John Mahoney is an award-winning American actor who was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. The seventh of eight children, Mahoney's family had been evacuated to the sea-side resort to avoid the Nazi bombing of their native Manchester. The Mancunian Mahoneys eventually returned to Manchester during the war. Visiting the States to see his older sister, a "war bride" who had married an American, the young Mahoney decided to emigrate and was sponsored by his sister. He eventually won his citizenship by serving in the U.S. Army.Long interested in acting, Mahoney didn't actually make the transition to his craft until he was almost 40 years old. Mahoney took acting classes at the St. Nicholas Theater and finally built up the courage to quit his day job and pursue acting full time, John Malkovich, one of the founders of the Second City's distinguished Steppenwolf Theatre, encouraged Mahoney to join Steppenwolf. In 1986, Mahoney won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in John Guare's American Playhouse: The House of Blue Leaves (1987).Mahoney made his feature film debut in 1980, but he is best known for playing the role of the father of the eponymous character Frasier (1993) from 1993 until 2004. He is concentrating on stage work back in Chicago and has appeared on Broadway in 2007 in a revival of Prelude to a Kiss (1992).