R.I.P. Roger Rees

So sorry to hear of the passing of Roger Rees. He was 71. For several years he played Robin Colcord on CHEERS. Roger was the consummate actor and consummate gentleman. I always thought he had a tough role. He was the “new guy," somewhat of an outcast. At times his role was to frustrate Rebecca and at others he was a rival of Sam’s. That made it hard for the audience to warm to his character. And yet, with charm and grace (in sometimes thankless situations) he eventually did win the hearts of CHEERS fans.  He won over the writers, cast, and crew in eleven seconds. 

Personally, Roger was a delight. His first love was the theater and his eyes just lit up when you talked about it. He was a Tony winner for NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, and appeared in dozens of theater productions throughout his life. He wrote and directed as well. Additionally, he was the Artistic Director of the prestigious Williamstown Theatre Festival for several years.

Whether it was Dickens, Shakespeare, Stoppard, Chekhov, or when he was really slumming – Levine & Isaacs, he gave consistently wonderful performances. Among my favorite episodes of all the CHEERS that David and I wrote was the two-parter “Finally” and Roger was a big part of them.  You could give him the nastiest things to say but he we could deliver them with such a twinkle that you laughed and found him endearing.   You can't believe how difficult that is to do.  And he did it with ease... always.

Roger Rees was a talented man, a gentle soul, and the classiest of class acts. I was so thrilled that when the great caricaturist, Al Hirschfeld was commissioned to do a portrait for CHEERS that Roger was included. The show and our lives were better because he was in it. Roger will be deeply missed.