Kirstie Louise Alley (born January 12, 1951) is an American actress and comedian known for her role in the TV series Cheers, in which she played Rebecca Howe from 1987 to 1993, winning an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1991. She is also known for her role in the thriller Shoot to Kill and the Look Who's Talking film series as Mollie Ubriacco. More recently, Alley has appeared in reality shows revolving around her life.

Early life

Kirstie Alley was born in Wichita, Kansas, the daughter of Lillian Mickie (née Heaton), a homemaker, and Robert Deal Alley, who owned a lumber company. Alley is of Irish descent. She has two siblings, Colette and Craig. Alley attended Wichita Southeast High School, graduating in 1969. She attended college at Kansas State University in 1969. Kirstie came to Los Angeles to work as an interior designer and appeared as a contestant on the popular game show Match Game in 1979, where she won multiple games. She also appeared on the game show Password Plus in 1980. In 1981, a car accident caused by a drunk driver killed her mother and left her father seriously injured. Her father eventually recovered.

Career

Alley made her movie debut in 1982 in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, playing the Vulcan Starfleet officer Lieutenant Saavik. In 1989, Alley starred in Look Who's Talking alongside John Travolta; the film grossed over $295,000,000 worldwide. They then went on to make two other films centered around the same theme, Look Who's Talking Too and Look Who's Talking Now!

Alley has won two Emmy Awards during her career. Her first two nominations for her work on Cheers did not earn her the award, but her third, in 1991, garnered her the statuette for that series. In her speech, she thanked then-husband Parker Stevenson, calling him "the man who has given me the big one for the last eight years."

For contributions to the motion picture industry, Alley was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard.

Alley played the title character in the NBC sitcom Veronica's Closet, as well as serving as executive producers on the show. She served as the spokesperson for Pier One from 2000"04 and for Jenny Craig from 2005"08.

TV Land will air a new sitcom that will center on Alley as a Broadway star and a new parent. It is titled Kirstie, and will reunite her with former Cheers co-star Rhea Perlman and Seinfeld star Michael Richards. The 12-episode series will be shown in the fall of 2013.

Dancing with the Stars

In February 2011, Alley was announced as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. She was partnered with Maksim Chmerkovskiy. Their first dance, a cha-cha-cha, earned them the second-highest score, 23 points of a possible 30. On May 2011, Alley and Chmerkovskiy performed their final dance, also a cha-cha-cha, which earned them a perfect score of 30 out of 30. Alley finished the competition in second place, behind NFL Super Bowl champion Hines Ward. She also took part in the 15th season of Dancing with the Stars for a second chance to win the mirrorball trophy again with Maksim Chmerkovskiy. They were the seventh couple eliminated from the competition.

Personal life

Alley met and dated a distant cousin, Bob Alley, in high school. They married in 1970; her husband thus had the same name as her father. However, they divorced seven years later as their career paths diverged. Alley was married to her second husband, Parker Stevenson (Richard Stevenson Parker, Jr.) on December 22, 1983. They divorced in 1997. Alley and Stevenson share custody of their two children, William True and Lillie Price.

Weight loss

In March 2010, Alley launched Organic Liaison, which includes Rescue Me, the first USDA-certified organic weight loss product. She announced that she lost using the program in September 2011.

Scientology

Alley was raised as a Methodist, but has been a member of the Church of Scientology since 1979. At the time she became a Scientologist, Alley admitted to having had a cocaine addiction and went through Narconon, a Scientology-affiliated drug treatment program, to end her dependency. She has continued her Scientology training and, as of 2007, had attained the level of OT VII (Operating Thetan level 7).

In May 2000, she purchased, for $1.5 million, the former home of fellow Scientologist Lisa Marie Presley, a waterfront mansion in Clearwater, Florida, the spiritual headquarters of the Church of Scientology. In 2007, Alley gave $5 million to the Church of Scientology.

Publications

Alley has written two autobiographical books, How to Lose Your Ass and Regain Your Life and The Art of Men (I Prefer Mine Al Dente). In the latter, she writes of having fallen for at least two of her leading men, Patrick Swayze, one of her castmates in the first two North and South miniseries productions, and fellow Scientologist John Travolta, her castmate in the Look Who's Talking films. She also denies, in The Art of Men (I Prefer Mine Al Dente), having actually been sexually active with either.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	Lt. Saavik	Nominee"?Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1983	One More Chance	Sheila
1983	Champions	Barbara
1984	Blind Date	Claire Simpson
1984	Runaway	Jackie Rogers	Nominee"?Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1987	Summer School	Ms. Robin Bishop
1988	Shoot to Kill	Sarah Renell
1989	Look Who's Talking	Mollie Jensen
1989	Loverboy	Dr. Joyce Palmer
1990	Madhouse	Jessie Bannister
1990	Look Who's Talking Too	Mollie Ubriacco
1990	Sibling Rivalry	Marjorie Turner
1993	Look Who's Talking Now	Mollie Ubriacco
1994	3 Chains o' Gold	Vanessa Bartholomew
1995	Village of the Damned	Dr. Susan Verner
1995	It Takes Two	Diane Barrows
1997	Deconstructing Harry	Joan
1997	For Richer or Poorer	Caroline Sexton
1999	Drop-Dead Gorgeous	Gladys Leeman
2002	Back by Midnight	Gloria Beaumont
2004	Family Sins	Brenda Geck
2010	Nailed	Aunt Rita

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	Match Game	Self (contestant)
1983	Masquerade	Casey Collins	(2 episodes)
1984	Sins of the Past	Patrice Cantwell
1985	'	Gloria Steinem
1985	'	Angelica	Episode "Out of the Night" Nominee"?CableACE Award for Actress in a Dramatic Series
1985	North and South	Virgilia Hazard	(miniseries)
1986	North and South II	Virgilia Hazard	(miniseries)
1986	Stark: Mirror Image	Maggie Carter
1986	Prince of Bel Air	Jamie Harrison
1987	'	Jane L.	Episode "The Legendary Billy B."
1987	Infidelity	Eliot 'Ellie' Denato
1987"1993	Cheers	Rebecca Howe	Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress " Comedy Series (1991) Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series Musical or Comedy (1991) Nominated"?Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress " Comedy Series (1988, 1990, 1992, 1993) Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series Musical or Comedy (1990, 1992, 1993)
1994	David's Mother	Sally Goodson	Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress " Miniseries or a Movie Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Miniseries or Television Film
1996	Peter and the Wolf	Annie / Bird / Duck / Cat
1996	Radiant City	Gloria Goodman
1997	'	Rose Marie Clericuzio	(miniseries) Nominated"?Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress " Miniseries or a Movie
1997	Toothless	Dr. Katherine Lewis	(TV movie)
1997"2000	Veronica's Closet	Veronica Chase	(also producer) Nominated"?Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress " Comedy Series (1997) Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series Musical or Comedy (1998) Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
1998	'	Rose Marie Clericuzio	(miniseries)
2001	Blonde	Elsie	(miniseries)
2002	Salem Witch Trials	Ann Putnam	(miniseries)
2003	Profoundly Normal	Donna Lee Shelby Thornton	(also executive producer)
2004	Family Sins	Brenda Geck
2004	While I Was Gone	Jo Beckett
2004	Without a Trace	Noreen Raab	Episode "Risen"
2005	Fat Actress	Self	(also joint creator and co-writer w/Brenda Hampton) (7 episodes)
2006	King of Queens	Self	Episode "Apartment Complex"
2007	Write & Wrong	Byrdie Langdon
2007	The Minister of Divine	Sydney Hudson
2010	'	Self (guest judge)
2010	Kirstie Alley's Big Life	Self (documentee)	Reality Television
2011-2012	Dancing with the Stars	Self (contestant)	Season 12 & Season 15: All-Stars Reality Television
2013	Kirstie	Maddie Banks

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