Ted Danson

Edward Bridge Danson III was born on December 29, 1947, in San Diego, California, to Edward Bridge "Ned" Danson Jr., an archaeologist who served as curator of the Museum of Northern Arizona from 1959 to 1975, and Jessica Harriet (née MacMaster). He grew up primarily in Flagstaff, Arizona, and has an older sister, Jessica Ann "Jan" Haury. Of Scottish and English heritage, Danson counts historical figures such as Anne Hutchinson among his ancestors. At age 14, in 1961, he enrolled at the Kent School, a university-preparatory institution in Connecticut, where he was a standout basketball player. His interest in acting developed during his time at Stanford University, after which he transferred to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in pursuit of a stronger drama program. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama in 1972.

Danson's early professional work brought him to Broadway, where he appeared between 1973 and 1976 in productions including Status Quo Vadis and Comedians. He simultaneously pursued television work, joining the daytime soap opera Somerset as a contract player, portraying Tom Conway from 1975 to 1976. In 1975 he also appeared on The Doctors as Dr. Chuck Weldon, returning to that series in 1977 in the role of Dr. Mitchell Pierson. During this period he appeared in numerous commercials, most notably as the "Aramis man," and made guest appearances on programs including Laverne & Shirley, Taxi, Benson, Magnum P.I., and Mrs. Columbo, among others.

Danson made his film debut in 1978 in the crime drama The Onion Field, playing bagpipe-playing Officer Ian Campbell. He followed that with roles in Body Heat (1981) and Creepshow (1982). His career shifted decisively in 1982 when he was cast as Sam Malone — a former baseball player turned bartender — in the NBC sitcom Cheers. Though the show ranked last in ratings during its first season, critical reception was strong, and viewership climbed steadily; by 1986 it ranked among the ten most-watched programs on television. The series ran for eleven seasons, concluding on May 20, 1993, with a finale watched by 80 million viewers, the second-most-watched series finale in television history at that time. Cheers earned four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series and a Golden Globe for Best Series — Musical or Comedy. For his role as Sam Malone, Danson received eleven consecutive Emmy nominations, winning two, and nine Golden Globe nominations, winning two. He later reprised the character in a second-season episode of Frasier and provided a voiceover for the role in the Simpsons episode "Fear of Flying."

During his Cheers years, Danson also appeared in the television drama Something About Amelia (1984), earning a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie and an Emmy nomination. His film work in this period included Three Men and a Baby (1987) alongside Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg, its sequel Three Men and a Little Lady (1990), Cousins (1989) with Isabella Rossellini, Just Between Friends (1986) with Mary Tyler Moore, and Dad (1989).

Following Cheers, Danson appeared in films including Made in America (1993), Getting Even with Dad (1994), Loch Ness (1996), and Saving Private Ryan (1998). In 1996 he starred opposite his wife, actress Mary Steenburgen — whom he married in 1995 — in the short-lived CBS sitcom Ink, and the two also co-starred that year in the television miniseries Gulliver's Travels, playing Lemuel Gulliver and his wife respectively. From 1998 to 2004, Danson played the title character in the CBS sitcom Becker. In 1999, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Beginning in 2000, he played a fictionalized version of himself on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, a role he continued through 2024.

Danson joined the FX legal drama Damages in 2007, portraying corrupt billionaire Arthur Frobisher, a performance that earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. From 2009 to 2011 he starred in the HBO sitcom Bored to Death as George Christopher, editor of Edition magazine. He then joined the cast of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation from 2011 to 2015, playing graveyard-shift supervisor D.B. Russell, and reprised the role in the spin-off CSI: Cyber, which ran through 2016. In 2015, Danson appeared in the second season of FX's anthology series Fargo.

From 2016 to 2020, Danson starred in the NBC comedy The Good Place, a role that brought him another Emmy nomination. He subsequently appeared in the NBC sitcom Mr. Mayor from 2021 to 2022 and joined the Netflix comedy A Man on the Inside in 2024. Danson has also been a recurring presence on Curb Your Enthusiasm across its run from 2000 to 2024.

Beyond acting, Danson has maintained a long record of ocean conservation activism and co-authored Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do to Save Them (2011) with journalist Michael D'Orso. In 2025, he received the Carol Burnett Award, and he and Steenburgen were jointly presented with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards.