Shelley Long

Introduction

Shelley Lee Long (born August 23, 1949) is a Golden Globe Award- and Emmy Award-winning American film, stage and television dramatic and comedic actress.

Career & Life

Shelley Long starred in the popular television comedy Cheers as the uptight waitress Diane Chambers. (Chambers was the love interest, and comic foil, for the bartender Sam Malone, played by Ted Danson.) In spite of the ongoing success of the show, Long quit in 1987 to focus on her movie career. Her films include the morgue comedy Night Shift (1982, with Michael Keaton), Irreconcilable Differences (1984, with her character sued for divorce by daughter Drew Barrymore), the Girl Scout-ish comedy Troop Beverly Hills (1989), the sitcom-inspired The Brady Bunch Movie (1995, with Long as mother Carol) and A Very Brady Sequel (1996), and Honeymoon With Mom (2006).

Long married investment broker Bruce Tyson in 1981. Their daughter Juliana was born in 1985. He filed for divorce in 2003... Her character on Cheers was briefly engaged to Dr. Frasier Crane (played by Kelsey Grammer), who later was the central character of the hit show Frasier (1994-2004)... As Diane Chambers, Long was nominated for a total of six Emmys, five for Cheers and one for Frasier... Long was taken to the hospital after a drug overdose in 2004; her manager later said she had simply taken too many painkillers for relief from a back injury... Long attended Northwestern University but did not graduate.

Awards

Emmy Awards

• 1983 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series - Cheers

Emmy Award Nominations

• 1984 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series - Cheers
• 1985 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series - Cheers
• 1986 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series - Cheers
• 1993 - Outstanding Guest Actress - Comedy Series - Cheers
• 1995 - Outstanding Guest Actress - Comedy Series - Frasier

Interesting Facts

• Shortly before starting work on "Cheers" (1982), she made an unsold sitcom pilot called: "Ghost of a Chance", in which she was a newlywed haunted by the ghost of her first husband.

• Attended Northwestern University (Evanston, IL).

• Daughter Juliana Tyson (born March 27th 1985) with Bruce Tyson.

• Originally cast to play the lead character Terry Dolittle in Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986).

• Originally cast to play the lead character Celeste in My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988).

• She was awarded the 1977 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a Principal Role in a Musical for "Wellsapoppin" at the Second City Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.