Family
Daphne grew up in a very large dysfunctional family. They are often the subject of her long-winded tales that sometimes leave the Cranes somewhat perplexed. Although they are frequently mentioned, the first time one of her family members appears on the show is in the season 7 episode "Dark Side of the Moon", in which Donny surprises Daphne with a visit from her brother, Simon (Anthony LaPaglia), not knowing that she dislikes him (her favorite brother, Stephen, never appears until the final episode, where he is played by Richard E. Grant). In "Something Borrowed, Someone Blue" Daphne's mother makes her first appearance, while her father only makes his debut in Season 9.
In the episode "An Affair to Forget" she mentions she had an ancestor who served on HMS Bounty who took Fletcher Christian's side in the mutiny. According to her he made it to Pitcairn Island with a Tahitian wife and had several children. When she mentioned to Niles that there may be Polynesian version of her on the island, he nearly fainted as the image entered his mind.
Five out of Daphne's eight brothers have appeared on the show; few of them maintained consistency with Daphne's northern accent. LaPaglia, an Australian actor, faked a Cockney accent playing Simon, while Robbie Coltrane, who is Scottish, played Daphne's brother Michael with a muddled Brummie (Birmingham) accent—which had a distinct Scottish lilt to it—explained away by Niles as being a result of his being dropped as a baby. Richard E Grant played Stephen Moon with an indeterminate accent somewhere between posh English and mock Cockney. Most of the brothers are portrayed as lawless, alcoholic ne'er-do-wells and womanizers, routinely getting into trouble with the law, getting drunk and appearing at inopportune moments. Her brother Billy is the exception to the norm and is implied to be gay, such as in the episode Daphne's Room, in which Daphne said her brothers would "sneak into the bathroom and peek at me in the shower ... except for me brother Billy, the ballroom dancer. He never peeked at me, though he did peek at me brother Nigel." When Daphne talks with her mom Gertrude about resuming her sex life with Niles after his heart surgery, Gertrude tells her to "use your feminine wiles - that's how your brother Billy landed Kevin." According to Daphne, Billy rejected the family's traditional fishing background by announcing that he "hated the smell of fish, and was going to teach ballroom dancing." Daphne also has an uncle who lives in San Francisco, and who is said to be both a priest and a transvestite.
Read more about this topic: Daphne Moon
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