Kelsey Grammer Makes ‘Frasier’ Costar Toks Olagundoye Tear Up With Message About Cancer Battle
Kelsey Grammer was there for his Frasier costar Toks Olagundoye when she needed him most.
During her Wednesday, October 23, appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Olagundoye, 49, got a sweet surprise when host Kelly Clarkson revealed that Grammer, 69, had recorded a special video message for her when he was on the talk show earlier this year.
"I'm really proud of you for being on this show, and I salute your efforts to raise awareness and money for breast cancer,” Grammer said in the clip. “We've always loved you and loved being with you when you were going through your stint, and congratulations on coming out the other side. And I’m deeply, personally grateful that you did.”
Olagundoye began to tear up after watching the sweet video.
“Why would you do that to me?” she jokingly asked Clarkson, 42.
Clarkson played the video after Olagundoye opened up about how Grammer supported her amid her breast cancer battle. The actress began filming for the Frasier reboot two weeks after finishing chemotherapy and had a double mastectomy during shooting. She worried that she could be fired due to her illness, but her fears were quelled after a call from Grammer, who stars as the titular psychiatrist.
"I see Kelsey's calling, and I was like, ‘Yep, this is it, getting fired right this second,’” Olagundoye recalled. “He was very emotional — he didn't realize what I was going through — and he said, 'I know how actors think, I want to let you know this is your family, you're not getting fired, we're going to do whatever we need to do to make you feel comfortable.’ I remember him so vividly saying, 'You're going to be so happy after this. Everything is going to be OK.'"
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Olagundoye was initially diagnosed with stage 0 breast cancer after a routine mammogram when she was 46, but the disease progressed to stage 1 by the time she underwent surgery. Although she was dealing with a lot while filming season 1 of the Frasier reboot, Olagundoye said it was “nice” to be around her costars during that time.
"I've never had a TV family quite like the Frasier cast, they're really amazing human beings,” she said.
Olagundoye plays Professor Olivia Finch, the chair of Harvard University’s psychology department, in the spinoff series. Season 2 of Frasier premiered on Paramount+ last month.
“There wasn't an episode that I didn't have an absolute blast,” Olagundoye told CBR of season 2 during a Thursday, October 24, interview with her costar Anders Keith, who plays Dr. Frasier Crane (Grammer)’s nephew David Crane. “Every day we get to work with each other is fun. Being in front of the live studio audience is fun. The guest actors are always amazing. I think that they're all just so much fun.”
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In addition to having the support of her castmates during her cancer battle, Olagundoye also had husband Sean Quinn, whom she married in 2015, by her side. Olagundoye and Quinn welcomed a son in 2019.
“I was really well supported. My mom and husband would chauffeur me around Los Angeles,” she told ESSENCE on Tuesday, October 22. “I sat in gratitude for most of it.”