For Kelsey Grammer, Frasier is more than just his most famous role

For many of his fans, Kelsey Grammer is inseparable from his character Dr. Frasier Crane, who first appeared on the sitcom Cheers in 1984 and later got his own spin-off, Frasier, in 1993. Last year, Grammer reprised his most famous role in a reboot of Frasier, which is now in its second season.

"I've had some great success in a couple of other roles, so the audience [has been] willing to embrace me as something else," Grammer tells Q's Tom Power. "But they were always delighted, I think, to see Frasier's still relevant. He still is somebody they want to know more about."

But the actor's connection to Frasier runs deeper than a simple nostalgic appreciation for a long-running character. In Grammer's early life, he suffered several family tragedies, including the murder of his father in 1968, the rape and murder of his sister by a spree killer in 1975, and the death of his two half-brothers in a scuba diving accident in 1980.

He says Frasier gave him back the family he had lost. The late John Mahoney, who played Frasier's dad Martin Crane, was particularly important to him, like a father.

"I got to experience some relationships I didn't have in my own life," Grammer says. "I got to live them through my imagination and my creative force, I guess. And John was as close to me as any person I've ever known, and I really loved him."

Growing up, Grammer was especially close to his younger sister, Karen, who was only 18 when she was murdered. He says he's just finished writing a book about her, which is set to be published next spring.

"[It's] about Karen, but also about my life and about what it's like to deal with a sort of overwhelming, simple, enormous grief," he says. "I realized that people reading about it would probably get some help from it. So it's meant to help, and I think it will."

The care Grammer has for his best-known character is akin to the care he has for his own family.

"I really care about life," he says. "You know, my kids, the people I'm close to. It just needs to be an extraordinary experience. We're meant to do what we're meant to do, and this is what I'm meant to do."

The full interview with Kelsey Grammer is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. He also talks about his time on Cheers and how he ended up voicing Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Kelsey Grammer produced by Vanessa Greco.