An ingratiating actor who projected an air of easygoing charm in both comedic and serious roles, Ted Danson reigned at the top of the television ratings heap for over a decade as Sam Malone, the lothario ex-pitcher-turned-bartender on “Cheers” (NBC, 1982-1993). The show’s popularity translated into occasional film work for Danson, most notably “Three Men and a Baby” (1987) and its 1990 sequel, but television offered him the widest variety of projects, from a father accused of incest in the TV-movie “Something About Amelia” (1984) to Jonathan Swift’s famed explorer in “Gulliver’s Travels”
