Actor John Mahoney, Frasier's Martin Crane, is dead at 77

Actor John Mahoney is dead at 77
(Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

John Mahoney, a prolific actor best known for playing the curmudgeonly father Martin Crane on Frasier from 1993 to 2004, died in Chicago on Sunday, his manager, Paul Martino, said Monday. He was 77 and had been in hospice care. Mahoney, who moved to the U.S. from his native England at age 19, quit his job as a medical magazine editor and started acting full-time in his late 30s at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, after meeting cofounder John Malkovich in 1977.

Along with his stage career, which he resumed after Frasier ended, Mahoney's film credits include Moonstruck, The American President, In the Line of Fire, Tin Men, Barton Fink, Reality Bites, The Russia House, and Say Anything, where he played the disapproving father of John Cusack's love interest.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.