Daphne Moon

Jane Leeves as Daphne Moon

Daphne Moon is a character on the American television sitcom Frasier. She is played by Jane Leeves.

Daphne is a recent immigrant from England who is employed by Frasier Crane as a physical therapist for his father, Martin. Although she is hired as a physical therapist, she soon assumes many housekeeping and cooking duties in order to justify her continued stay (and higher pay).

Biography

Daphne was born in Manchester, England, although she seems to have a Yorkshire accent, whilst her brothers have Cockney accents, leading to speculation that the Moon family have moved around a bit. Then again, it could be because few Americans are likely to know what a Mancunian accent is (Leeves herself speaks with a standard English accent). She is the only daughter in a large, working-class family of nine children. She thus spent much of her childhood playing nurse and housemaid to her brothers. She has a complex love-hate relationship with her domineering and ever-complaining mother, Gertrude Moon (played by Millicent Martin); her relationship with her father, Harry (played by Brian Cox), is much warmer and closer.

As a young girl, Daphne was an actor in the hit British sitcom Mind your Knickers. Her career ended at age sixteen when she became too tall and busty to play her short, pre-teen character. During her youth, she gained considering skill at billiards, claiming to have won many tournaments. Daphne then took up a career as a physical therapist, working one-on-one with various invalids and shut-ins until being hired by Frasier. Daphne is hired to assist Martin in daily activities, since Martin suffers pain and discomfort from a bullet that was shot into his hip years ago on the job. Daphne immediately catches the attention of Frasier's brother, Niles Crane. Not knowing of Niles' feelings for her, Daphne swings in and out of relationships, and eventually becomes engaged to Niles' divorce attorney, Donny. When Daphne learns from Frasier Niles' deep love for her, she becomes worried because she is to be married to Donny the next day. When she confronts Niles about her own feelings towards him at her rehearsal dinner, she decides that she and him can never be. However, Daphne leaves Donny at the altar to be with Niles. The two later wed, and, in the last season, have a son.

Personality

Like most characters on Frasier, Daphne has many eccentricities. She often tells rambling stories about her family, cheerfully remembering rather grim or traumatic events, to the considerable discomfort of the Crane family. She is also a firm believer in the supernatural, and believes herself to be a little bit psychic Indeed, many of her predictions come true, though often in a somewhat muddled way. (She once proclaimed a soon-to-occur visit from Lilith as a "great evil" and suffered from a migraine during her stay.)

Role on the series

Daphne's most significant developing relationship over the course of the series is with Frasier Crane's younger brother, Niles Crane. Unbeknownst to Daphne, Niles falls in love with her in the third episode, when they first meet; despite the increasing obviousness of Niles' infatuation, Daphne remains utterly oblivious to Niles' feelings towards her, though they become increasingly close friends. During this time, she embarks on numerous (frequently unsuccessful) relationships with other men, each one earning Niles' envy.

Niles' feelings are ultimately, and accidentally, revealed by Frasier in Season 7. Shocked to discover Niles' true feelings towards her, Daphne finds herself falling in love with Niles in return, placing her in the position Niles had been in for many years - in love with someone unaware of her true feelings.

Heartbroken to discover that he had, on impulse, married his girlfriend Mel, Daphne intends to go ahead with her own marriage to Niles' divorce lawyer Donny, until Frasier intervenes. In a two-part episode closing Season 7 and opening Season 8, Niles finally confesses his feelings to her, and although initially rejecting him, Daphne eventually changes her mind, abandoning Donny at the altar. The guilt she suffers as a result, and the difficulties in Daphne and Niles' new relationship, cause Daphne to temporarily gain fifty pounds, which Niles does not notice. (though at this time actress Jane Leeves was pregnant with her first child).

In the first episode of Season 10, Daphne and Niles marry in a small, private ceremony in Reno, Nevada. In Season 11, they have their first child, David, in the final episode of the series, "Goodnight, Seattle".