# John Mahoney of Frasier dead at 77 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death\ **Created:** [February 5, 2018, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mahoney-of-frasier-dead-at-77/808266 "2018-02-05T23:25:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mahoney-of-frasier-dead-at-77/808266/41 "2018-02-07T01:43:53Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > My favorite episode of his was the one in which he told a guy he’d been an astronaut. The ever-enlarging sphere of lies in that episode makes it a classic, but one of Mahoney’s lines especially stayed with me: “I gave Buzz Aldrin his nickname. Everyone thought it was because he flew fast. Nah. It’s because he was afraid of _bees._” ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mahoney-of-frasier-dead-at-77/808266/42 "2018-02-07T03:52:21Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Brilliant supporting role in Barton Fink has a Faulkneresque writer on an alcoholic decline. I didn’t know that was him until today. Holy crap! I never realized that was him. A versatile character actor indeed. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mahoney-of-frasier-dead-at-77/808266/43 "2018-02-07T10:29:10Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > He had a great guest role on \*Cheers \*as a jingle-writer. Don’t have time to search for it now, but I imagine it is immortalized on YouTube somewhere. > > Ah, here it is: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO1AKAKGCvk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO1AKAKGCvk) There’s an interesting story behind that gig. Mahoney was hired as a last-minute replacement for the original guest star, who suddenly abandoned the production midway through. [According to writer Ken Levine,](http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2006/12/more-on-frasier-you-didnt.html) he just walked off the set and never returned. Levine never said who the original guest star was, but there’s speculation that it was Don Knotts, who had problems performing in front of a live audience. Though Levine says the original guest left only after the dress rehearsal, I think they actually did some shooting that day, because the final version with Mahoney has some very awkwardly framed scenes that look like forced reshoots. (There’s a blog somewhere that discusses this in detail, with screenshots, though I can’t find it at the moment.) ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mahoney-of-frasier-dead-at-77/808266/44 "2018-02-07T16:36:40Z")
While I remember him best as Martin Crane, I also loved him as the antagonist military officer in _[The Manhattan Project](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091472/)_. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mahoney-of-frasier-dead-at-77/808266/45 "2018-02-07T21:48:36Z")
A great actor! Loved him on _Frasier_ - he never disappointed. He also had small but fine roles as Clint Eastwood’s Secret Service boss in _In the Line of Fire_, and as a Federal judge in _Suspect_ (one of Liam Neeson’s first American movies). May he rest in peace. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mahoney-of-frasier-dead-at-77/808266/46 "2018-02-09T02:56:24Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > While I remember him best as Martin Crane, I also loved him as the antagonist military officer in _[The Manhattan Project](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091472/)_. And the guy who played “Bulldog” is also in that movie! ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mahoney-of-frasier-dead-at-77/808266/47 "2018-02-09T15:56:52Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > And the guy who played “Bulldog” is also in that movie! :eek: I’ve watched that movie a bunch of times and never recognized Dan Butler as one of the SWAT guys! Awesome!! ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2018, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mahoney-of-frasier-dead-at-77/808266/48 "2018-02-11T23:50:01Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Rumored to be gay and probably was but he was a private person who never talked about his private life and to my knowledge never publicly acknowledged his sexuality one way or the other. If he didn’t out himself in life, then I think it’s the height of crassness to discuss it either way now that he’s gone. This goes for any celeb, (or person in general, I suppose). Unless you find old footage of them doing gay porn or some other “proof” (and even that wouldn’t necessarily prove it vs “gay for pay”), just let it go. He was a good actor with some beloved roles, he kept his personal life private, so just freaking respect that. About his being british, when Frasier started, I recall an article where he still had problems with certain words in an American accent, like “Wensday” which he said he tended to say like it’s spelled “Wed-nes-day”. Also he used to help Jane Leeves with her Daphne accent, as she was playing from another part of England than her character, and her character was actually from where he was originally from. This was decades ago, so if you want a cite, get a time machine… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mahoney-of-frasier-dead-at-77/808266.md?page=2)