Biography
The son of a prominent archaeologist/museum director, American actor Ted Danson grew up near the Navajo reservation in Arizona. He played basketball while at Kent School Connecticut, and then moved on to Stanford University. It was in the process of getting acquainted with an aspiring actress at Stanford that Danson found himself attending his first audition-- and by years' end had transferred to the drama department at Carnegie Tech. Marking time in non-speaking roles, Danson left the stage for the more lucrative world of TV commercials, some of which have been well-circulated on videotape since Danson has become famous. Danson's first steady TV work was as a slimy villain on the NBC soap opera
Somerset. Shortly afterward, the actor attained his first film role, as a murdered cop, in
The Onion Field (1978). After seeing Danson in the movie
Body Heat (1981) and in an episode of the TV series
Taxi, producer
Glen Charles cast the actor as Sam Malone, ex-sports star and full-time barkeeper and womanizer, on the long-running, well-loved sitcom
Cheers He won Emmys for the 1989-90 and 1992-93 seasons. Frequently making attempts at film stardom during the 11-season run of
Cheers, Danson finally struck gold in
Three Men and a Baby (1987) and its sequel
Three Men and a Little Lady (1990). Danson's most recent work includes the 1996 starring role in the TV miniseries
Gulliver's Travels and a co-starring role, opposite his new wife Mary Steenburgen, in the television sit-com
Ink (also 1996). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide