Niles Crane (born 1957)[2] is a fictional character on the American sitcom Frasier, a spin-off of the television show Cheers.

Anita Gates of The New York Times wrote in 1998 that "the difference between the brothers is that Frasier knows they're being pretentious; Niles honestly doesn't".

Niles sometimes admits, however, that he envies how his "big shot radio host"[15] brother is well-known,[14] Frasier's face appears on "the side of buses", and he helps many "people who need it",[16] while no one appreciates his own work.

Niles, like Frasier, is haughty, snobby and fussy, has gourmet tastes, and was described by an interviewer at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as obsessive-compulsive.

At Cafe Nervosa, the coffee house he frequents with Frasier and other friends and family members, Niles's usual is a latte with a "whisper" of cinnamon,[19] and occasionally chocolate shavings or nutmeg.

Most prominently, he is quite mysophobic, given to wiping his hands after human contact and wiping down chairs in public places before sitting on them; it is revealed in one episode that the root of this is a babysitter (Ronee Lawrence) who told him scary stories about earwigs that would crawl in through his ears and eat his brains, and lay their eggs on furniture.

On other occasions he has expressed interest in lifting weights and taking karate lessons, but these ventures are typically laughed at by his father and brother and often amount to nothing.

He is also a master speller, having come close to winning the national spelling competition as a youth[25] and spell-checking the graffiti in a bathroom stall at a local coffee bar with a red marker.

When Niles suffers a walking heart attack, he is not aware of it for several days, because he experiences referred pain and believes he has a toothache.

After a dental checkup finds nothing wrong, Frasier's producer Roz Doyle tells him that it is probably a sinus infection, but he considers the remote chance that the problem may be his heart.

[40] Niles's first wife is Maris Crane, the haughty, anorexic daughter of a wealthy Seattle family, who is never seen on the show, despite being referred to in nearly every episode during his relationship with her.

[41] He is forced to sublet his suite at the Montana and move into the low-rent Shangri-La; while it is far below his usual standard of living, he realizes it is the price he must pay for being free of Maris.

[42] After hiring divorce attorney Donny Douglas to end the bitter, drawn-out process, she finally agrees on a settlement when he threatens to expose that her family's wealth is not in timber lands but in urinal cakes.

[8] For numerous reasons during the first six seasons of the show, however, Niles is unable to confess his feelings for Daphne, who remains unaware of his love for her (despite her professed psychic abilities).

The two elope after dating less than six months, but the marriage falls apart after only two days when Niles finally confesses his love for Daphne.

[44] The relationship spawns a huge ordeal, prompting Donny to respond by suing both Daphne and Frasier,[45] while Mel forces Niles to participate in a prolonged charade of a happy marriage for the sake of appearances.

He goes along with it until he finally loses his temper and shouts out the truth during an important dinner party – that his marriage to Mel is a sham and he refuses to put Daphne through the torture of hiding their love any longer.

Fortunately, in the end the couple finds compatibility, and many of Niles's nervous eccentricities diminish as he finally manages to maintain a stable relationship.

After Niles and Daphne begin dating, this high degree of infatuation was used to incorporate Jane Leeves' real-life pregnancy and weight gain.

The two then leave in the night to go and find a place to wed.[49] The series ends two years into their marriage with the birth of their son, David, who is born at a veterinary clinic.