The news was confirmed in a statement from Alley’s family.
“To all our friends, far and wide around the world … We are sad to inform you that our incredible, fierce and loving mother has passed away after a battle with cancer, only recently discovered,” the statement from her children William “True” Stevenson and Lillie Price Stevenson read.
“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. As iconic as she was on screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother.”
— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) December 6, 2022
The statement also revealed Alley had been diagnosed with cancer and was being treated at the Moffitt Cancer Center.
“We are grateful to the incredible team of doctors and nurses at the Moffitt Cancer Center for their care. 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. We thank you for your love and prayers and ask that you respect our privacy at this difficult time.”
Alley, who was born in 1951 in Kansas, rose to fame in the late 80s as the star of Cheers, a sitcom in which she played the manager of the bar the show was primarily set in. Alley ultimately won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her performance.
Her second Emmy came in 1994, when she played the mother of an autistic child in David’s Mother, a TV movie. One of her most memorable films is the 1989 classic Look Who’s Talking, in which Alley appeared against John Travolta as a single-mother to a baby who narrates the events through voiceover.
Alley in Look Who’s Talking. Credit: Columbia Pictures
In the early 2000s, tabloids ran coverage of her weight gain, which prompted the actress to create her own show, Fat Actress, in which she played a fat actress trying to make it in the industry.
She also appeared in her own reality show, Kirstie Alley’s Big Life, and competed on Dancing with the Stars, the UK’s Celebrity Big Brother and The Masked Singer.
