Ted Danson Biography

His father was a prominent museum director and archaeologist, and sent Ted to Kent School, Connecticut. From there, Danson moved back out west to Stanford University.

Whilst attempting to impress a female student, who was an aspiring actress, Ted found himself at his first acting audition. Quickly discovering a passion for drama, he began studying acting at the Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

In 1970, he married his first wife Randall ‘Randy’ Grosch but they divorced in 1975. He then married producer Cassandra ‘Casey’ Coates in 1977.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1978, Ted trained with Dan Fauci at the famous Actor's Institute.

He initially only secured non-speaking roles, and enjoyed relative success in the world of TV commercials, with some performances which would come back to haunt him later.

But it was playing a slimy villain in 'Somerset' on NBC that Danson first came to prominence. In 1978, he received his first film role, as a murdered policeman in 'The Onion Field'. This was followed by a performance in the 1981 movie, 'Body Heat', and an occasional part in the hit TV comedy, 'Taxi'.

During this time, he was caring for and helping his wife recuperate as she had had a stroke while giving birth to their first child in 1979. They later adopted a daughter together.

TV producer Glen Charles had been watching Danson closely, and thought him perfect for the newly created role of Sam Malone, an ex-sports star barman lothario and the star of new sitcom, 'Cheers'.

The series was to achieve immense success and popularity, and Danson won Emmys for the 1989-90 and 1992-93 seasons.

After having tried, during 'Cheers', to break into films, Danson finally hit the big-time, with his performance as one of the "fathers" in 'Three Men and a Baby', in 1987. Now a big-screen and small-screen star, he appeared in the sequel, 'Three Men and a Little Lady' three years later.

Damson and Casey divorced in 1993 following his affair with actress Whoopi Goldberg. It cost Danson $30 million, making it one of the costliest divorces in Hollywood history.

He then married actress Mary Steenburgen on 7 October 1995 and became a stepfather to her two children.

In 1996, Danson appeared as the lead in the TV miniseries adaptation of 'Gulliver’s Travels'. He also appeared in episodes of the 'Cheers' spin-off series, 'Frasier', and opposite his wife in the short-lived TV sitcom, 'Ink'.

He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999.

Danson found another long-term TV gig with medical comedy 'Becker' on Paramount, in which he played an irritable and misanthropic doctor running his own surgery between 1998 and 2004. In total, the show managed 129 episodes before being cancelled.

Although ratings were not stellar, the show was popular enough to allow Danson to re-establish himself as a TV staple for a new, younger audience. He built on this further with a lead role in surreal comedy 'Bored to Death' (2009 onwards), in which he played a magazine editor partial to marijuana alongside Jason Schwartzman's amateur private detective and a comic book artist played by Zack Galifianakis.

The actor also enjoyed recurring cameo appearances as himself on Larry David's semi-autobiographical, improvisational comedy 'Curb Your Enthusiam' along with his wife and actress Mary Steenburgen, while choosing to embrace the dark side once more in his role as shady business tycoon Arthur Frobisher in the hit series 'Damages' (2007-2010). He received two Emmy nominations for Best Supporting Actor during his time on the show but missed out both times.

In 2011, he appeared in the ‘Make Some Noise’ music video by the ‘Beastie Boys’ and his name is mentioned in the lyrics. He also signed on to become a recurring character on the hit crime show ‘CSI’. He plays DB Russell, a new graveyard shift supervisor who previously headed a crime lab in Oregon.

Danson will return to film in 2012 as he is appearing in ‘Big Miracle’, which is about a news reporter and his ex-girlfriend trying to rescue a family of gray whales trapped under rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle.

Away from the screen, Danson has been an active protestor over the past 30 years on a range of environmental issues. He was also a close personal friend of former US president Bill Clinton, providing his public backing to a series of Democratic candidates including Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton.

He also follows a vegan diet but occasionally eats fish.