Kelsey Grammer Addresses Brother’s Shark Attack—’Covered It Up’

Kelsey Grammer has discussed the death of his half-brother Billy, claiming there were attempts to cover up what the family have said was a shark attack.

During the latest instalment of podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name on Wednesday, the actor caught up with his Cheers and Frasier co-stars Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson where he touched upon the many familial tragedies across his life.

The 69-year-old said Virgin Islands authorities were more concerned about the area’s tourism industry than reporting facts after how Billy and his other-half brother Stephen died in 1980.

Newsweek has reached out to the actor’s representatives via email for further comment.

Opening up about Billy’s “early death,” the six-time Primetime Emmy Award winner told Danson and Harrelson: “My half-brother died in a shark attack. That was strange. The city, they went and caught a bunch of sharks after that.”

One of the fish they came across displayed jaws matching the bite marks on Billy’s diving equipment, but according to Grammer, “they didn’t want to know about it so they covered it up. I’ve got a letter about that.”

When Billy failed to resurface, Stephen swam back down in search of him before suffering a fatal air embolism. The former’s body was never found.

Harrelson, who was “very, very lucky” to escape with his own life after a motorcycling accident this summer, subsequently referred to the “unnatural amount of calamity” throughout their guest’s youth.

His father Frank was the victim of a political shooting in 1968, while Grammer’s grandfather Gordon and sister Karen died in 1975—the latter kidnapped, raped and murdered in Colorado Springs by Freddie Glenn and Michael Corbett whilst she was waiting for her boyfriend to finish work.

Weighing in on Frank specifically, whose murderer was found not guilty on the grounds of insanity, the star told his hosts: “He was a bit of a loud mouth I guess you could say. He had a radio show in the Virgin Islands and he taught a lot of fairly famous reggae guys and calypso music guys, he gave them music lessons.

“But he was killed by a taxi cab driver. It was a couple days after Martin Luther King [Jr.] was shot and so there was a political overtone to it. I heard years later that they actually drew straws on who was going to kill him.”

Grammer then theorized how “some sort of rhythmic tide” sweeps over the Virgin Islands “every few years” that results in people going on “a bit of a rampage.”

Speaking to People back in 2022, Grammer previously reflected on the tragedies.

“There were some times I pretty much surrendered to despair,” he shared. “I take a moment out every morning for a moment of gratitude. There’s a great Doobie Brothers line that Michael McDonald wrote that goes, ‘You’ll always have a chance to give up. So why do it now?'”