Kirstie Alley
Encyclopedia
Kirstie Louise Alley is an American actress known for her role in the TV show Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...

, in which she played Rebecca Howe
Rebecca Howe
Rebecca Howe-Santry is a fictional character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Kirstie Alley. She is introduced after Shelley Long, who played overeducated barmaid Diane Chambers, left to pursue a movie career...

 from 1987–1993, winning an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

 and a Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

 as the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1991. She is also known for her role in the Look Who's Talking
Look Who's Talking
Look Who's Talking is a 1989 romantic comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling and stars John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. Bruce Willis plays the voice of Mollie's son, Mikey. The film features George Segal as Albert, the illegitimate father of Mikey.-Plot:Mollie Jensen is an accountant...

film series as Mollie Ubriacco.

Early life

Kirstie Alley was born in Wichita
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...

, Kansas, the daughter of Lillian Mickie (née Heaton), a homemaker, and Robert Deal Alley, who owned a lumber company. She has two siblings, Colette and Craig. Alley attended Wichita Southeast High School and became a cheerleader, graduating in 1969. She attended college at Kansas State University
Kansas State University
Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...

 in 1969. In 1981, a car accident caused by a drunk driver killed her mother and left her father seriously injured. Her father eventually recovered. Kirstie came to Los Angeles to work as an interior designer and appeared as a contestant on the popular game show Match Game
Match Game
Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...

, where she won multiple games. She also appeared on the game show Password Plus in 1980.

Career

Alley made her movie debut in 1982 in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the second feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The plot features James T...

, playing a Vulcan and Starfleet officer, Lieutenant Saavik. In 1989, Alley starred in Look Who's Talking
Look Who's Talking
Look Who's Talking is a 1989 romantic comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling and stars John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. Bruce Willis plays the voice of Mollie's son, Mikey. The film features George Segal as Albert, the illegitimate father of Mikey.-Plot:Mollie Jensen is an accountant...

alongside John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...

 which grossed over $295,000,000 worldwide.

Alley has won two Emmy Awards during her career. Her first two nominations for her work on Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...

did not earn her the award, but her third, in 1991, garnered her the statuette for that series. In her speech, she thanked then-husband Parker Stevenson
Parker Stevenson
Parker Stevenson is an American television and film actor.-Career:His first notable screen appearance was a starring role in the 1972 movie A Separate Peace...

, calling him "the man who has given me the big one for the last eight years".

For contributions to the motion picture industry, Kirstie Alley was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...

.

Alley played the title character in the NBC sitcom Veronica's Closet
Veronica's Closet
Veronica's Closet is a sitcom which aired on NBC from September 25, 1997, to June 27, 2000.The show starred Kirstie Alley as Veronica “Ronnie” Chase, the head of her own lingerie company.- Season one :...

, as well as served as executive producer.

Alley served as the spokesperson for Pier One from 2000 to 2004 and Jenny Craig from 2005 to 2008.

Dancing with the Stars

In February 2011, Alley was announced as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars
Dancing with the Stars
Dancing with the Stars is the name of several international television series based on the format of the British TV series Strictly Come Dancing, which is distributed by BBC Worldwide – the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the format has been licensed to over 35 countries...

. She was partnered with Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Maksim Aleksandrovich Chmerkovskiy is a Ukrainian-American Latin Ballroom dance champion, choreographer, and instructor. He is best known as one of the professional dancers on the American television series Dancing with the Stars, on which he first appeared in season two...

. Their first dance, a cha-cha-cha
Cha-cha-cha (dance)
The Cha-cha-cha is the name of a dance of Cuban origin.It is danced to the music of the same name introduced by Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrín in 1953...

, earned the second-highest score, 23 out of 30. On May 24, 2011, Alley and Chmerkovskiy performed their final dance, a cha-cha-cha earning them a perfect score of 30 out of 30. Alley finished the competition in second place, behind Hines Ward
Hines Ward
Hines E. Ward, Jr. is an American football player who currently plays the wide receiver position for the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, where he is the longest-tenured current player on the team. He was voted MVP of Super Bowl XL. He played college football at the University of Georgia...

.

Personal life

Kirstie met and dated a distant cousin, Bob Alley, in high school. They married in 1970, but divorced seven years later as their career paths diverged. Alley was married to her second husband, Parker Stevenson
Parker Stevenson
Parker Stevenson is an American television and film actor.-Career:His first notable screen appearance was a starring role in the 1972 movie A Separate Peace...

 (Richard Stevenson Parker, Jr.) on December 22, 1983. They divorced in 1997. The latter couple now share two children, William True and Lillie Price, whom they adopted. Alley also had brief relationships with Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...

 of Animal House and James Wilder of Melrose Place.

In 2010 Kirstie Alley put her Encino, CA, house on the market for $6.5 million.

Alley is a well documented animal lover, and is the pet parent to 14 pets including a family of lemurs. Alley estimates that she spends roughly $40,000 annually on upkeep and care for her pets.

Weight loss

In March 2010 Alley launched Organic Liaison, which includes Rescue Me, the first USDA-certified organic weight loss product. She announced that she lost 100 lbs using the program in September of 2011.

Scientology

Alley was raised Methodist but is now a member of the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...

. At the time she became a Scientologist, Alley admitted to having had a cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

 addiction and went through Narconon
Narconon
Narconon is a residential program aimed at substance abusers, headquartered in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It operates through several dozen treatment centers worldwide, chiefly in the United States and Western Europe. Each Narconon center is independently owned and operated under a license...

, a Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...

-affiliated drug treatment program, to end her dependency. She has continued her Scientology training and, as of 2007, had attained the level of OT VII (Operating Thetan
Operating Thetan
In Scientology, the state of Operating Thetan is a spiritual state above Clear. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, defined it as "knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time ". According to religious scholar J...

 level 7).

In May 2000, she purchased, for $1.5 million, the former home of fellow Scientologist Lisa Marie Presley
Lisa Marie Presley
Lisa Marie Presley is an American singer and songwriter, also known as the "Princess of Rock and Roll". She is the only child of Elvis Presley, and daughter of Priscilla Presley.-Early life:...

, a 5200 sq ft (483.1 m²) waterfront mansion in Clearwater
Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...

, Florida, the spiritual headquarters of the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...

. In 2007, Alley gave $5 million to the Church of Scientology.

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the second feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The plot features James T...

Lt. Saavik
Saavik
Lieutenant JG Saavik is a fictional character in the Star Trek universe. She first appeared in the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan played by Kirstie Alley. Robin Curtis took on the role after a salary dispute caused Alley to drop out of the sequel, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock...

Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1983 One More Chance
One More Chance (1983 film)
One More Chance is a 1983 film written and directed by Sam Firstenberg. The film marks his directorial debut.-Plot:An ex-con returns home to find that his family left and he has no idea where they went. Only a neighbor knows where they moved, but does not want to give him the information until he...

Sheila
1984 Champions Barbara
1984 Blind Date
Blind Date (1984 film)
Blind Date, also known as Deadly Seduction, is a 1984 independent thriller by B-film maker Nico Mastorakis. It stars Kirstie Alley and Joseph Bottoms...

Claire Simpson
1984 Runaway
Runaway (1984 film)
Runaway is a 1984 science fiction action film starring Tom Selleck, Gene Simmons and Cynthia Rhodes. This film also features Kirstie Alley in one of her early appearances. The film was written and directed by Michael Crichton. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, and was the...

Jackie Rogers Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1987 Summer School
Summer School (film)
Summer School is a 1987 film directed by Carl Reiner about the travails of a high school gym teacher who is forced to teach a remedial English class for a bunch of maladjusted goof-off students. It stars Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley, and Courtney Thorne-Smith. The original music score was composed by...

Ms. Robin Bishop
1988 Shoot to Kill Sarah Renell
1989 Look Who's Talking
Look Who's Talking
Look Who's Talking is a 1989 romantic comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling and stars John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. Bruce Willis plays the voice of Mollie's son, Mikey. The film features George Segal as Albert, the illegitimate father of Mikey.-Plot:Mollie Jensen is an accountant...

Mollie Jensen
1989 Loverboy
Loverboy (1989 film)
Loverboy is a 1989 American comedy film starring Patrick Dempsey, Kirstie Alley, and Carrie Fisher.-Plot:Randy Bodek is a rebellious slacker in college, living with his girlfriend Jenny . His father, furious over Randy's lack of direction or work ethic, pulls the funding for college and requires...

Dr. Joyce Palmer
1990 Madhouse
Madhouse (1990 film)
Madhouse is a 1990 film starring Kirstie Alley and John Larroquette as a successful married couple whose idyllic California life is ruined when their house is overrun by unwelcome houseguests. This begins when their mail is delayed due to forwarding issues and they find out a cousin, Fred, and his...

Jessie Bannister
1990 Look Who's Talking Too
Look Who's Talking Too
Look Who's Talking Too is the 1990 sequel to the commercially successful movie Look Who's Talking . It stars John Travolta and Kirstie Alley as the parents of Mikey , a toddler coping with the newest addition to the family, baby Julie...

Mollie Ubriacco
1990 Sibling Rivalry
Sibling Rivalry (film)
Sibling Rivalry is a 1990 black comedy starring Kirstie Alley, Sam Elliott, Jami Gertz, Bill Pullman, Carrie Fisher, and Scott Bakula, directed by Carl Reiner.-Plot:...

Marjorie Turner
1993 Look Who's Talking Now
Look Who's Talking Now
Look Who's Talking Now is the third and final installment in the film series that began with Look Who's Talking in 1989. Released in 1993, the film finds John Travolta and Kirstie Alley reprising their roles as James and Mollie Ubriacco, respectively, and introducing the newly extended family...

Mollie Ubriacco
1994 3 Chains o' Gold Vanessa Bartholomew
1995 Village of the Damned
Village of the Damned (1995 film)
John Carpenter's Village of the Damned is a 1995 science fiction-horror film directed by John Carpenter. It is a remake of the 1960 film of the same name which is based on the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. The 1995 remake is set in the United States, while the book and original film...

Dr. Susan Verner
1995 It Takes Two Diane Barrows
1997 Deconstructing Harry
Deconstructing Harry
Deconstructing Harry is a black comedy film by Woody Allen released in 1997. This film tells the story of a successful writer called Harry Block, played by Allen himself, who draws inspiration from people he knows in real-life, and from events that happened to him, sometimes causing these people to...

Joan
1997 For Richer or Poorer
For Richer or Poorer
For Richer or Poorer is a 1997 comedy film starring Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley. It is rated PG-13 for some sexual innuendo and one use of strong language.-Plot :...

Caroline Sexton
1997 Toothless Katherine Lewis, DDS and the Tooth Fairy
Tooth fairy
The tooth fairy is a fantasy figure of early childhood. The folklore states that when a child loses a baby tooth, if he or she places it beneath the bed pillow, the tooth fairy will visit while the child sleeps, replacing the lost tooth with a small payment....

1999 Drop Dead Gorgeous Gladys Leeman
2002 Back by Midnight
Back by Midnight
Back By Midnight is a 2002 comedy film starring Rodney Dangerfield, Phil LaMarr, Harland Williams, Randy Quaid, Gilbert Gottfried, and Kirstie Alley. However, it was not released until 2005...

Gloria Beaumont
???? Nailed Aunt Rita

Television
Year Title Role Notes
1979 Match Game
Match Game
Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...

Herself-Contestant
1983 Masquerade
Masquerade (TV series)
Masquerade is an American espionage television series that aired for a few months on ABC in the spring of 1983.-Synopsis:Considered an amalgam of Mission: Impossible and The Love Boat, the tongue-in-cheek series starred Rod Taylor as Mr...

Casey Collins (2 episodes)
1984 Sins of the Past Patrice Cantwell
1985 Gloria Steinem
1985 Angelica Episode "Out of the Night"
Nominated—CableACE Award for Actress in a Dramatic Series
1985 North and South
North and South (TV miniseries)
North and South is the title of three American television miniseries broadcast on the ABC network in 1985, 1986, and 1994. Set before, during, and immediately after the American Civil War, they are based on the 1980s trilogy of novels North and South by John Jakes. The 1985 first installment, North...

Virgilia Hazard (miniseries)
1986 North and South II
North and South (TV miniseries)
North and South is the title of three American television miniseries broadcast on the ABC network in 1985, 1986, and 1994. Set before, during, and immediately after the American Civil War, they are based on the 1980s trilogy of novels North and South by John Jakes. The 1985 first installment, North...

Virgilia Hazard (miniseries)
1986 Stark: Mirror Image Maggie Carter
1987 Jane L. Episode "The Legendary Billy B."
1987 Infidelity
Infidelity (film)
Infidelity is a 1987 television film directed by David Lowell Rich, and starring Kirstie Alley and Lee Horsley.- Plot :A happily married couple, Ellie and Nick Denato are living in the wildlife of Africa with their young daughter Melissa...

Eliot 'Ellie' Denato
1987–1993 Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...

Rebecca Howe
Rebecca Howe
Rebecca Howe-Santry is a fictional character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Kirstie Alley. She is introduced after Shelley Long, who played overeducated barmaid Diane Chambers, left to pursue a movie career...

Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Comedy Series (1991)
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy (1991)
Nominated—Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Comedy Series (1988, 1990, 1992, 1993)
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy (1990, 1992, 1993)
1994 David's Mother
David's Mother
David's Mother is a 1994 television film directed by Robert Allan Ackerman and stars Kirstie Alley as a devoted mother trying to cope with her autistic teenage son David . The film aired on CBS on April 10, 1994, it has also aired internationally. In the UK it can often be seen on television...

Sally Goodson Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
1996 Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf , Op. 67, is a composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 in the USSR. It is a children's story , spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra....

Annie / Bird / Duck / Cat
1996 Radiant City Gloria Goodman
1997 Rose Marie Clericuzio (miniseries)
Nominated—Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1997 Toothless
Toothless (TV)
Toothless is a 1997 children's fantasy television movie that first aired as part of The Wonderful World of Disney on ABC.-Plot:The movie opens with Katherine Lewis, sharing her memories of going to see her dentist, Dr. Green, who took over Dr. Lewis's office after he died...

Dr. Katherine Lewis (TV movie)
1997–2000 Veronica's Closet
Veronica's Closet
Veronica's Closet is a sitcom which aired on NBC from September 25, 1997, to June 27, 2000.The show starred Kirstie Alley as Veronica “Ronnie” Chase, the head of her own lingerie company.- Season one :...

Veronica Chase (also producer)
Nominated—Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Comedy Series (1997)
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy (1998)
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
1998 Rose Marie Clericuzio (miniseries)
2001 Blonde
Blonde (film)
Blonde is a 2001 made-for-television film on the life of Marilyn Monroe. Australian actress Poppy Montgomery steps into the role of the blonde bombshell who transformed herself from Norma Jean Baker to the sexy Hollywood Icon.-Plot:...

Elsie (miniseries)
2002 Salem Witch Trials Ann Putnam (miniseries)
2003 Profoundly Normal Donna Lee Shelby Thornton (also executive producer)
2004 Family Sins Brenda Geck
2004 While I Was Gone
While I Was Gone
While I Was Gone is the 1999 novel by Sue Miller, and was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in May 2000.While I Was Gone was a TV movie for CBS in 2004 based on the novel....

Jo Beckett
2004 Without A Trace
Without a Trace
Without a Trace is an American television drama which originally ran on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009. The series was set in New York City and concerned a fictitious FBI Missing Persons Unit.-Premise:...

Noreen Raab Episode "Risen"
2005 Fat Actress
Fat Actress
Fat Actress is an American sitcom television series starring Kirstie Alley. It aired on Showtime in the United States in the spring of 2005, on Movie Central in Western Canada, The Movie Network in Eastern Canada, FX in the UK, Network Ten in Australia and VOX and Das Vierte in Germany...

Self (also creator and writer)
(7 episodes)
2006 King of Queens Self
2007 Write & Wrong
Write & Wrong
Write & Wrong is a 2007 Lifetime Television movie, directed by Graeme Clifford and starring Kirstie Alley and Eric Christian Olsen....

Byrdie Langdon
2007 Sydney Hudson
2010 Self (guest judge)
2010 Kirstie Alley's Big Life
Kirstie Alley's Big Life
Kirstie Alley's Big Life is a semi-scripted reality tv series that follows Kirstie Alley as she tries to lose weight and promote her new weight loss program...

Self (documentee) Reality TV Series
2011 Dancing with the Stars
Dancing with the Stars (U.S. season 12)
Dancing with the Stars returned for its twelfth season on March 21, 2011. Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Len Goodman returned to the show as judges, while Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke returned as hosts....

Herself-Contestant Season 12 Reality TV Series

External links

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