"You'll never be disappointed if you always keep an eye on uncharted territory, where you'll be challenged and growing and having fun."
Kirstie Louise Alley (January 12, 1951 – December 5, 2022) was an American actress.
Although she had a long list of acting credits, she was best known for her roles in Cheers, Veronica's Closet, Summer School, Toothless, and Look Who's Talking, and her appearance on Dancing with the Stars. Her debut film role was as Lieutenant Saavik in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Her reality series Fat Actress ran for just seven episodes on Showtime.
She died of cancer on December 5, 2022. The cancer was just recently discovered at the time of her death.
Some tropes associated with Kirstie Alley include:
- Awesome, Dear Boy: She jumped at the chance to be in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, especially playing a Vulcan.note
- The Chew Toy: To varying degrees. She played comedic angst and comeuppance very well.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Frequently delivered to her characters, once her underlings are tired of being pushed around.
- Deadpan Snarker: Either her characters or the characters around her.
- Large Ham: Her characters are known for being over-the-top and making grand/pompous remarks, especially on Kirstie and Fat Actress.
- Poor Communication Kills: Alley wanted to return for Star Trek III (she enjoyed playing Saavik in Star Trek II), but her agent was not clued in on that, and demanded a huge raise from Paramount for the return. The role was instead switched to Robin Curtis.
- Pop-Culture Urban Legends: It's been said on many sites that the reason she never guest-starred on Frasier is because she was a scientologist, and scientologists look down on psychiatry. However, writer Ken Levine and Alley herself have denied this. Levine states that they never considered having Alley reprise her role of Rebecca Howel primarily because they didn't know how to write her in the show, as she and Frasier hardly interacted on Cheersnote ; also, Kirstie claimed she auditioned to play one of Frasier's girlfriends, but was turned down by the producers. Alley once stated, "I don't know how the rumor got started. If I was the one who initially said it, though, I was probably just joking."
