I loved her Pier 1 commercials

 

 

 

 

When I was a kid, my parents watched Cheers. I thought Kirstie Alley was an interesting presence, as everyone on the show was, but I was more drawn to her movies, which were often not good (I'm not talking about Wrath as I didn't see that one for a while), but which utilized her energy more, whether it be boisterous, fragile, sleepy, or ethereal, sometimes in the same scene. The weird movie with Tom Selleck and killer robot spiders, the weird movie where she was married to Scott Bakula and slept with his brother Sam Elliott (and it gets even weirder...), the manic Madhouse with John Larroquette, cult classic Summer School, with peak Mark Harmon, and Look Who's Talking 1, 2 and 3, which gets progressively more and more bizarre, from Elias Koteas as her gun-toting, nutso wingnut brother to Lysette Anthony as a temptress trying to steal her man, leading her to have fantasies of weeping in a morgue while dressed in French gear.

I'm sorry about what she became, but I can't help thinking of what she used to be and how unique her aura was. I will miss that, and what never was. 

Edited December 6, 20223 yr by DRW50

I saw Madhouse in the theater for some ungodly reason. The TV scene where Kirstie just slams her head on the anchor desk over and over always cracked me up.

Kirstie was also one of the last of John Carpenter's gilt-edged genre women - stylish and forbidding in his flawed but disturbing remake of Village of the Damned with Christopher Reeve.

Edited December 6, 20223 yr by Vee

2 minutes ago, Vee said:

I saw Madhouse in the theater for some ungodly reason. The TV scene where Kirstie just slams her head on the anchor desk over and over always cracked me up.

I think I did too. That and the scene where she and John return home at the end and terrify everyone out because they've both completely lost their minds by that point are probably what I remember most.

I think I also saw It Takes Two in a theater, now that I remember. 

4 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I think I did too. That and the scene where she and John return home at the end and terrify everyone out because they've both completely lost their minds by that point are probably what I remember most.

Kirstie had absolutely no ego onscreen, which is what made her so watchable on Cheers and so many other things, including an up and down movie career. Laurie Metcalf is often the same on Roseanne/The Conners; her visceral revulsion with herself after sleeping with Tom Arnold's character on that show is hysterical and reminded me a lot of Kirstie. It's funny that her other iconic role, Saavik in Star Trek, is so controlled and razor-precise, a total opposite of her typical wheelhouse, and yet she played both extremes (plus the steely noir antiheroine/villain in Carpenter's Village of the Damned that I mentioned in the edit above) perfectly.

Then again, Saavik was an interesting Vulcan character for Trek. The dialogue didn't make it into most cuts of TWOK, but Saavik was actually half-Romulan, which meant she had access to emotions. So it makes sense for a little bit of the other Kirstie Alley to slip into that very different character, when in her first scene, facing impossible odds, the controlled Vulcan officer mutters 'damn.'

Wow, this was unexpected....

I first saw Kirstie Alley, not in Cheers, but in North & South

12 minutes ago, I Am A Swede said:

Wow, this was unexpected....

I first saw Kirstie Alley, not in Cheers, but in North & South

That is truly a lovely picture. But she always had breathtaking eyes I have found.

 

I do not like what she became, but I remember her as she used to be. And for me, that started with WRATH OF KHAN. 

 

RIP.

RIP Kirstie Alley.

If anyone’s interested, all three Look Who Talking movies are available to watch on YouTube for free this month 

This is a great example of Kirstie's more underrated talents (there's a real stillness and subtlety in this until the big final outburst - the camera was just left on her face to tell us all we need to know).

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

This is a great example of Kirstie's more underrated talents (there's a real stillness and subtlety in this until the big final outburst - the camera was just left on her face to tell us all we need to know).

Sigh…one of my favorite movies. 
 

RIP Kirstie!  this really hurts…

18 hours ago, Faulkner said:

My two favorite Kirstie Alley moments:

 

Those are both great clips of Kirstie's talent. She was a very talented actress who best translated on television. 71 is still way too young to die. Peace to her children and grandson.

She and John Travolta were so great together 

 

5 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

She and John Travolta were so great together 

 

I just realized tonight that several of Travolta’s leading ladies—Diana Hyland, Kelly Preston, Olivia Newton-John, and now Kirstie Alley—have passed from cancer. It’s nothing more than a coincidence and many people die from cancer each year, but it struck me and made me sad.

6 hours ago, DaytimeFan said:

Those are both great clips of Kirstie's talent. She was a very talented actress who best translated on television. 71 is still way too young to die. Peace to her children and grandson.

I wish I could find the clip from that Cheers scene of drunk Rebecca singing Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonite.” I remember laughing my ass off as a kid at that. I believe those were the scenes Kirstie submitted when she won her Emmy for Cheers.

She should have been Oscar-nominated for that performance in Deconstructing Harry. Hell, Beatrice Straight won an Oscar for less.

5 hours ago, Faulkner said:

I just realized tonight that several of Travolta’s leading ladies—Diana Hyland, Kelly Preston, Olivia Newton-John, and now Kirstie Alley—have passed from cancer. It’s nothing more than a coincidence and many people die from cancer each year, but it struck me and made me sad.

That and the fact that he lost two of his best leading ladies in the same year