Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Ted Danson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (February 2007) |
 |
This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced or poorly sourced material about living persons must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. This article has been tagged since July 2007. |
| Ted Danson | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ted Danson at the 42nd Emmy Awards |
||||||||||
| Birth name | Edward Bridge Danson III | |||||||||
| Born | December 29, 1947 San Diego, California |
|||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Randy Danson (1970-1975) Casey Coates (1977-1993) Mary Steenburgen (1995-) |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Edward Bridge "Ted" Danson III (born December 29, 1947) is an American actor notable for his television work, and specifically, for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He is currently a regular on Larry David's HBO sitcom, Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Contents |
Danson was born in San Diego, California, the son of Jessica (née MacMaster) and Edward Bridge Danson, Jr., an archaeologist and museum director.[1][2] Danson was raised near Flagstaff, Arizona. In 1961, he was sent to Kent School where he was a basketball star. He became interested in drama while attending Stanford University. He transferred to the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now known as Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama in 1968[3].
Danson began his television career as a contract player on daytime soap opera Somerset. He played the role of Tom Conway from 1975 to 1976. He was also in a number of commercials, most recognizably as the "Aramis man".
He made a number of guest appearances in episodic television in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including spots on Laverne and Shirley, B.J. and the Bear, Family, Benson, Taxi and Magnum, P.I.
In 1982, Danson was cast in his most recognizable role, as ex-baseball player and bartender Sam Malone on the hit sitcom Cheers. His role in 'Cheers' is often seen as a tribute to the legendary 'Coronation Street' barman Fred Gee (played by the classically schooled Fred Freast).[citation needed] The show ran from 1982 to 1993. Although he was best known for his work in comedy, he also appeared in an acclaimed drama, Something About Amelia, about a family devastated by the repercussions of incest. In 1996, three years after Cheers concluded, Danson starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom Ink with his real-life wife Mary Steenburgen. In the same year, they starred as Lemuel Gulliver and his wife in an acclaimed television miniseries of Gulliver's Travels.
Danson went on to star in the more successful CBS sitcom Becker, which ran from 1998–2004. Danson also plays himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He reprised his role of Sam Malone in a second season episode of Frasier and voiced him in The Simpsons episode "Fear of Flying".
Danson returned to series television in the fall of 2006, playing a psychiatrist in the ABC sitcom Help Me Help You, which was cancelled at midseason due to low ratings.
Summer 2007, Danson began the FX Network drama Damages as corrupt billionaire/family man Arthur Frobisher. Danson famously was balding from a young age and wore a wig in many of his roles, a fact that was worked into a storyline on Cheers where he removed his hair piece on camera.
Danson has also been featured in numerous films. His most notable film appearance was in Three Men and a Baby with Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg, as well as its sequel. He also appeared in the films The Onion Field (his first film, as the bagpiper), Body Heat, Just Between Friends, A Fine Mess, Made in America, Getting Even with Dad, and Saving Private Ryan.
Danson, true to his environmental beliefs, rewards friends of the cause with his own home-brewed Scotch, "Danson's Best." He says the brew is made 100% organically and handled only by workers whom he pays a liveable wage. In "Cigar and Wine" [4] magazine, Danson said his mix has become quite popular among his close, personal friends, and he's even considering a regional marketing plan with profits going to charity, similar to Paul Newman's "Newman's Own" brand.
Danson's image, along with that of Scott Bakula, was used as a selectable character in Alien Breed II: The Horror Continues, a science fiction shoot 'em up released for the Amiga home computer system in 1993. Whether or not this use was authorised is unknown.
Danson and his first wife, Randy, were married from 1970 to 1975. Danson's second wife was Casey Coates; the couple were married in 1977. In 1979, while giving birth to their first child, Coates suffered a stroke, and Danson spent several years caring for her and helping her recuperate. The couple had two children, including a second adopted daughter.
His third and current wife is actress Mary Steenburgen whom he wed on October 7, 1995. He is stepfather to her daughter, Lilly, and son, Charles, from actor Malcolm McDowell. In 2000, Danson and Steenburgen hosted actor Alexis Denisof at their home for a year.[5]
On the September 27, 2007 episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Danson revealed that he follows a mostly vegan diet, although he does occasionally eat fish.
He currently resides in Oxford, MS with his wife and family.
While he was still legally married to Coates, Danson became romantically involved with Whoopi Goldberg. Danson experienced substantial negative press attention after his appearance in blackface at a Friar's Club comedy roast in Goldberg's honor.[6]
Danson is a longtime environmental advocate.
In addition to knowledge gleaned from his father's academic pursuits, Danson's interest in environmental concerns was ignited when he was twelve years old. Bill Breed, then a curator at the Museum of Northern Arizona, introduced Danson and friend Marc Gaede to a game he referred to as "billboarding".
Armed with an axe and saw, Breed, Gaede, and Danson ended up removing, or "killing", over 500 outdoor advertising signs, and illegal birdhouses. (Gaede would become further involved with this kind of activity, which would be termed "monkeywrenching".)[7]
Danson's interest in environmentalism continued over the years, and he began to be concerned, in particular, with the state of the world's oceans. In the 1980s, he was a contributing founder of the American Oceans Campaigns, now referred to as Oceana, and Danson is still a board member.[8]
- Somerset (cast member from 1975–1976)
- Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge (1979)
- The French Atlantic Affair (1979) (miniseries)
- The Women's Room (1980)
- Once Upon a Spy (1980)
- Benson (1981)
- Dear Teacher (1981)
- Our Family Business (1981)
- Magnum, P.I. (1981)
- Cheers (1982–1993)
- Cowboy (1983)
- Something About Amelia (1984)
- When the Bough Breaks (1986) (also executive producer)
- We Are the Children (1987)
- Ink (1996–1997) (also executive producer)
- Gulliver's Travels (1996) (miniseries, later released as a television movie)
- Thanks of a Grateful Nation (1998)
- Queer as Folk (2000)
- Search for Atlantis (2000)
- Curb Your Enthusiasm (2003-2008)
- Becker (1998–2004)
- Living with the Dead (2002) (miniseries)
- It Must Be Love (2004)
- Our Fathers (2005)
- Help Me Help You (2006)
- Damages (2007)
- The Onion Field (1979)
- Body Heat (1981)
- Creepshow (1982)
- Little Treasure (1985)
- Just Between Friends (1986)
- A Fine Mess (1986)
- Three Men and a Baby (1987)
- She's Having a Baby (1988) (cameo)
- Cousins (1989)
- Dad (1989)
- Three Men and a Little Lady (1990)
- Made in America (1993)
- Getting Even with Dad (1994)
- Pontiac Moon (1994) (also executive producer)
- Loch Ness (1996)
- Jerry and Tom (1998)
- Homegrown (1998)
- Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- Mumford (1999)
- Scene Smoking: Cigarettes, Cinema & the Myth of Cool (2001) (documentary)
- Fronterz (2004)
- The Moguls (2005)
- Knights of the South Bronx (2005)
- Golden Globe 2008 Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini Series or Motion Picture Made for Television - Damages.
- ^ http://www.filmreference.com/film/68/Ted-Danson.html
- ^ http://www.wargs.com/other/danson.html
- ^ http://www.hollywood.com/celebrity/Ted_Danson/193960
- ^ http://www.cigwinemagonline.com/people/690/000022624/
- ^ Biography page at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ http://www.nndb.com/people/690/000022624/
- ^ Chase, Alston (1995). In A Dark Wood. Houghton Mifflin, pp. xvii. ISBN 0-395-60837-6.
- ^ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1594/is_n1_v9/ai_20417682
- Ted Danson at the Internet Movie Database
- Danson receives the Distinguished Achievement Award from his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, in 2003
- Oceana
- Video of Ted at Oceana event
- Ted Danson's Myspace
Categories: Cleanup from February 2007 | All pages needing cleanup | BLP articles lacking sources | Articles lacking reliable references from July 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since November 2007 | 1947 births | Actors from Pittsburgh | American film actors | American television actors | Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actor Golden Globe | Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (television) | California actors | Carnegie Mellon University alumni | Emmy Award winners | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Living people | People from Flagstaff, Arizona | People from San Diego