been in for many years: in love with someone unaware of her true feelings.
Heartbroken to discover that he had, on impulse, married his girlfriend Mel, Daphne intends to go ahead with her own marriage to Niles' divorce lawyer Donny, until Frasier intervenes. In a four-part episode closing Season 7 and opening Season 8, Niles finally confesses his feelings to her, and although she initially tells him both of them are better off staying with their current partners (each having made a serious commitment), Daphne changes her mind by the next morning, abandoning Donny at the altar, to Niles' euphoria
.
Shortly thereafter, she gains sixty pounds (4 stone 4 pounds), but Niles is so blinded by love he doesn't notice until Daphne falls to the floor and is too heavy to get up without the help of Frasier, Niles and Martin (who remarks "it took three Cranes to lift you"). The weight problem was written into the show to allow Leeves to continue working while pregnant. Daphne then left for several weeks to attend a "spa for fat people" and returned with her figure restored. Her therapist at the spa, Gloria, tells her that she began over-eating to create distance between herself and Niles because she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to live up to Niles' lofty expectations after he spent the last seven years believing she was perfect(Episode Daphne Returns). During the episode "It Takes Two to Tangle" in which she did not appear while at the resort, Niles tells Roz that Daphne had lost 9 pounds, 12 ounces (the weight of Leeves' baby in real life).
At some point in Season 10, she becomes a U.S. Citizen. In the first episode of Season 10, Daphne and Niles marry in a small, private ceremony in Reno, Nevada
. The rest of Season 10 and early Season 11 show Daphne and Niles adjusting to their new life as a wedded couple. Daphne and Niles have their first child, David, in the final episode of the series, "Goodnight, Seattle
". (He is named after the show's co-creator David Angell
who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks.)
. They are often the subject of her long-winded tales that sometimes leave the Cranes somewhat perplexed. Although frequently mentioned, the first time one of her family members appears on the show is in the season 7 episode "Dark Side of the Moon", in which Donny surprises Daphne with a visit from her brother, Simon (Anthony LaPaglia
), not knowing that she dislikes him (her favorite brother, Stephen, never appears until the final episode, where he is played by Richard E. Grant
). In "Something Borrowed, Someone Blue" Daphne's mother makes her first appearance, while her father only makes his debut in Season 9.
In the episode "An Affair to Forget" she mentions she had an ancestor who served on HMS Bounty
who took Fletcher Christian
's side in the mutiny. According to her he made it to Pitcairn Island with a Tahitian wife and had several children. When she mentioned to Niles that there may be Polynesian version of her on the island, he nearly fainted as the image entered his mind.
Five out of Daphne's eight brothers have appeared on the show; few of them maintained consistency with Daphne's Northern accent. LaPaglia, an Australian actor, faked a Cockney
(London) accent, while Robbie Coltrane
, who is Scottish, played Daphne's brother Michael with a muddled Brummie
(Birmingham) accent. Most of the brothers are portrayed as lawless, alcoholic ne'er-do-wells and womanizers, except for Billy, who is implied to be gay, such as in the episode Daphne's Room, in which Daphne said her brothers would "sneak into the bathroom and peek at me in the shower ... except for me brother Billy, the ballroom dancer. He never peeked at me, though he did peek at me brother Nigel." When Daphne talks with her mom Gertrude about resuming her sex life with Niles after his heart surgery, Gertrude tells her to "use your feminine wiles - that's how your brother Billy landed Kevin." According to Daphne, Billy rejected the family's traditional fishing background by announcing that he "hated the smell of fish, and was going to teach ballroom dancing." Daphne also has an uncle who lives in San Francisco, and who is said to be both a priest and a transvestite.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the American television sitcom Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
, played by Jane Leeves
Jane Leeves
Jane Leeves is an English film, stage, and television actress, comedienne and dancer.Leeves made her screen debut with a small role in the 1983 popular British comedy television show The Benny Hill Show. Leeves moved to the United States, where she performed in small roles until she secured a...
.
Daphne is a recent immigrant from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
who is employed by Frasier Crane
Frasier Crane
Frasier W. Crane, M.D., Ph.D., A.P.A. is a fictional character on the American television sitcoms Frasier and Cheers. He was played by Kelsey Grammer for 20 years, tying the record for the longest-running character on prime-time American television, which was set by James Arness, who played Marshal...
as a live-in housekeeper and physical therapist for his father, Martin
Martin Crane
Det. Martin "Marty" Crane is a fictional character on the American television show Frasier. He was played by actor John Mahoney. Martin is the father of Frasier and Niles Crane.- Biography :...
. Her quirky personality and claims of psychic abilities provided comic relief on the show, while her relationship with Frasier's brother Niles Crane
Niles Crane
Niles Crane, M.D., Ph.D., A.P.A. is a fictional character on the American sitcom Frasier, a spin-off of the popular show Cheers. He was portrayed by David Hyde Pierce. Niles is the younger brother of Dr. Frasier Crane, the son of Det. Martin Crane and Dr. Hester Crane, husband of Daphne Moon,...
was a major dramatic plotline during the run of the series, progressing from Niles' secret infatuation at the beginning of the show to their marriage at the beginning of season ten. The role was originally to be filled by Lisa Maxwell
Lisa Maxwell (actress)
Lisa Maxwell is an English actress and television presenter.-Early life:Born in the Elephant & Castle district of Southwark, South London in November 1963, she was trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, and first acted on TV aged 11 in a schools programme A Place Like Home...
who left before production began due to a dispute with producers.
Biography
Daphne was born in ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the only daughter in a large, working-class family of nine children. She spent much of her childhood playing nurse and housemaid to her brothers. She has a complex love-hate relationship with her domineering and ever-complaining mother, Gertrude Moon (played by Millicent Martin
Millicent Martin
Millicent Mary Lillian Martin is an English actress, singer and comedienne.Martin was born in Romford, England. She made her Broadway debut opposite Julie Andrews in The Boy Friend in 1954...
); her relationship with her father, Harry (played by Brian Cox), is much warmer and closer.
As a young girl, Daphne was an actress in the hit British sitcom Mind Your Knickers (a show about "ethnically diverse" twelve year olds in a private girls boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
, possibly named in reference to the 1970s British sitcom Mind Your Language
Mind Your Language
Mind Your Language is a British comedy television series, that premiered on ITV in late 1977. Produced by LWT and directed by Stuart Allen, it is set in an adult education college in London and focuses on the English as a Foreign Language class taught by Mr. Jeremy Brown, portrayed by Barry Evans,...
). Her career ended at age 16 when she became too tall and busty to play her short, pre-teen character. During her youth, she gained considerable skill at billiards
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
, claiming to have won many tournaments. After working at a convenience store (which she implies was robbed) Daphne then took up a career as a physical therapist, working one-on-one with various invalids and shut-ins. At an indeterminate time, she migrates across the Atlantic to live in Seattle, seeking a new life free of her domineering family. In the third season finale "You Can Go Home Again", it is revealed that prior to being hired by the Cranes, she had a chance encounter with them at Cafe Nervosa. In the series premiere "The Good Son", Daphne is hired by Frasier Crane to assist Frasier's father, Martin Crane, with his daily activities and exercises. Martin suffers pain and discomfort from a bullet wound he received years ago while working on the Seattle police force.
Personality
Like most characters on Frasier, Daphne has many eccentricities. She often tells rambling stories about her family, cheerfully remembering rather grim or traumatic events, to the considerable discomfort of the Crane family. She is also a firm believer in the supernaturalSupernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
, and believes herself to be "a bit psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
". The Crane family loathes her poor cooking skills, taking jabs at English cuisine. Daphne's apparent psychic abilities are often treated with ambiguity on the show, and her various 'visions' are sometimes shown to have come true, sometimes in a roundabout way and sometimes very accurately. On the other hand, for the first seven seasons of the series, the supposedly psychic Daphne never suspects Niles' passionate infatuation with her, which is painfully evident to all the other main characters. (Indeed, she only finally learns of this when Frasier, in a tranquilized, drowsy state, tells her outright.) As the series progressed, Daphne's psychic abilities were considerably down played.
Daphne is mostly portrayed as kind and down-to-Earth, often perplexed by Frasier's snobbery and pretension. Although they fight and bicker over Martin's therapy sessions, she gets along with Martin much better as they are capable of sharing activities as she is his care-giver and constant companion.
Role on the series
Daphne's most significant developing relationship over the course of the series is with Frasier Crane's younger brother, NilesNiles Crane
Niles Crane, M.D., Ph.D., A.P.A. is a fictional character on the American sitcom Frasier, a spin-off of the popular show Cheers. He was portrayed by David Hyde Pierce. Niles is the younger brother of Dr. Frasier Crane, the son of Det. Martin Crane and Dr. Hester Crane, husband of Daphne Moon,...
. Unbeknownst to Daphne, Niles falls in love with her in the third episode, when they first meet; despite the increasing obviousness of Niles' infatuation, Daphne remains utterly oblivious to Niles' feelings towards her, though they become increasingly close friends. Niles says nothing to Daphne, at first because he is married, later because she is involved with numerous (frequently unsuccessful) relationships with other men. Even when she is not, Frasier has one excuse or another to prevent Niles from telling her anything.
Niles' feelings are ultimately, and accidentally, revealed by Frasier in Season 7. Shocked to discover Niles' true feelings towards her, Daphne finds herself falling in love with Niles in return, placing her in the position Niles had been in for many years: in love with someone unaware of her true feelings.
Heartbroken to discover that he had, on impulse, married his girlfriend Mel, Daphne intends to go ahead with her own marriage to Niles' divorce lawyer Donny, until Frasier intervenes. In a four-part episode closing Season 7 and opening Season 8, Niles finally confesses his feelings to her, and although she initially tells him both of them are better off staying with their current partners (each having made a serious commitment), Daphne changes her mind by the next morning, abandoning Donny at the altar, to Niles' euphoria
Euphoria
Euphoria is an emotional and mental state defined as a sense of great elation and well being.Euphoria may also refer to:* Euphoria , a genus of scarab beetles* Euphoria, a genus name previously used for the longan and other trees...
.
Shortly thereafter, she gains sixty pounds (4 stone 4 pounds), but Niles is so blinded by love he doesn't notice until Daphne falls to the floor and is too heavy to get up without the help of Frasier, Niles and Martin (who remarks "it took three Cranes to lift you"). The weight problem was written into the show to allow Leeves to continue working while pregnant. Daphne then left for several weeks to attend a "spa for fat people" and returned with her figure restored. Her therapist at the spa, Gloria, tells her that she began over-eating to create distance between herself and Niles because she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to live up to Niles' lofty expectations after he spent the last seven years believing she was perfect(Episode Daphne Returns). During the episode "It Takes Two to Tangle" in which she did not appear while at the resort, Niles tells Roz that Daphne had lost 9 pounds, 12 ounces (the weight of Leeves' baby in real life).
At some point in Season 10, she becomes a U.S. Citizen. In the first episode of Season 10, Daphne and Niles marry in a small, private ceremony in Reno, Nevada
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
. The rest of Season 10 and early Season 11 show Daphne and Niles adjusting to their new life as a wedded couple. Daphne and Niles have their first child, David, in the final episode of the series, "Goodnight, Seattle
Goodnight, Seattle
"Goodnight, Seattle" is the title of the series finale of the long-running American sitcom Frasier. It aired on May 13, 2004, in the 11th year of the series...
". (He is named after the show's co-creator David Angell
David Angell
David Lawrence Angell was an American producer of sitcoms. Angell won multiple Emmy Awards as the creator and executive producer, along with Peter Casey and David Lee, of the comedy series Frasier...
who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks.)
Family
Daphne grew up in a very large dysfunctional familyDysfunctional family
A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is...
. They are often the subject of her long-winded tales that sometimes leave the Cranes somewhat perplexed. Although frequently mentioned, the first time one of her family members appears on the show is in the season 7 episode "Dark Side of the Moon", in which Donny surprises Daphne with a visit from her brother, Simon (Anthony LaPaglia
Anthony LaPaglia
Anthony M. LaPaglia is an Australian actor. He is known for his role as FBI agent Jack Malone on the American TV series Without a Trace, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama...
), not knowing that she dislikes him (her favorite brother, Stephen, never appears until the final episode, where he is played by Richard E. Grant
Richard E. Grant
Richard E. Grant is a Swaziland-born British actor, screenwriter and director. His most notable role came in the film Withnail and I. He holds dual British and Swazi citizenship.-Early life:...
). In "Something Borrowed, Someone Blue" Daphne's mother makes her first appearance, while her father only makes his debut in Season 9.
In the episode "An Affair to Forget" she mentions she had an ancestor who served on HMS Bounty
Mutiny on the Bounty
The mutiny on the Bounty was a mutiny that occurred aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789, and has been commemorated by several books, films, and popular songs, many of which take considerable liberties with the facts. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the...
who took Fletcher Christian
Fletcher Christian
Fletcher Christian was a master's mate on board the Bounty during William Bligh's fateful voyage to Tahiti for breadfruit plants...
's side in the mutiny. According to her he made it to Pitcairn Island with a Tahitian wife and had several children. When she mentioned to Niles that there may be Polynesian version of her on the island, he nearly fainted as the image entered his mind.
Five out of Daphne's eight brothers have appeared on the show; few of them maintained consistency with Daphne's Northern accent. LaPaglia, an Australian actor, faked a Cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
(London) accent, while Robbie Coltrane
Robbie Coltrane
Robbie Coltrane, OBE is a Scottish actor, comedian and author. He is known both for his role as Dr...
, who is Scottish, played Daphne's brother Michael with a muddled Brummie
Brummie
Brummie is a colloquial term for the inhabitants, accent and dialect of Birmingham, England, as well as being a general adjective used to denote a connection with the city, locally called Brum...
(Birmingham) accent. Most of the brothers are portrayed as lawless, alcoholic ne'er-do-wells and womanizers, except for Billy, who is implied to be gay, such as in the episode Daphne's Room, in which Daphne said her brothers would "sneak into the bathroom and peek at me in the shower ... except for me brother Billy, the ballroom dancer. He never peeked at me, though he did peek at me brother Nigel." When Daphne talks with her mom Gertrude about resuming her sex life with Niles after his heart surgery, Gertrude tells her to "use your feminine wiles - that's how your brother Billy landed Kevin." According to Daphne, Billy rejected the family's traditional fishing background by announcing that he "hated the smell of fish, and was going to teach ballroom dancing." Daphne also has an uncle who lives in San Francisco, and who is said to be both a priest and a transvestite.