‘Frasier’ star feared sack after cancer diagnosis but “emotional” Kelsey Grammer said “everything is going to be OK”
Frasier star Toks Olagundoye has said she feared being sacked from the show after her cancer diagnosis, but was reassured by a personal call from Kelsey Grammer.
The actress, who plays Professor Olivia Finch in the revival of the classic sitcom, was diagnosed with stage 0 triple negative breast cancer at the age of 46. It had progressed to stage 1 when she underwent surgery and chemotherapy, which took place just weeks before Frasier started shooting.
Olagundoye, who also had a double mastectomy midway through production, has revealed in an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show that she thought her role was going to be cut as a result of her illness.
“I said, listen, if you have to fire me, I’ve only been on three episodes so far, make me a guest star or whatever,” she said. She was told by producers she would not be let go, but she remained convinced she would be “fired any second”.
Her mind was calmed, however, by a personal call from Grammer: “He was very emotional, he didn’t realise what I was going through, and he said, ‘I know how actors think, I want to let you know this is your family, you’re not getting fired, we’re going to do whatever we need to do to make you feel comfortable’
“I remember him so vividly saying, ‘You’re going to be so happy after this. Everything is going to be okay’.”
Olagundoye added: “I’ve never had a TV family quite like the Frasier cast, they’re really amazing human beings. To be around them was really nice.”
The 2023 revival of the sitcom, which itself was a spin-off from Cheers, saw Grammer return to the Frasier Crane character as he moved back to Boston. The second season of the new iteration of the show was released on Paramount+ last month.
Elsewhere, Grammer recently received an apology from Ted Danson for an argument on the set of Cheers four decades ago, with Danson admitting it was “his bad”.
The two former co-stars made up during an episode of the podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name, with Grammer expressing his love for Danson. Just months earlier, he had also revealed he would like Danson to reprise his Cheers role in the Frasier reboot, alongside Shelley Long.
Friends star Lisa Kudrow also recently revealed that she was fired from the original incarnation of Frasier, after initially having been cast in the role of Roz Doyle. She described being let go as “devastating”, but acknowledged that her replacement Peri Gilpin “should have always been Roz”.
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Max Pilley
NME
