JOHN MAHONEY

(20 June 1940 - 4 February 2018)

Lancashire-born actor John Mahoney, who has died from throat cancer at the age of 77, was best known for his role as Martin Crane, Kelsey Grammer’s father in the television series Frasier. When Mahoney’s sister married an American, he decided to emigrate to the US, gaining citizenship there by joining the US Army. He didn’t begin acting until he was in his forties, firstly on stage and notably for the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. His film debut was in Hudson Taylor in 1981, after which he mainly appeared on television and in the occasional film. From 1987 he was in some major movies, such as Peter Yates’s Suspect and Norman Jewison’s Moonstruck (both with Cher), Polanski’s Frantic with Harrison Ford, Costa-Gavras’ Betrayed and John Sayles’s Eight Men Out. In the 1990s he was in Love Hurts, The Russia House, Barton Fink, In the Line of Fire, The Hudsucker Proxy, The American President, Primal Fear, She’s the One and The Broken Hearts Club, among many others. Frasier came along in 1993 and he played Martin until 2004. John Mahoney’s last appearance was in an episode of Foyle’s War on British television in 2015. Although he had several relationships, John Mahoney never wed because his parents’ marriage had been an unhappy one.

MICHAEL DARVELL