From 80s sitcom Cheers to semi-autobiographical series Fat Actress, the actor brought unscripted intimacy to both her best roles and her life
It was an impressively shocking moment in the hit sitcom Cheers when actor Kirstie Alley opened her mouth to reveal her tongue gripping a lit cigarette – in one short, catlike movement, she expertly flipped it over, caught it between her teeth and sunk in to a satisfied puff of smoke. In the scene, Alley is wearing a pink turtleneck beneath a pink coat sporting big, 80s shoulders, the whole moment conjuring the feeling of the alpha bad girl taking a surreptitious smoke break in the ladies’ room.
That moment sums up a lot about the unique personality that Alley brought to Cheers and the decades of acting and celebrity that would follow as she hewed out a persona that was compelling in its complexity.
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