Parker Stevenson built a career playing steady, dependable characters, first as Frank Hardy on ABC’s *The Hardy Boys* alongside Shaun Cassidy in the late 1970s, then as Craig Pomeroy on *Baywatch*. But the love story at the center of his private life was anything but steady. In 1981, Stevenson was at a Los Angeles bar with a date when Kirstie Alley, then largely unknown, spotted him across the room. She turned to her roommate and declared, “For him, I would die.
” She walked over anyway. He reportedly left his date to dance with her. They married on December 22, 1983, after dating for two years. Stevenson later admitted that when he met Alley, he was burned out and uncertain about his career.
She had the conviction and joy he had lost. “Being around her was great,” he said. The couple were, by their own admission, complete opposites. She was an outspoken Scientologist who loved rap music and vegetables.
He was a sugar-addicted Episcopalian who favored classical music. She filled rooms with energy; he described himself as someone who just tended to be in the room. “Kirstie and I are exact opposites. That’s what made it so interesting, but being opposites makes for not a good marriage,” he later said.
They lived in a 32-room mansion in Encino, California, where Alley kept up to 50 animals, including dogs, cats, possums, and geese. In 1990, Alley suffered a miscarriage three months into a pregnancy. She later wrote in her memoir about how her body continued producing milk for nine months afterward and how she never truly got over the loss. Stevenson was with her through it.
In 1992, they adopted their son, William True. Their daughter Lily joined the family in 1994. Stevenson found that fatherhood suited him better than any role he had played. Alley became a major star during the marriage, joining *Cheers* in 1987 as Rebecca Howe.
She won an Emmy and a Golden Globe. At the 1991 Emmy ceremony, she thanked her husband in a speech that made the audience gasp and laugh. The two also worked together on the 1986 miniseries *North and South Book Two: Love and War*. The marriage began to unravel by November 1996, when they separated after 13 years.
The divorce filing cited irreconcilable differences. Stevenson later described their split more plainly: “different goals in life. ” They released a joint statement saying they intended to remain the best of friends and devoted parents to their children. The first part took time.
Stevenson told *People* that the divorce process was ugly, taking over a year to resolve child support and custody. Two years after it was finalized in 1997, he admitted, “Kirstie and I are not friends now, but we talk regularly about the kids. ”
He also said breaking the vows he had made before God was something he would always regret. Alley told *Entertainment Weekly* there was no infidelity on either side.
She later acknowledged falling in love with Patrick Swayze while filming *North and South* and loving John Travolta in a way that tested the edges of her marriage, but she maintained neither crossed into betrayal. “Because I feel like when you marry someone, you’re supposed to work hard at it, and you’re supposed to make it work,” she said on *Nightline* in 2012 when asked why she never left. Stevenson kept working steadily after the split, guest-starring on shows like *The Love Boat* and appearing on *Baywatch*. He later starred as the school director on Netflix’s *Greenhouse Academy* and reunited with *Hardy Boys* co-star Pamela Sue Martin in the holiday film *My Christmas Prince*.
He remarried, and his second wife, Lisa Schoen, reportedly won his heart with her chicken noodle soup. The couple remained connected through their children. Their son True welcomed a son, Waylon Tripp Parker, in 2016. Lily’s son arrived in 2021.
Kirstie Alley died on December 5, 2022, at age 71, at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. The cancer had been discovered recently. Her children announced her death, saying she “fought with great strength” and left them with certainty of her “never-ending joy of living. ”
Stevenson, then 70, wrote a letter to his former wife.
He posted a photograph of her hand curled around his shirt with six sentences, saying he was grateful for the years, the children, and the grandchildren. “You will be missed,” he wrote, “with love, Parker. ”
Tributes poured in from *Cheers* castmates and others. John Travolta called their relationship one of the most special he had ever known.
Ted Danson said she made him laugh 30 years ago and again that same day. Rhea Perlman said she had never met anyone remotely like Alley and described treasure hunts Alley organized for the kids. Jamie Lee Curtis said they agreed to disagree but always shared mutual respect. Kelsey Grammer said simply that he loved her.
At 74, Stevenson continues to work. He has his life with Lisa, his children and grandchildren, and four decades of memories that include the woman who crossed a bar in 1981 and decided, without any uncertainty, that she would die for him.
