Ted Danson

• 1. Introduction

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  Ted Danson, born Edward Bridge Danson III, was at the center of a television event on the 20th of May 1993. That evening, 80 million people watched the final episode of Cheers, the second-most watched series finale in television history at that time. Danson played Sam Malone, the bartender at the heart of the show. The role earned him two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes.

  Most actors would struggle to follow a part like that. Danson kept working, and he kept surprising audiences. So how did a basketball-playing teenager from Arizona end up on that stage? What did he do when the biggest role of his life was behind him? And what happened away from the cameras, where marriages, a medical emergency, a public scandal and a cause that began in his childhood shaped him just as much as the sitcom did?

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• 2. Flagstaff to Daytime

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  Ned Danson, an archaeologist, served as curator of the Museum of Northern Arizona from 1959 to 1975. His son was born on the 29th of December 1947 in San Diego. The boy's mother was Jessica Harriet, born MacMaster. He grew up mostly in Flagstaff, Arizona, with an older sister, Jessica Ann, known as Jan. The family had Scottish and English heritage, with roots in colonial New England and ties to historical figures such as Anne Hutchinson.

  In 1961, at age 14, Danson went east to the Kent School, a university-preparatory school in Connecticut. There he was a star player on the basketball team. Drama came later, at Stanford University. Looking for a stronger acting program, he moved to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1972 with a B.F.A. in Drama. In 1973 he reached Broadway, appearing in Status Quo Vadis at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.

  In 1975, Danson began his television career as a contract player on the daytime soap opera Somerset, playing Tom Conway until 1976. That same year he had appeared on The Doctors as Dr. Chuck Weldon. In 1977 he returned to that soap as Dr. Mitchell Pierson. Between roles he did commercials, and he became best known as the "Aramis man."

  Guest parts filled the gaps. Between the late 1970s and early 1980s he turned up on Laverne & Shirley, Taxi, Magnum, P.I., Benson, Family, B. J. and the Bear, The Amazing Spider-Man, Tucker's Witch and Mrs. Columbo.

  The Onion Field, released in 1978, gave him his first film role, as the bagpipe-playing Officer Ian Campbell. Body Heat followed in 1981. Creepshow arrived in 1982, the same year Danson won the part that would define him.

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• 3. Sam Malone's Bar

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  Danson was cast in 1982 as Sam Malone, a baseball star of local legend who had turned to tending bar. The NBC sitcom Cheers built much of its romance around Sam's on-again-off-again relationship with Diane Chambers, a sophisticated, college-educated woman.

  The first season of Cheers finished last in the ratings, even though critics liked it. Viewership climbed gradually by 1983, and by 1986 the show ranked among the ten most-watched programs on television. It ran for 11 seasons, from 1982 to 1993, and Danson appeared in 275 episodes.

  The awards piled up. Cheers won four Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series, plus a Golden Globe for Best Series, Musical or Comedy. Danson himself earned 11 consecutive Emmy nominations for playing Sam, and won two of them. He also won two of his nine Golden Globe nominations. In 2002, TV Guide ranked Cheers 18th among the "Greatest Show of All Time" entries, and Time put it on its list of the 100 greatest shows.

  On the 15th of December 1988, Danson was in a minor car accident and came away with a bloody nose. His nose was not broken, though he was in some pain. The writers used the injury in the Cheers episode "How to Win Friends and Electrocute People."

  The sitcom did not keep him from the big screen. Three Men and a Baby, released in 1987, paired him with Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg, and a sequel, Three Men and a Little Lady, came in 1990. Cousins in 1989 put him opposite Isabella Rossellini. Little Treasure, Just Between Friends with Mary Tyler Moore, A Fine Mess and Dad filled out the list. In 1989 he also hosted Saturday Night Live.

  Although comedy was his trade, Something About Amelia, a 1984 television drama, showed another side. It told of a family devastated by the repercussions of incest. The work won him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie, along with an Emmy nomination. Its co-star was Glenn Close, who would work with him again years later on Damages.

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• 4. Reinvention After Cheers

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  In 1994, Danson voiced Sam Malone in The Simpsons episode "Fear of Flying." The following year, Sam Malone walked into Frasier in the episode "The Show Where Sam Shows Up." Even so, Danson was already looking elsewhere. His film work after the finale included Made in America in 1993, Getting Even with Dad in 1994, Loch Ness in 1996 and Saving Private Ryan in 1998, where he played Captain Fred Hamill. Later came Mad Money in 2008 and Big Miracle in 2012.

  In 1996, three years after Cheers ended, he starred in Ink, a short-lived CBS sitcom with his real-life wife, Mary Steenburgen. The same year, the pair played Lemuel Gulliver and his wife in an acclaimed television miniseries of Gulliver's Travels.

  Becker gave him his next long run. From 1998 to 2004, Danson played Dr. John Becker in the title role of the CBS sitcom, across 129 episodes. Paramount Television made it, just as it had made Cheers. In 1999, Hollywood gave him a star on its Walk of Fame. From 2000 to 2024 he also played a fictionalized version of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

  Not everything lasted. In 2006, Danson played a psychiatrist in the ABC sitcom Help Me Help You, which was canceled at midseason because of low ratings. That same year he earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for the television film Knights of the South Bronx.

  In 2007, the FX drama Damages offered something darker. Danson played Arthur Frobisher, a corrupt billionaire. The role brought an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, though he lost to his co-star Željko Ivanek. In the second season he became a recurring character and earned a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. Michael J. Fox won that award for his guest turn on Rescue Me.

  From 2009 to 2011, Danson starred in the HBO sitcom Bored to Death as George Christopher, editor of Edition magazine. The character was laconic and sometimes downright infantile. Critics often singled Danson out as the highlight of the show, calling him a "scene stealer." In 2011 he also appeared in the Beastie Boys video for "Make Some Noise," and the song's lyrics mention him by name.

  From 2011 to 2015, he led the CBS police drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as D.B. Russell, a new graveyard-shift supervisor who had previously run a crime lab in Seattle. Tony Shalhoub, Robin Williams and John Lithgow were also considered for the part. Danson reprised the role in the spin-off CSI: Cyber, which ran from 2015 to 2016 and was canceled after two seasons.

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• 5. Late-Career Surge

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  In 2015, Danson appeared in the second season of the FX anthology series Fargo as Sheriff Hank Larsson, in ten episodes.

  The Good Place came next. From 2016 to 2020, he played Michael opposite Kristen Bell in the NBC sitcom, across 52 episodes. He was nominated for numerous awards for the role, and won many of them. In 2021 and 2022 he led the NBC sitcom Mr. Mayor as Neil Bremer, a wealthy businessman who runs for mayor of Los Angeles for all the wrong reasons.

  One of his odder credits is episode 109 of the Beef and Dairy Network Podcast, titled "Ted Danson." In it he plays an alternate version of himself, called "The Actor Ted Danson," who is trying to collect a debt of 460 million tons of grain.

  In 2024, Danson took the lead as Charles in the Netflix comedy A Man on the Inside. The series is based on the 2020 Academy Award-nominated documentary The Mole Agent. For its first season he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy. He also earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series. By 2024 he had been a regular in twelve television shows, reportedly more than any actor in history.

  That same year, Danson became the official spokesperson for Consumer Cellular, a telephone company. He and Woody Harrelson also launched a Team Coco podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, in which they interview celebrities about their lives and careers. In 2025, he received the Carol Burnett Award.

  A quieter credit followed in 2026. In the PBS documentary Henry David Thoreau, Danson lends his voice to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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• 6. Hearts and Headlines

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  In 1970, Danson married actress Randall Gosch, known as Randy Danson. They divorced in 1975.

  In 1977 he married producer Cassandra Coates, called Casey. On the 24th of December 1979, while giving birth to their first daughter, Kate, Coates suffered a stroke. Danson spent several years caring for her and helping her recuperate. The couple later adopted a second daughter, Katrina.

  A chance meeting in late 1988 changed the course of his personal life. Danson met actress Whoopi Goldberg while a guest on The Arsenio Hall Show, and described her as "a sexy, funny woman." They became friends and appeared together in 1990 in Help Save Planet Earth, a program about saving the environment. Danson played himself, and Goldberg played Mother Earth.

  During the making of Made in America in April 1992, the friendship turned romantic. Gossip tabloids such as the National Enquirer covered the pairing heavily. That year the couple also appeared in the Rock the Vote television special. They were set to star in a Paramount-produced version of Neal Barrett Jr.'s Pink Vodka Blues, written by Marshall Brickman.

  The affair contributed to the end of Danson's marriage to Coates in 1993. The divorce was known then as one of Hollywood's costliest, reportedly costing him $30 million.

  On the 8th of October 1993, Danson appeared in blackface at a Friars Club comedy roast in honor of Goldberg, and used many racist slurs. The performance drew negative press. Goldberg later defended the sketch. She explained that she had helped write much of the material and had referred Danson to the makeup artist who painted his face, calling it a societal critique.

  Mary Steenburgen was the actress he met in 1993 on the set of Pontiac Moon. They married on the 7th of October 1995. Danson became stepfather to her children, Lilly and Charlie, from her earlier marriage to actor Malcolm McDowell. In 2025, at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, the couple received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.

  Danson has tried a plant-based diet several times, and as of 2016 he eats a pescetarian diet. He is Episcopalian.

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• 7. Friends in High Places

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  Bill Clinton, a friend of Danson's, attended the wedding of Danson and Steenburgen. Danson's political giving has leaned heavily Democratic. As of June 2024 he had donated over $177,000 to Democratic candidates and political action committees. The recipients include Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Al Gore, John Edwards, Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Al Franken, John Kerry and the Jane Fonda Climate PAC. He has also given to the Democratic Party of Arkansas and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

  In 2008, Danson and Steenburgen campaigned for Senator Hillary Clinton during her presidential run. On the 31st of July 2010, the couple attended the wedding of Bill and Hillary Clinton's daughter, Chelsea. In 2016, Danson appeared with Steenburgen at the Democratic National Convention.

  On the 3rd of October 2016, he went to the opening of Hillary Clinton's new campaign office in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The office occupied the old Queen Pharmacy on King Street.

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• 8. Defending the Oceans

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  Danson was 12 years old when Bill Breed, then curator of geology at the Museum of Northern Arizona, introduced him and their friend Marc Gaede to a "game" called "billboarding." Armed with axes and saws, Breed, Gaede and Danson destroyed over 500 outdoor advertising signs.

  His environmental concern matured, and his attention turned to the world's oceans. In the 1980s, he was a contributing founder of the American Oceans Campaigns. That group merged with Oceana in 2001, and Danson serves on its board. In 1991, he hosted the A&E television series "Challenge of the Seas," filming 26 one-hour episodes.

  In March 2011, he published his first book, Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do To Save Them, written with journalist Michael D'Orso. Activism also took him into the street. On the 25th of October 2019, Danson was arrested and charged alongside actress Jane Fonda at a climate-change protest outside the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

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