Six-time Emmy Award-winning actor Kelsey Grammer appeared in a recent interview on PBS where he defended his choice to support President Donald Trump.
On May 14, PBS’s Christiane Amanpour grilled Grammer during her “Amanpour and Company” program. Grammer was there for the musical “Man of La Mancha” that he’s currently starring in, when Amanpour changed the conversation to Grammer’s personal life.
“You are one of those rare Hollywood beasts who is conservative, and you voted for Donald Trump,” she said, adding, “And I just wonder, what, whether you sort of took any hits in Hollywood for that? Did you feel that you were sort of marginalized?”
Actor Kelsey Grammer Shocks Amanpour by Praising Trump, ‘Disrupting’ Washington https://t.co/IxRyZBkPqr pic.twitter.com/hpyYQvayJ7
— NewsBusters (@newsbusters) May 15, 2019
Grammer responded with, “I’m not aware of taking a [career] hit for it, no. Certainly, passions run high, and certainly he has been touched on for an extraordinarily passionate response,” adding, “I don’t know if it’s as serious or horrible as everybody wants it to be.”
Amanpour pressed Grammer again, asking, “I was wondering whether you thought that … many people believe that sort of the fabric is being disrupted.”
However, if she was hoping for a negative comment about President Donald Trump, she was sorely disappointed.
Kelsey Grammer Praises Trump: Washington ‘Clowns’ ‘Didn’t Do Us Any Favors’ the Past 60 Years https://t.co/tWGfeCuj7y pic.twitter.com/kn2bTshKAu
— MediaResearchCenter (@theMRC) May 15, 2019
“Well, I think the fabric being disrupted is a good thing,” Grammer said. “I do not think Washington was doing us any favors for the last 50, 60 years. I think they’ve all been sort of just the same party, the same bunch of clowns, the same bunch of really unpleasant people.”
He added that he didn’t believe that politicians had been helping “anybody but themselves.”
Amanpour didn’t stop there. She then turned the conversation to Europe, asking the actor how he feels about Brexit since he’s been working and living there, and if he thinks the country’s citizens can “get back together again” after such divisions.
“I think the English people should be just fine because, you know, they’ve been through a lot worse,” Grammer said.
“And the American people?” she asked.
“The American people will be just fine, too,” he said. “We’ve been through a lot worse.”
Early Years and Acting Career
Born in the Virgin Islands in 1955, Grammer was fascinated with the works of William Shakespeare and studied for two years at the Juilliard School, according to his biography. Eventually, he appeared in Broadway productions for “Macbeth” and “Othello” in the 1980s, according to Playbill.
Over his four-decade career, he’s appeared on both the large and small screens. He was the first actor in television history to have multiple Emmy nominations for the same role on three series in addition to his wins, according to IMDb. He portrayed the psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcoms “Cheers”(1984-1993) and “Frasier” (1993-2004). He then made another guest appearance as the same character in “Wings.”
Aside from his six Emmy Awards, Grammer has also won two Golden Globe Awards, two American Comedy Awards, and a People’s Choice Award, according to IMDb.
He’s also voiced such characters as Stinky Pete in “Toy Story 2” (1999), Blinky in “Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia” (2016-2018), and Sideshow Bob in “The Simpsons” from (1990-2017).