Cancer That Kirstie Alley Battled Is Specified

A day after Kirstie Alley's death at age 71 comes an additional detail from her rep: The actor had been diagnosed with colon cancer, People reports. Alley's children on Monday stated their mother died from recently discovered cancer but did not specify the type. They said she had been undergoing treatment at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. Amidst the tributes streaming in from those who knew her comes one from Cheers co-star Ted Danson, in which he shares what he was doing just before hearing the news.

On Monday, he told E! News, "I was on a plane today and did something I rarely do. I watched an old episode of Cheers. 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." (Read more on Alley here.)