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Jean Thompson Kasem (born May 21, 1954, Portsmouth, New Hampshire)1 is an American actress best known for playing the chipmunk-voiced Loretta Tortelli on the long-running NBC sitcom Cheers and its 1987 spinoff The Tortellis.1 She appeared in the original Ghostbusters (1984) as the Tall Woman at Party during Louis Tully's ill-fated gathering.2
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Jean Thompson was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the daughter of Irene Celia Thompson and Herbert Owens Thompson Sr.1 She is one of five children and has Norwegian heritage on her mother's side.1 Her father worked as a civil servant and relocated the family to Guam in 1963, where she attended the University of Guam at age 16.1
She married a U.S. Navy lieutenant at 17 and spent the subsequent six years working as a waitress and saleswoman on military bases across the Pacific.1 After that marriage ended, she moved to California and explored broadcast journalism before enrolling in an acting workshop in Hollywood.
Kasem broke into television in the early 1980s with guest spots on Strike Force (ABC, 1982), Alice (CBS), and Fantasy Island (ABC, 1984).2 She also appeared in Ghostbusters (1984) during the same period (see below).
Her defining role came when she was cast as Loretta Tortelli on Cheers beginning in 1984. Loretta is the brassy, high-pitched second wife of Nick Tortelli (Dan Hedaya), the philandering ex-husband of Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman).3 The character was a recurring presence on Cheers across six episodes spanning 1984 to 1993 and became popular enough to anchor a spinoff.1
The Tortellis aired on NBC in 1987 for 13 episodes.4 The series transplanted Nick and Loretta from Boston to Las Vegas, where Loretta pursued a singing career as part of a group called The Grinning Americans.5 The show was cancelled after a single season.
Following the spinoff's cancellation, Kasem continued to appear in television through the 1990s, with guest roles on Hope and Gloria (NBC, 1995-1996)3 and Malcolm and Eddie (UPN).2 She also provided voice work on animated series including Darkwing Duck, Johnny Bravo, and 2 Stupid Dogs.2 She appeared in the short-lived sitcom The 5 Mrs. Buchanans (1994).2 Her last credited acting work dates to approximately 1999.
Outside acting, Kasem holds twelve U.S. patents for crib and canopy designs developed through her business, the Little Miss Liberty Round Crib Company.1
Jean Kasem appears briefly in Ghostbusters (1984) as the Tall Woman at Party, one of the guests at Louis Tully's apartment gathering in the scene found in Chapter 17: "Who Brought the Dog?" The character is later referenced in Ghostbusters Year One Issue #3 (page 19, panel 2), where the tall woman from Louis' party appears to the right of Benatar.6
On page 20 of Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #20, panel 1, Casey and Jean Kasem appear together with their backs to the reader, a cameo the creative team included as a nod to the couple.7
Kasem married radio personality and American Top 40 host Casey Kasem in 1980.8 Together they had one daughter, Liberty Jean Kasem, born May 31, 1990.2 Casey Kasem died on June 15, 2014, in Gig Harbor, Washington; he was subsequently buried in Oslo, Norway.9 Casey had three adult children from a previous marriage, and a public conservatorship dispute involving those children and Jean Kasem drew significant media attention in 2013 and 2014.3
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
"Jean Kasem," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Kasem. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8
IMDb, "Jean Kasem" (nm0440488), accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0440488/. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6
Fox News Entertainment, "Kasem family feud: Jean Kasem's acting past includes popular role on 'Cheers'" (October 4, 2013), https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/kasem-family-feud-jean-kasems-acting-past-includes-popular-role-on-cheers. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
"The Tortellis," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tortellis. ↩
Nostalgia Central, "The Tortellis," accessed 2026-06-13, https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1980s/tortellis/. ↩
Ghostbusters Year One Issue #3 (IDW Publishing, 2020), p. 19, panel 2. The tall woman from Louis' party, portrayed by Jean Kasem, appears to the right of Pat Benatar. ↩
Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #20 (IDW Publishing, 2014), p. 20, panel 1. On the left side with their backs to the reader are Casey and Jean Kasem. ↩
"Casey Kasem," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Kasem. ↩
CNN, "Radio star Casey Kasem buried in Norway" (December 23, 2014), https://www.cnn.com/2014/12/23/showbiz/casey-kasem-burial/index.html. ↩