What a shame. I don’t recall that, but...
Charles John Mahoney (June 20, 1940 – February 4, 2018) was an English-American actor of stage, film, and television.
Born in Blackpool, England, Mahoney emigrated to the United States aged 18 and started his acting career on the stage in 1977, and moved into film in 1980. He was best known for playing the blue-collar patriarch Martin Crane in the American sitcom Frasier, which aired on NBC from 1993 to 2004. In addition to his film and television work, Mahoney also worked as a voice actor and was particularly passionate about his stage work on Broadway and in Chicago theatre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mahoney
Mahoney was gay,too. Also the actors who played Niles and Bulldog. (At least that’s what I heard when I was living in CA.)
Mahoney was actually born and raised closer to Manchester England than Jane Leeves, whose character was supposed to be from there.
The other fact was that Mahoney wasn't really old enough to be Grammar's father. Hence the cane.
We might also mention David Angell, one of the show's creators, who died in 9/11. The other two producers are still around.
Mahoney was only 53 when Frasier aired? DAMN he looked a lot older than that!