“Frasier” actor Kelsey Grammer opened up about how he “cursed God” following the murder of his sister, but love — and a “reawakening” that happened while promoting the film “Jesus Revolution” — restored his faith.
In the wake of his younger sister’s brutal murder nearly 50 years ago, the 70-year-old Emmy-winning actor said his grief was so intense it shattered what little remained of his faith.
“When the deaths occurred, starting with my grandfather, and then my dad — and I didn't really know my dad — and then when Karen was killed, hanging on to what I'd always seen as a kind of gift of faith, became ... hollow faith,” Grammer told Fox News Digital. “It wasn't working. I thought, ‘Why did I lose this? What happened?’ I felt betrayed by it. And, so, I sort of cursed God at one point and said, ‘You know, hey, I’d rather you didn't bother to help at this point because, honestly, this was colossal. I'm not interested.’”
Grammer, best known for his role as Dr Frasier Crane in “Frasier” and “Cheers”, was only 20 years old and studying theatre at Juilliard in 1975 when his sister, Karen, 18, was kidnapped outside the Red Lobster where she worked in Colorado Springs. The men who abducted her intended to rob the restaurant but instead took Karen, raped her repeatedly, and stabbed her to death.
Her killer, Freddie Glenn, was convicted in 1976 of Karen’s murder and the murders of two other people. Although the Colorado Supreme Court later ruled that Glenn could seek parole after 30 years, Grammer has twice opposed his release.
“He just thinks it's been long enough and, so, when do I get out of prison? So, when am I done with mine then? Because I'm still stuck,” Grammer said. “And although this book has helped release a great deal of that feeling, there is a kind of … well, ‘We're in this together, Freddie, you and me.’ And … if I don't get free, you’re not either.”
Grammer shared these reflections in his memoir, Karen: A Brother Remembers, which honours his sister’s life and recounts the devastating impact of her loss.
“She was my best friend and the best person I knew,” Grammer wrote in a letter to the parole board in 2009. “She had so much to live for. I loved my sister, Karen. I miss her. I miss her in my bones. I was her big brother. I was supposed to protect her — I could not. I have never gotten over it ... It very nearly destroyed me.”
Karen’s murder was not the first tragedy Grammer experienced. At age 13, his father was shot and killed during a home invasion. Following Karen’s death, his two half-brothers, Stephen and Billy, died in a scuba diving accident in the Virgin Islands.
In his darkest moments, Grammer said he turned away from God, but he now urges others facing tragedy not to follow the same path.
"I would advise people to step away from that. If I could, I would say, rather than turn away from God, turn toward Him in these situations," he said. "Because it doesn’t [mean] God’s out to get you. But it feels like that sometimes. And that was very hard."
Over time, Grammer said, love and family helped rebuild the faith he had nearly lost. His wife, Kayte Walsh, and their three children — including a daughter named Faith — brought healing to his life.
"By virtue of writing this book, [my faith] has gained a little ground. By virtue of meeting Kayte, by virtue of living through what we’ve lived through as well, has fortified my faith,” he said.
Grammar played Pastor Chuck Smith in the faith-based film “Jesus Revolution." The actor told the Los Angeles Times that the biggest “reawakening” of his faith came while promoting the 2023 film, which dramatizes the “Jesus Movement” of the 1970s.
“I don’t go out proselytizing, but I am not going to deny my faith; I’m not going to deny Jesus Christ,” Grammer said.
“Jesus Revolution” went on to be a significant box office success; produced on a $15 million budget, the film grossed over $51.7 million domestically, more than tripling its production costs.
The award-winning actor has openly discussed his beliefs in recent years and how the road back to God wasn’t exactly easy.
“I've had hiccups,” he told USA Today of his faith journey. “I've had some tragic times. I have wrestled with those and worked my way through them: sometimes rejecting faith, sometimes rejecting God even, in a period of being pretty angry about it, like, 'Where were you?' That kind of thing. But I have come to terms with it and have found great peace in my faith and in Jesus. It's not cavalier — Jesus made a difference in my life. That's not anything I'll apologize for.”
In 2024 appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” he shared how, as a boy, he "would walk [...] hand-in-hand with the idea of God's Word, and God, and Jesus, and stuff like that,” but “difficult things” in his life prompted him to walk away from the faith.
"I cursed God and said, 'No thanks. I don't need your help. I'd rather just handle this alone if this is the way it's going to be.'”
"And eventually, I just kind of got back on track and met — re-met Jesus — I guess you could say, and I carry Him with me, and it's been a great thing."
