NAME: Kirstie Alley
OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Television Actress, Reality Television Star
BIRTH DATE: January 12, 1951 (Age: 60)
EDUCATION: Kansas State University
PLACE OF BIRTH: Witchita, Kansas
Emmy Award-winning actress, author. Born January 12, 1951 in Wichita, Kansas. After studying drama for a time at Kansas State University, Alley eventually moved to California and became an interior decorator. Lured by the party lifestyle, she entered a wild period in which she abused drugs and hung out with an alternative crowd. In 1981, tragedy struck when her parents' car was hit by a drunk driver, killing her mother and seriously injuring her father.
The downward drift in Kirstie Alley's career - some cynics would say, her physiognomy - was never more evident than when she starred in the cable TV series, "Fat Actress" (Showtime, 2005). The one-time sexy starlet, who had skyrocketed to fame by first playing Lt. Saavik in the classic film "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982), followed by successfully replacing Shelley Long as the neurotic but sympathetic barkeeper Rebecca Howe on the long-running hit TV sitcom "Cheers" (NBC, 1982-1993), was now reduced to playing herself: an overweight, aging actress trying to revive her Hollywood career. It was a bold move on Alley's part to put her all-too-obvious weaknesses on TV for the world to see. The problem was, nobody wanted to see it. "Fat Actress" was panned by critics and cancelled after just one season. To her credit Alley - a convert to the controversial religion of Scientology - did what she always did when faced with adversity - including drug addiction and divorce - she shrugged it off and prospered, signing a lucrative deal to be a spokeswoman for the Jenny Craig weight-loss program. It was this reliability to the common woman - to say nothing of her incredible self-deprecating humor - which solidified her appeal to fans and a press which now forgave her anything.
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