Frasier star John Mahoney passes away

Actor John Mahoney, best known for playing Martin Crane on eleven seasons of "Frasier", is dead. He was 77. He died in Chicago on Sunday while in hospice care, his manager Paul Martino said, reports variety.com.

Mahoney played the father of Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce's characters during the show's run from 1993 to 2004. He won a Screen Actors Guild Award and received two Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations for his work on "Frasier". He was also a mainstay of Chicago's theater community and a Tony winner in 1986 for his work on Broadway in John Guare's "The House of Blue Leaves".

From 2011 to 2014, Mahoney had a recurring role on "Hot in Cleveland" as Roy, the love interest of Betty White's character, Elka. He was much praised for his performance as an anguished CEO in psychological counseling on Season 2 of "In Treatment" in 2009. Mahoney never married and had no children.

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