‘Cheers’ co-stars salute Kirstie Alley: ‘Grateful for all the times she made me laugh’

The cast of NBC’s hit sitcom “Cheers” is raising a glass to their late co-star Kirstie Alley.

Alley, who died of cancer at age 71, co-starred alongside Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer and Rhea Perlman, who each fondly remembered her and her breakout role as bar manager Rebecca Howe in the 1980s and ’90s sitcom. She won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for the part, which came along in 1987 during the series’ sixth season after Shelley Long left the long-running sitcom.

“I was on a plane today and did something I rarely do,” Danson, 74, said in a statement to E! News. “I watched an old episode of Cheers. It was the episode where Tom Berenger proposes to Kirstie, who keeps saying no, even though she desperately wants to say yes. Kirstie was truly brilliant in it. Her ability to play a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown was both moving and hysterically funny.”

The “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Good Place” actor famously played bartender Sam Malone at the Boston bar where everybody knows your name and he comprised one half of the classic TV couple Sam and Diane (Long).

Danson added that Alley “made me laugh 30 years ago when she shot that scene, and she made me laugh today just as hard.”

“As I got off the plane, I heard that Kirstie had died. I am so sad and so grateful for all the times she made me laugh. I send my love to her children. As they well know, their mother had a heart of gold. I will miss her.”

Grammer, 67, who played Frasier Crane in the comedy before starring in its spinoff “Frasier,” told Deadline: “I always believed grief for a public figure is a private matter, but I will say I loved her.”

Perlman, 74, who memorably embodied sharp-tongued waitress Carla Tortelli, remembered Alley as “a unique and wonderful person and friend.”

“Her joy of being was boundless,” Perlman said in a statement to Deadline and People. “We became friends almost instantly when she joined the cast of Cheers.”

The four-time Emmy Award winner, who shares three children with husband Danny DeVito, added: “She loved kids and my kids loved her too. We had sleepovers at her house, with treasure hunts that she created. She had massive Halloween and Easter parties and invited the entire crew of the show and their families. She wanted everyone to feel included. She loved her children deeply. I’ve never met anyone remotely like her. I feel so thankful to have known her. I’m going to miss her very, very much.”

Before “Cheers,” Alley acted in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” then later starred alongside John Travolta in the hit “Look Who’s Talking” film franchise. Travolta paid tribute to his late co-star, who later in life became an outspoken conservative, saying, “Kirstie was one of the most special relationships I’ve ever had. I love you Kirstie,”

Earlier this year, the “Fat Actress” and “Veronica’s Closet” star was “unmasked” as Baby Mammoth on Fox’s hit singing competition series “The Masked Singer.”