Frasier star dead at 77

THE actor who portrayed the cranky dad on Frasier has died. He was 77.

John Mahoney’s long-time manager Paul Martino said yesterday the actor died at the weekend in Chicago after a brief hospitalisation.

Mahoney played Martin Crane, father of Kelsey Grammer’s Frasier and David Hyde Pierce’s Niles. The series, a hit spin-off of Cheers, aired from 1993 to 2004.

The British-born Mahoney made Chicago his adopted hometown.