Grammer: Life can't be trusted

Kelsey Grammer believes life “is not to be trusted”.

The 59-year-old Emmy-winner hit it big with 1980’s comedy Cheers, and later, Frasier, but he's suffered plenty of personal hardship as well.

“I have known from the age of 13 that life is not to be trusted. My father, Allen, was shot dead on April 22, 1968. He was just 38,” he told UK newspaper The Sun.

It wasn’t the only personal tragedy for Kelsey, whose sister, Karen, passed away just seven years later.

“She was abducted outside the restaurant where she worked, raped and stabbed 42 times,” he recalled.

The actor was 20 at the time. Four months later, two boys were arrested and later found guilty of her death. But Karen's loss has always stuck with him.

“So I have realised you can’t count on life. That has made me develop a sense of urgency - because I too could disappear in an instant,” he explained.

Kelsey had his own brush with death just six years ago. The actor had a heart attack in 2008 while vacationing in Hawaii.

“I was taken to the hospital and ‘died’. I had to be blasted twice by cardiac equipment,” he recalled.

"So my attitude to life and death is probably different to that of most people. I learned very early on that death does not ask permission,” he said.

Later in life, Kelsey struggled with drug and alcohol abuse. Although he’s sober today, the star says he doesn’t regret his past.

“My motto for life has always been ‘Stagger on – rejoicing.' I wish I had known how difficult it would be to do both,” he shared, later adding, “So my advice to any 18-year-old' Live life to the full.”