John Mahoney was born June 20, 1940 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. Mahoney left the United Kingdom after finishing school and moved to the United States where he joined the Army. He persevered to lose his British accent while in the service and also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Quincy College and a Master’s degree in English from Western Illinois University. He found work as a teacher and magazine editor after leaving the Army, but decided to try acting in his search for something more fulfilling. He took acting classes at St. Nicholas Theater in Chicago and met actor John Malkovich, who invited Mahoney to join the Steppenwolf Theater Company. Mahoney has since appeared in over 30 of their productions and went on to win a Tony Award as Best Actor (Featured Role – Play) in 1986, for his work on House of Blue Leaves. In 1993, he landed his most famous role to date, as Martin Crane, on the comedy, Frasier.
Martin Crane, played by John Mahoney on Frasier, is a war veteran and a former detective, and the father of snobbish but good-natured psychiatrist brothers, Frasier and Niles Crane. He is as different from his sons as night is to day. While Niles and Frasier have elegant and sophisticated tastes, Martin is a down-to-earth regular guy who prefers the simpler things in life. He lives with his son, Frasier and his dog, Eddie.
(Photo courtesy of NBC)
Blackpool, Lancashire, England
-He is fond of cats.
-Once living in the US, he lost his British accent. His real accent can be heard in the Frasier episode "Look Before You Leap", when he is mocking Jane Leeves' Daphne.
-Prior to acting, he was an English professor teaching in many different colleges.
John was nominated for 10 SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for Frasier from 1995-2004. He won in 2000.
He received numerous Emmy and Golden Globe award nominations for his role as Martin Crane in Frasier.
John won the 1986 Tony Award for Best Actor in The House of Blue Leaves.
1961
More Deadly Than the Male
1981
The Chicago Story
1982
Mission Hill
Will: G. Gordon Liddy
1983
Listen to Your Heart
1985
The Killing Floor
Code of Silence
First Steps
1986
Trapped in Silence
The Manhattan Project
Streets of Gold
1987
Target: Favorite Son
Through Naked Eyes
Tin Men
Suspect
Moonstruck
1988
Frantic
Betrayed
Eight Men Out
1989
The Image
Dinner at Eight
Say Anything...
1990
The Russia House
1991
The 10 Million Dollar Getaway
Love Hurts
Unnatural Pursuits
Barton Fink
1992
The Secret Passion of Robert Clayton
The Water Engine
Article 99
1993-2002
Frasier
1993
In the Line of Fire
Striking Distance
1994
The Hudsucker Proxy
Reality Bites
1995
The American President
1996
She's the One
Primal Fear
1998
Antz
1999
The Iron Giant
2000
The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy
2001
Almost Salinas
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
2003
Fathers and Sons
Atlantis: Milo's Return
2006
The Groomsmen
2007
Dan in Real Life
-You can take the boy out of England, but you can't take England out of the boy. And ummm, yes, I feel a huge emotional attachment to England.
-People say there's no trace of an accent anymore, and there isn't because I worked very hard to lose it. And the reason I did that is a British accent in America is a real status symbol.
[On what led him to acting]
-So I was the associate editor of a medical journal in Chicago, and I was thirty seven, and all of a sudden I just sort of started going through this dark night of the soul... where I just... . Is this going to be it for me, am I going to be spending the rest of my life writing about cataracts and hemorrhoids... and... . just not what I wanted to do, and I was just intensely depressed all the time.