"We are sad to inform you that our incredible, fierce and loving mother has passed away, " her children wrote.
Alley won an Emmy award for her role as a pub manager on the popular TV series.
The native of Wichita, Kansas has also appeared in the films Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and the Look Who's Talking series.
The family statement did not specify what cancer she had, but said it was "only recently discovered".
"She was surrounded by her closest family and fought with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of her never-ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead," it continued.
"As iconic as she was on screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother."
They also praised her "zest and passion for life, her children, grandchildren and her many animals, not to mention her eternal joy of creating".
John Travolta, who co-starred with her in the Look Who's Talking series, took to Instagram to pay his respects
"Kirstie was one of the most special relationships I've ever had. I love you Kirstie," he wrote alongside a photo of her.
"I know we will see each other again." On Cheers, the beloved NBC sitcom about a bar in Boston, she played character Rebecca Howe opposite actor Ted Danson.
She appeared in 147 episodes after joining the show at the height of its popularity and continued to appear until its end in 1993.
In 1993, she won a second Emmy for best lead actress, this time for a CBS TV movie called David's Mother. Alley’s death was confirmed on Monday night in a statement from her children, William “True” Stevenson and Lillie Price Stevenson, which was posted to her social media account. Her manager also separately confirmed her death.
Alley had recently been diagnosed with cancer, and was being treated at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida, her family revealed.
“To all our friends, far and wide around the world … We are sad to inform you that our incredible, fierce and loving mother has passed away after a battle with cancer, only recently discovered,” the statement said. “She was surrounded by her closest family and fought with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of her never-ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead. As iconic as she was on screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother.”
Alley’s ex-husband, actor Parker Stevenson, wrote: “I am so grateful for our years together, and for the two incredibly beautiful children and now grandchildren that we have. You will be missed.”
“I was on a plane today and did something I rarely do. I watched an old episode of Cheers,” Ted Danson, who played Sam Malone opposite Alley in Cheers, told Deadline. “It was the episode where Tom Berenger proposes to Kirstie, who keeps saying no, even though she desperately wants to say yes. Kirstie was truly brilliant in it. Her ability to play a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown was both moving and hysterically funny. She made me laugh 30 years ago when she shot that scene, and she made me laugh today just as hard. As I got off the plane, I heard that Kirstie had died. I am so sad and so grateful for all the times she made me laugh. I send my love to her children. As they well know, their mother had a heart of gold. I will miss her.”
Kelsey Grammer, who played Frasier Crane on Cheers, said, “I always believed grief for a public figure is a private matter, but I will say I loved her.”
John Travolta, Alley’s co-star in Look Who’s Talking, also paid tribute. “Kirstie was one of the most special relationships I’ve ever had. I love you Kirstie,” he wrote. “I know we will see each other again.”
Born in Kansas in 1951, Alley’s breakout arrived in 1987 when she joined the cast of the sitcom Cheers, playing the bar’s new manager Rebecca Howe. Alley was cast after Shelley Long decided to leave the show, leaving the creators Glen and Les Charles scrambling to find a new female lead. Wanting to find an unknown, the Charles brothers finally cast Alley after Carl Reiner personally vouched for her comedy skills, having directed her in 1987 film Summer School. Alley would win a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her performance in the show.
She won a second Emmy in 1994 for her performance as a mother of an autistic child in the made-for-television film David’s Mother.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Alley appeared in films including Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Summer School, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry, and Look Who’s Talking and Look Who’s Talking Too. In television, she mainly played comedic roles after Cheers, including the titular character in Veronica’s Closet, the short-lived sitcom Kirstie, and the horror-comedy anthology series Scream Queens.In the early 2000s, amid extensive coverage of her weight in gossip outlets, Alley created and starred in the show Fat Actress, playing a fictionalised version of herself, as a fat actor trying to find success in Hollywood while fending off predatory tabloids and attempting to find love.
Later in life, Alley went into reality television, documenting her efforts to lose 75 pounds (34kg) in the reality show Kirstie Alley’s Big Life, and competing on Dancing with the Stars, the UK’s Celebrity Big Brother and The Masked Singer.
In 1970, Alley married her high-school sweetheart Bob Alley, who had the same name as her father; they divorced in 1977. In 1983, she married Stevenson and they adopted their two children. They divorced in 1997.
Alley became a Scientologist in 1979 while struggling with a cocaine addiction, later crediting the church’s drug treatment program for her sobriety.
A vocal supporter of former US president Donald Trump since 2016, Alley claimed she had been “blackballed” in Hollywood due to her politics, saying: “You can be cooking meth and sleeping with hookers, but as long as, apparently, you didn’t vote for Trump ... I feel like I’m in The Twilight Zone a bit.”
Her Scream Queens co-star Jamie Lee Curtis called her “a great comic foil” and “a beautiful mama bear”. “We agreed to disagree about some things but had a mutual respect and connection,” she added. “Sad news.”
A native of Wichita, Kansas, Alley attended Kansas State University before dropping out and moving to Los Angeles.
Alley was married to her high school sweetheart from 1970 to 1977, and to Baywatch actor Parker Stevenson from 1983 until 1997.
After suffering a miscarriage she adopted son William True in 1992 and daughter Lillie Price in 1995 with Stevenson.
She said in 2010 if she married again, 'Id leave the guy within 24 hours because I'm sure he'd tell me not to do something.'
Stevenson posted a brief tribute to his ex-wife on Facebook.
'Dear Kirstie, I am so grateful for our years together, and for the two incredibly beautiful children and now grandchildren that we have. You will be missed. With love, Parker,' he wrote.
Her very first television appearances were as a game show contestant, on The Match Game in 1979 and Password in 1980.
Alley appeared in various films throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
These included the Look Who's Talking film series, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) which was her film debut, Summer School (1987) Sibling Rivalry (1990),It Takes Two (1995), For Richer or Poorer (1997), and Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999).
Horror director John Carpenter described Alley as a 'delightful actress'.
'Kirstie Alley was a delightful actress I had the pleasure to work with on VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED. She will be missed,' he wrote.
Alley starred in the 1995 US science fiction-horror film alongside Christopher Reeve, Linda Kozlowski, Michael Pare and Mark Hamill.
She won her second Emmy Award in 1994 for the television film David's Mother and received a further Emmy nomination in 1997 for her work in the crime drama series The Last Don.
She also had her own sitcom, Veronica's Closet, from 1997 to 2000 but it was the 1989 comedy Look Who's Talking, which gave her a major career boost, as she played the mother of a baby whose inner thoughts were voiced by Bruce Willis. She would also appear in the 1990 sequel Look Who's Talking Too.
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