John Mahoney

Charles John Mahoney (June 20, 1940 – February 4, 2018) was an English-American actor. From 1993 to 2004, Mahoney played the retired police officer Martin Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for the role. He is also known for his roles on stage and screen. Mahoney started his career in Chicago as a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company alongside John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, and Laurie Metcalf. He received the Clarence Derwent Award as Most Promising Male Newcomer in 1986. Later that year, his performance in the Broadway revival of John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves earned him a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Mahoney gained attention for his role in John Patrick Shanley's romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987). His other film roles include in Tin Men (1987), Eight Men Out (1988), Say Anything... (1989), Barton Fink (1991), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), In the Line of Fire (1993), and The American President (1995). He also voiced roles in Antz (1998), The Iron Giant (1999), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), and Kronk's New Groove (2005). In television, Mahoney also made appearances on Cheers, 3rd Rock from the Sun, ER, In Treatment, Hot in Cleveland, and Foyle's War. Early life and education Charles John Mahoney was born in Blackpool, England on June 20, 1940, the seventh of eight children. His father, Reg, was a baker who played classical piano, and his mother, Margaret (née Watson), was a housewife who loved reading. His paternal grandfather was Irish. The family had been evacuated to Blackpool from their home city of Manchester when it was heavily bombed during the Second World War. Mahoney started school at St Joseph's College. After the war, the family moved back to Manchester, where Mahoney grew up in the suburb of Withington and discovered acting at the Stretford Children's Theatre. His parents' marriage was not happy. They would not speak to each other for long periods of time—and when they did, it often led to heated arguments. The family situation, combined with the war, fueled Mahoney's interest in acting and he vowed to leave Manchester.