In May 2022, Emmy-winning actress Kirstie Alley was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer — and she died from the disease just seven months later.
Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy Stock PhotoActress Kirstie Alley in Drop Dead Gorgeous in 1999.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Kirstie Alley became a household name for her roles in some of the era’s biggest television shows and films.
Born and raised in Kansas, Alley transitioned from a troubled youth to a Hollywood star, making it big in the industry after taking on a role in the show Cheers in 1987. By the 2000s, she was balancing her acting career with personal struggles, including infertility and weight fluctuation.
Despite facing personal hardships and courting controversy — especially for her support of Scientology — Alley continued to find success, making regular appearances in movies and TV shows until her sudden death in 2022.
In May 2022, Kirstie Alley was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer after complaining to the doctor about a sore back, and after a brief battle with the disease, the 71-year-old died in December 2022 at her home in Clearwater, Florida. News of Kirstie Alley’s death quickly spread online, as her loved ones expressed their sadness and shared their favorite memories of the star.
The Early Life And Career Of Kirstie Alley
Photo 12/Alamy Stock PhotoKirstie Alley with Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982).
Kirstie Alley was born on January 12, 1951, in Wichita, Kansas. She grew up Methodist with two siblings and attended both high school and college in Kansas (though she later dropped out of the university).
“I was the artsy, middle, troubled, searching, obnoxious kid, the one they worried about, sort of,” Alley later recalled in an interview with Us.
In 1971, Alley married her high school sweetheart, Bob, but their marriage only lasted about six years. She began struggling heavily with cocaine addiction in the 1970s, and after she moved to Los Angeles, she started looking for resources in the city that could help her get clean.
“[I was] a gutless wonder wishing my life away,” she told People. “I was whacked-out of my mind for two years. It was a personal failure… It caused a lot of damage. When I stopped doing drugs… I realized I’d affected certain people’s lives, so I wrote letters apologizing.”
Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy Stock PhotoKirstie Alley in the show Cheers.
Alley ultimately credited Scientology with helping her overcome her cocaine addiction. Though Scientology is a controversial religion (founded by a science fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard) that allegedly uses manipulative tactics to encourage the eradication of self-doubt, Kirstie Alley supported the organization and defended it against critics until her death.
Though Alley worked as a cleaner when she first came to Los Angeles, she later appeared on a handful of game shows. Then, in 1982, Alley scored a role as Lieutenant Saavik in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Her character was a hit with audiences, but she didn’t reappear in the film’s sequels.
Instead, Alley accepted roles in other films and TV shows, including Masquerade, Blind Date, North and South, Summer School, and Shoot to Kill.
But it was her role in the NBC sitcom Cheers that would make her a star.
The Kansas Actress Becomes A Household Name
Alan Light/Wikimedia CommonsKirstie Alley, pictured at the Emmys in 1994.
Kirstie Alley’s big break undeniably came with Cheers, the 1980s sitcom centered around a Boston bar. For her role in the show, which she joined in 1987, Alley received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe.
“Certainly it’s not easy to walk into a hit series and mess with carefully formulated chemistry. Certainly it’s not easy to walk onto the set of a show whose cast is as close as many families. Yet the tall order seemed to be right up Kirstie’s alley; she waltzed in and danced out with everyone’s heart,” Joanne Kaufman, a contributor for People, raved.
Then, in 1989, Alley appeared alongside John Travolta in Look Who’s Talking. The film was a hit and catapulted Alley to household name status.
“Kirstie was one of the most special relationships I’ve ever had,” Travolta later said about the actress after Kirstie Alley’s death. Though the two were never romantically involved, they were undeniably close friends.
Throughout the 1990s, Alley would continue her career in Hollywood, appearing in numerous movies and TV shows. She credited many of her successes to the support of her second husband, fellow actor Parker Stevenson, whom she married in 1983 (but they would later divorce in 1997).
While her career was wildly successful, Alley did struggle with personal issues, including infertility. After suffering from a miscarriage, Alley and Stevenson adopted a son and a daughter in 1992 and 1994, respectively.
IMDbKirstie Alley’s promotional image for her reality show Kirstie Alley’s Big Life (2010).
Then, in the early 2000s, the actress began struggling with weight gain amidst menopause and her recent divorce. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, weight became a focus topic for Alley — who appeared on talk shows to discuss her weight and even became a Jenny Craig spokesperson.
In 2012, Alley got into hot water after claiming that the weight loss product Organic Liaison helped her lose 100 pounds. She was accused of false advertising and eventually had to pay a settlement.
Amidst her fluctuating weight, Alley starred in several more productions, including the show Fat Actress, in which she played a dramatized version of herself trying to trim down and reinvigorate her acting career.
As the years went on, Alley continued to court controversy for her steadfast support of Scientology, as well as linking mass shootings to psychiatric drugs, criticizing the #MeToo movement, and openly talking about wanting to have affairs with some of her costars. At one point, she claimed to have been “blackballed” by Hollywood due to her support of Donald Trump.
Still, up until the early 2020s, Alley was consistently appearing in films and television, rarely taking a break from the career she was passionate about. It would take a sudden bout of terminal cancer to pull her away.
Kirstie Alley’s Death In Clearwater, Florida
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoAlley with her children William True Stevenson and Lillie Price Stevenson at the premiere of The Runaways in 2010.
In May 2022, Kirstie Alley visited a doctor to ask about her sore back — but it turned out that she had a much more serious health problem. Doctors would soon diagnose her with stage 4 colon cancer.
Though she was 71 years old, Alley still felt full of energy. Despite the terrible cancer diagnosis, Alley was determined to fight through it.
For months, the actress underwent treatment at Moffitt Cancer Center, located near her home in Clearwater, Florida. However, the disease was terminal, and Kirstie Alley died at her home on December 5, 2022, surrounded by her family. Her children announced the news online.
“We are sad to inform you that our incredible, fierce and loving mother has passed away after a battle with cancer, only recently discovered,” they said in a statement on Instagram. They added, “She was surrounded by her closest family and fought with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of her never-ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead.”
The news of Kirstie Alley’s death came as a shock to many, especially since Alley seemed upbeat in her final television appearance on The Masked Singer, and she had recently posted a cheerful video on social media.
Several of Kirstie Alley’s former costars shared touching tributes to her after hearing about her death from cancer, including John Travolta.
“I love you Kirstie. I know we will see each other again,” Travolta wrote on Instagram. Meanwhile, Alley’s Cheers costar Ted Danson recalled how “truly brilliant” she was on the show: “Her ability to play a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown was both moving and hysterically funny.”
Alley was remembered by her loved ones not only for her achievements, but also for her vibrant personality and devotion to her family. Following Kirstie Alley’s death, her remains were cremated, and she was honored by the Church of Scientology with a memorial service in Clearwater.
As for Alley’s children, they remembered her as such: “As iconic as she was on screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother… Our mother’s zest and passion for life, her children, grandchildren and her many animals, not to mention her eternal joy of creating, were unparalleled and leave us inspired to live life to the fullest just as she did.”
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