Although Ted Danson is best known for his role on the long-running sitcom Cheers, he has had a long and remarkably varied career, moving seamlessly between film and television and comedy and drama.

As this year’s recipient of the Carol Burnett Award, which recognizes his outstanding work in comedy, Danson’s versatility is evident in the 13 Golden Globe nominations he has received throughout his career. He won twice for “Cheers” and a Golden Globe in 1985. The heartbreaking TV movie “Something About Amelia” stars a father accused of molesting his teenage daughter.

Few actors can boast a longer list of successful and acclaimed TV comedies, as Danson’s 11 seasons on Cheers include another Globe-nominated role as Becker, The Good Place, and recurring appearances as a supporting actor followed by himself in Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

His most recent nomination comes for the new Netflix comedy “A Man on the Inside,” a touching look at aging that reunites him with “Good Place” producer Michael Schur and casts Danson as a widower who works undercover at a retirement community.

Danson was born in San Diego and grew up without a television (his parents didn’t approve, but later bought one to watch “Cheers”), but worked in Pittsburgh after graduating from Carnegie-Mellon University (formerly Carnegie Tech). mainly on television in the 1970s, starting with the daytime drama Somerset. He then made a name for himself in dramatic film roles, including “The Onion Field” and his breakout supporting role in the twisty 1981 thriller “Body Heat.”
“Cheers,” like its theme song, transformed the actor into a talent whose name everyone knew as Sam Malone, the former baseball player turned bartender. The series, about a Boston tavern populated by eccentric characters, became the linchpin of NBC’s powerful “must-see TV” lineup. The final episode, which aired in 1993, drew more than 80 million viewers, trailing only “M*A*S*H” among series finales.
During these years, Danson also appeared in several film roles, including the popular comedy “Three Men and a Baby” and its sequel with Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg; Alongside Jack Lemmon in the drama “Dad” and the romantic comedy “Cousins.”
In recent years, Danson has moved between genres, appearing in the legal thriller “Damages,” the dark satire “Fargo,” and the sitcom “Mr. Mayor” and a run on the procedural “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”
Off screen, Danson has been involved with Oceana (originally founded as the American Oceans Campaign), an organization that works to protect the world’s oceans. He met his wife, Mary Steenburgen, in the film Pontiac Moon, and the two have been married since 1995, also working together on a miniseries version of Gulliver’s Travels and the sitcom Ink.