Kelsey Grammer

Kelsey Grammer was born on Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Grammer's mother, Sally Cranmer (1928–2008), was a dancer who performed under the name of Sally Sullivan. His father, Frank Allen Grammer Jr. was a musician who owned a coffee shop, Greer's Place; and owned and edited a magazine, Virgin Islands View. Kelsey had a younger sister, Karen, and four half-siblings from his father's second marriage. Grammer's personal life has been shaped by many family tragedies. Following his parents' divorce, Grammer was raised in New Jersey by his mother and maternal grandparents, Gordon and Evangeline Cranmer. The family later relocated to Pompano Beach, Florida. Shortly after, when Grammer was twelve years old, his grandfather died of cancer. In 1968, his father was murdered in St. Thomas during a wave of racial violence following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1975, his sister was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in Colorado Springs, Colorado by spree killer Freddie Glenn. In 1980, his two teenage half-brothers died in a scuba diving accident. Grammer attended Pine Crest School, a private preparatory school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was there that he first began to sing and perform on stage. Grammer later won a scholarship to study drama at the Juilliard School, where he was a member of Group 6 from 1973 to 1975. However, after his sister's murder, Grammer failed to attend classes and was eventually expelled. Grammer described himself as "a Caribbean kid", and that he enjoys vacationing in the Bahamas, the US Virgin Islands, and British Virgin Islands.