Frasier star claims brother's shark death was "covered up"

Frasier star Kelsey Grammer has talked about the death of his half-brother Billy, claiming there were attempts to cover up his death by fatal shark encounter.

He claimed Virgin Islands authorities were more concerned about the area's tourism industry than reporting the facts, which sounds exactly like something from the Mayor Vaughn playbook in JAWS.

That tragic event took place in 1980, two years after the release of JAWS 2 in 1978, the sequel to the Steven Spielberg blockbuster, the follow up starring Marc Gilpin as Sean Brody, the youngest son of Chief Brody (Roy Scheider).

Frasier star Kelsey Grammer insists brother's shark death was covered up

It just so happens that Gilpin is the brother of Grammer's Frasier co-star and follower of The Daily Jaws Peri Gilpin, who played Roz Doyle. She's returned to series two of the rebooted Frasier series as a regular guest star, which came back to Paramount + in September.

Newsweek reported Grammer was talking about the incident during the latest episode of the podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name, alongside his Cheers and Frasier co-stars Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson.

In the podcast, the Frasier Crane actor, who was also the voice of Side Show Bob in The Simpsons, said "My half-brother died in a shark attack. That was strange. The city, they went and caught a bunch of sharks after that."

"They didn't want to know about it so they covered it up. I've got a letter about that."

When Billy failed to resurface, his brother Stephen swam back down in search of him before suffering a fatal air embolism, leading to a double tragedy. The former's body was never found.

Fraiser star Peri Gilpin’s brother was Marc Gilpin who played Sean Brody in JAWS 2

It's not the only family tragedy to befall the award winning actor, whose dad was shot dead in 1968 and his grandfather and sister both died in 1975. The latter was kidnapped and murdered.

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