Ted Danson Coming To Pittsburgh To Claim Carnegie Mellon Honor

PITTSBURGH, PA - Emmy Award-winning actor Ted Danson will be in Pittsburgh Sunday to receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University.

A 1972 graduate of CMU’s School of Drama, Danson won Emmys in 1990 and 1993 for outstanding lead actor in a comedy for his role as bartender Sam Malone on NBC’s iconic comedy “Cheers.” The series aired for 11 seasons

Danson also has starred on CBS’s “Becker” and currently stars in NBC’s “The Good Place” with Kristen Bell.

In addition to acting and producing, Danson is an environmental activist. He co-founded the American Oceans Campaign (AOC) in 1987 to increase awareness of the life-threatening hazards created by oil spills, offshore development, toxic wastes and sewage. In 2001, the AOC merged with Oceana, which works to foster support for the protection and restoration of marine resources.

Others receiving honorary degrees:

• David Tepper, founder of one of the most successful hedge funds in the world, one of CMU’s largest donors and the new owner of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. He’ll receive an honorary Doctor of Business Practice degree.

• Shafi Goldwasser, a computer scientist who received the 2012 Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery and an alumna of CMU's Mellon College of Science, will receive an honorary Doctor of Science and Technology degree.

• Ada Yonath, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry and director of the Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly at the Weizmann Institute of Science, will receive an honorary Doctor of Science and Technology degree. Yonath was a postdoctoral researcher at CMU in 1969.

Photo: Getty Images.

Subscribe to Pittsburgh Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.