The Only Remaining Cheers Actors Still Alive Today
"Cheers" is, without question, one of the most beloved and iconic sitcoms in television history. In her memoir "Bossypants," Tina Fey discussed the difficulty of writing a pilot and referenced the series as one of the best to ever do it, saying, "If you want to see a great pilot, watch the first episode of 'Cheers.' It's charming, funny, and well constructed. If you want to see an awkward, sweaty pilot episode, watch '30 Rock.'"
Unflattering comparisons to her own work by Fey aside, "Cheers" has earned its flowers over the years without question, and new and old fans alike are always happy to revisit the Boston-set show where "everybody knows your name." A lot of actors from the cast of "Cheers" have passed away since the show's heyday – Nicolas Colasanto died unexpectedly of a heart attack during the show's run and his character Coach Ernie Pantusso was written off, while Kirstie Alley passed away in 2022. Despite this, many of the show's major players are still with us — some of whom remain huge names in Hollywood. Here are all of the performers from "Cheers" who are still alive.
Ted Danson (Sam Malone)
As one of the main "Cheers" cast members who stayed with the show from its very beginning to the end, Ted Danson earned his place in television history thanks to the starring role of Sam Malone. A former athlete who turned to bartending after his baseball career ended, Sam is a playboy who keeps pursuing his co-worker, Diane Chambers (Shelley Long), with the two serving as the show's "will-they, won't-they" couple. With a bar towel thrown over his shoulder and a rakish grin, Sam is as charming as he is hilarious, and the role helped make Danson a huge star.
Danson has been acting since "Cheers," but recently, audiences might know him best from his subversive, funny, and shockingly heartfelt turn on NBC's afterlife comedy "The Good Place." His role as a demon-turned-hero Michael earned him an Emmy nomination (as did his role in the drama "Damages"), and he also appeared in shows like "Bored to Death," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Mr. Mayor," and the anthology TV adaptation of "Fargo." On the big screen, he's shown up in films like "Three Men and a Baby," "Body Heat," and "Saving Private Ryan," and there's no question that he's one of the most well-regarded and universally liked actors in the industry, even after all these years.
John Ratzenberger (Cliff Clavin)
As the lovable, trivia-obsessed mailman who enjoys hanging out at Cheers, John Ratzenberger's Cliff Clavin is a total delight. Cliff, one of the bar's regulars, has a habit of announcing fun facts and obscure knowledge to the entire room, which everyone finds sort of irritating (especially Carla Tortelli, played by Rhea Perlman). Perhaps his most memorable moment in the entire history of "Cheers" is when he finally gets to go on "Jeopardy" and gets categories like "Stamps of the World" and "Beer," catering to his knowledge perfectly ... until he loses it all on the final question and freaks out at Alex Trebek.
Playing Cliff earned Ratzenberger two Emmy nods, and aside from his role on "Cheers," he's probably best known for his voice work in Pixar movies. He's voiced everyone from Hamm the piggy bank in the "Toy Story" movies and Mack in "Cars" to supporting player Fritz in "Inside Out" — in fact, starting with "Toy Story," he has lent his distinctive voice to nearly every Pixar movie ever made. In 2023, he also appeared in a one-episode role in the hit Peacock series "Poker Face."
George Wendt (Norm Peterson)
Perhaps the most regular of all of the regulars who hangs out at the bar in "Cheers," George Wendt's Norm Peterson is so reliably present at his barstool that when he walks in each day, the staff greets him by yelling "Norm!" He's an accountant by trade but is constantly between jobs and unlucky in love, so as a result, Norm's complaints about his daily grievances are a staple of the series. For example, when he's told that a "cold one" is all set for him at the bar in one episode, he simply responds, "I know. If she calls, I'm not here." Another time, when Sam asks how Norm is, he says, "It's a dog-eat-dog world, Sammy. And I'm wearing Milkbone underwear."
Wendt kept working steadily after his time playing Norm, starting with the short-lived sitcom "The George Wendt Show." That only lasted for a handful of episodes in the spring of 1995, and afterward, he popped up on shows like "Seinfeld," "The Simpsons," and "Columbo." Wendt has also performed extensively on stage — including a stint on Broadway as Edna Turnblad in "Hairspray" — and in 2023, he showed up on the ninth season of "The Masked Singer" as a moose.
Kelsey Grammer (Frasier Crane)
In case you forgot, Kelsey Grammer has been playing Dr. Frasier Crane for decades now. Grammer joined the cast of "Cheers" in its third season as the famous fictional psychiatrist who shows up to help Sam with both his grief over his breakup with Diane and his struggles with alcohol addiction. Ultimately, he joins the gang at Cheers and provides commentary on all of their mental disorders (as he perceives them) ... and finds love with Lilith Sternin (Bebe Neuwirth).
As everyone knows, Grammer took the character from Boston to Seattle for the eponymous and wildly successful spin-off "Frasier," in which the actor starred from 1993 to 2004. He took home multiple accolades for the show, including multiple Emmys and Golden Globes. He reprised the role in the 2023 "Frasier" spin-off on Paramount+, and beyond Frasier Crane, Grammer has appeared on television shows like "30 Rock" as well as the "X-Men" films as Dr. Hank McCoy aka Beast. He's also an accomplished stage actor, playing roles like Don Quixote in "Man of La Mancha" in London's West End and Lumiére in "Beauty in the Beast" at the Hollywood Bowl. Even now, Grammer is still a Hollywood staple — even when he's not playing Frasier.
Woody Harrelson (Woody Boyd)
After losing Coach because the actor playing him died in real life, the show brought in reinforcements for Season 4 in the form of bartender Woody Boyd, played by Woody Harrelson. At first, Woody is introduced as Coach's "pen pal" who traveled to the bar hoping to meet his long-distance friend, and upon realizing he'd passed away, took over an open bartending position. The best way to describe Woody is sweet and kind, but extraordinarily simple, and Harrelson makes a total meal out of each birdbrained moment. While people like Frasier are cracking erudite jokes, Woody struggles to keep up, but his cluelessness is completely endearing.
After his time as Woody Boyd, Harrelson moved on to the big screen and built a serious name for himself in Hollywood. "White Men Can't Jump," "Natural Born Killers," "The Thin Red Line," both "Zombieland" films, "Seven Psychopaths," and "Triangle of Sadness" are just some of Harrelson's biggest projects, and he's also well-known for playing former victor and mentor Haymitch Abernathy in the original "Hunger Games" movies. Harrelson scored Oscar nominations for his acclaimed roles in "The People vs. Larry Flynt," "The Messenger" and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," and Emmy nominations came for his roles in "True Detective" and the TV movie "Game Change." He's only won one Emmy, though ... which happened to be for playing Woody Boyd in a guest role on "Frasier."
Shelley Long (Diane Chambers)
Shelley Long won two Golden Globes and one Emmy (alongside several other nominations) for playing Diane Chambers on "Cheers," and all of those awards were well-deserved. Thanks to Long, Diane is one of the most relatable and endearing characters on "Cheers" — and in the hands of the wrong actress, Diane could have been an enormous snob. Her on-again, off-again romance with Sam Malone is the stuff of TV legend. When audiences first meet Diane, her fiancé had just jilted her and she's financially desperate, so she takes a job at the bar — because thanks to her natural intelligence and the fact that she's pursuing a graduate degree at Boston University, she's incredible at memorizing drink orders. Despite being the target of Carla's jokes and ire, Diane sticks around until the show's fifth season, when she moves to California.
Diane only moves to California because Long elected to leave the show, and after "Cheers," she briefly reprised the role on "Frasier" in a short guest arc. Long appeared in films like "Troop Beverly Hills" and "A Very Brady Sequel" after playing Diane. Audiences these days probably know her best from her guest arc as DeDe Pritchett — mother of Mitchell and Claire and ex-wife of Jay, played by Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, and Ed O'Neill, respectively — on "Modern Family."
Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith Sternin)
Bebe Neuwirth first appeared on "Cheers" in its fourth season as Lilith Sternin, a date that Diane Chamber arranges for Frasier Crane ... and though the duo's first date doesn't go very well, they end up trying again and getting together. Lilith and Frasier date for some time, move in together, and get married before she gets pregnant and gives birth to the couple's son Frederick. But after years of domestic bliss, Lilith admits to having an affair with another man in Season 11. A lot of drama ensues — including Frasier attempting to get revenge on his wife by seducing bar manager Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley), only for Lilith to walk in on them — but Frasier eventually takes Lilith back before the series ends. Lilith and Frasier do split up in time for the spin-off "Frasier" to begin, and though she stays in Boston with their son, both Lilith and Frederick appear in a few early episodes of "Frasier."
Neuwirth is, first and foremost, an incredibly accomplished stage actress; throughout her career, she's earned two Tony Awards and appeared on Broadway in shows like "A Chorus Line" and "Chicago." You probably also know her from movies like "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," "Say Anything," and "Jumanji" (as well as 2019's "Jumanji: The Next Level") and television shows like "The Good Wife," "The Good Fight," and, naturally, the "Frasier" reboot.
Rhea Perlman (Carla Tortelli)
As Carla Tortelli, Rhea Perlman appeared in every single episode of "Cheers," and it feels like the show would be missing something without her caustic, sharp wit. A cocktail waitress who's extremely superstitious and more than a little promiscuous, Carla has four kids to support with her ex-husband Nick Tortelli (Dan Hedaya), before having four more with ice hockey player turned ice dancer Eddie LeBec (Jay Thomas). She constantly struggles to make ends meet by working at Cheers — where she picked up a gig in the first place because she's a huge baseball fan and remembers Sam Malone from his former career. Carla can be downright insulting to both her colleagues and patrons, but Perlman keeps a handle on the role and prevents her from becoming a full-blown caricature.
Perlman was nominated for a whopping 10 Emmys (she won four) and six Golden Globes for playing Carla, and after "Cheers," she moved on to classic projects like the 1996 Roald Dahl adaptation "Matilda," the CBS series "Pearl," and an eventual guest spot on "Frasier" (alongside a bunch of her other former co-stars). From 2014 to 2017, Perlman played Annette Castellano — mother to Chris Messina's Danny — on "The Mindy Project" and appeared in comedies like "Poker Face" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (which stars Danny Devito, from whom Perlman is separated, though the two are still close). Notably, Perlman showed up as real-life Barbie creator Barbara Handler in Greta Gerwig's 2023 film "Barbie."