Maris Crane is the ex-wife of Dr. Niles Crane on the American television sitcom Frasier that aired on NBC September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004.
In the beginning of the series, Niles is still married to her, even though he starts developing a crush on Daphne Moon. Maris is described as being a very insecure, petty, domineering, and generally unpleasant woman, and as the series progresses, Maris and Niles start drifting apart. Finally Niles divorces Maris after he catches her having an affair with their marriage counselor.
During the last year of the show, Maris is arrested for murdering her then-boyfriend, though it was in self-defense. Maris is placed under house arrest, using the bracelet system, but she still fears that she may not get a fair trial. The bracelet slips off and she escapes to another country. However, she hides the bracelet in one of Niles' collected paintings, getting him into some misadventures.
No actress played Maris. She was talked about but never seen or heard. The closest one gets to seeing her, is when she is drinking with a straw through the hole in the box she is hiding in, in order to ship herself out of the USA. Her silhouette was also once seen through a shower curtain.
She is described as being extremely thin and rarely eats, consuming only tiny morsels of food when she does. Frasier once called her "bleached, 100 per cent fat free and best kept in an air-tight container." She did gain a lot of weight after her divorce from Niles. She is extremely wealthy, inheriting a fortune based on urinal cakes. Her wealth apparently made her obsessed with social standing and she is portrayed as being a selfish shopaholic.
Her interests include sensory deprivation, cosmetic surgery, fencing and interpretive dance .
Maris' unseen nature was inspired by Vera Peterson, Norm's oft-mentioned but rarely-seen wife on Cheers. Frasier writers took it one step further; although Vera was heard on occassion and once seen with her face covered with a cream pie, Maris was never seen or heard.
See List of unseen characters.
