Actress Kirstie Alley, best known for her role in the comedy series Cheers, the Look Who’s Talking movies & Star Trek in the 1980s and 90s, has died of cancer at 71, according to a family statement. Her breakout role was as pub manager Rebecca Howe in the NBC sitcom Cheers (1987–1993), for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe in 1991. From 1997 to 2000, she starred in the sitcom Veronica’s Closet, earning additional Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Alley appeared in various films, including Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Summer School (1987), Shoot to Kill (1988), Look Who’s Talking (1989) and its two sequels (1990–1993), Madhouse (1990), Sibling Rivalry (1990), Village of the Damned (1995), It Takes Two (1995), Deconstructing Harry (1997), For Richer or Poorer (1997), and Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999). She won her second Emmy Award in 1994 for the television film David’s Mother. In 1997, Alley received another Emmy nomination for her work in the crime drama series The Last Don.
In 2005, she played a fictionalized version of herself on Showtime’s Fat Actress. She later appeared on Kirstie Alley’s Big Life (2010), and was a contestant on the 12th season of Dancing with the Stars (2011–2012), finishing in second place. In 2013, Alley returned to acting with the title role on the sitcom Kirstie. In 2016, she appeared on the Fox comedy horror series Scream Queens. In 2018, she was a contestant on the 22nd series of the British reality show Celebrity Big Brother, in which she finished as runner-up.
Alley was married from 1970 to 1977 to high-school sweetheart Bob Alley, who coincidentally had the same name as her father. Alley married actor Parker Stevenson on December 22, 1983. Following a miscarriage, the couple adopted son William “True” one week after his October 5, 1992, birth, and in 1995 adopted daughter Lillie. The marriage ended in 1997. In 2016, Alley became a grandmother after her son William had a son of his own.