Kelsey and Patricia on How They Got Started in the Business

[Brian Damage]

Kelsey Grammer, "Back to You"

"When I was 21, I was painting offices for a famous director. As I stood at the top of a ladder, the casting director of the San Diego Shakespeare Festival looked up at me and -- I don't know how he got this from my butt -- said, 'You're an actor, aren't you?' He offered me a chance to audition but said I had to come out under my own steam. I called my grandmother and said, 'Gam, can you front me $50?' for a $49 airfare. Three days later, I was headed for San Diego. I slept behind the theater for a little while until I finally got an apartment. I was making $65 a week, and those were flush times, indeed."


Patricia Heaton, "Back to You"

"I got my SAG card in New York in 1984 when I did a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer commercial with Jason Alexander and Polly Draper, before he was in "Seinfeld" and she was in "thirtysomething." He had been doing plays in New York; she was doing a lot of theater, too. I played a waitress in a bar. At the end, I whispered something into Jason Alexander's ear -- he fainted and fell out of the shot. I was really chubby and had a bad Farrah Fawcett hairdo. I looked like a real corn-fed Midwestern girl."

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[catlover79]