Showcasing Excellence
 Kelsey
Grammer opened his soul to festival delegates yesterday in an inspiring
and open discussion with Ralph Benmergui, in which the star of Frasier
and Cheers talked frankly about his personal life and how it comes
to be mirrored in the character of Frasier Crane.
"I embrace him as the greatest character I have ever played,"
Grammer said. "He is willing to be vulnerable. I've given that
to him. He is constantly getting up in the face of impossible odds."
Grammer, who last night received the Sir Peter Ustinov / Comedy
Network Award, has overcome alcoholism, drug abuse, a broken marriage
and the tragic death of his sister, who was stabbed and killed by
three men not long after the death of Grammer's grandfather, who
raised him.
"I got divorced, my sister got killed. It was easy to surrender
to the abyss of drug abuse and alcohol abuse," Grammer said.
After failing once at rehab in 1987, he said finally pulled himself
together at the Betty Ford Clinic. "I said, well, I guess I've
finally made it. I'm a heavy hitter. I'm on the 'A' list going to
the 'A' place."
Grammer's personal trials are exhibited in Frasier Crane, who was
left standing at the altar by Diane (Shelley Long) in Cheers only
to have his heart smashed by the cold Lilith. As Frasier said in
one memorable scene from Frasier: "Look how far I've come.
A lonely man living with his father."
Because of his sister's murder, Benmergui asked Grammer for his
opinion on the death penalty in the wake of the execution yesterday
of Timothy McVeigh.
"I don't know if I believe in the death penalty. I have mixed
emotions about it. I find it regrettable that a government should
put anyone to death. But my answer to the McVeigh situation was
to make the son-of-a-bitch live as long as possible … so that his
pain could be extenuated beyond his years."
Karen Grammer, his sister, was stabbed to death when she was 18
and he was 20. "She was the closest thing to me in my life
. . . On a personal level, would I like to take revenge for the
pain in cost me? Yes."
Grammer's career was highlighted at yesterday's Showcase of Excellence,
which also paid tribute to Norman Jewison, who last night was given
the Lions Gate Award of Excellence. Delegates were treated to clips
from an impressive body of work by the Canadian producer and director
of such films as In the Heat of the Night, The Thomas Crown Affair,
And Justice For All, A Soldier's Story, Agnes of God, Moonstruck
and The Hurricane.
In those films, Jewison has worked with an amazing roster of greats
like Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson and Sidney Poitier "He
has a storytelling talent and a commitment to performance,"
said Wayne Clarkson, executive director of the Canadian Film Centre,
founded by Jewison. "What those actors accomplished, much had
to do with the material, certainly, but it's also Norman's talent
for storytelling. They trust him."
"He's an exceptional storyteller," Clarkson said. "When
he gets going with a story the passion becomes so evident. Arguably
some of his best films were made in the '60s in America during the
height of the Civil Rights movements. He brings that kind of social
conscience, social liberalism, to all of his films. It is evident
certainly In the Heat of the Night, but even more recently in The
Hurricane."
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