Peter Krause says costar Carol Burnett kept tragic reason for hospital visit secret during a 2001 run-in
Peter Krause says costar Carol Burnett kept tragic reason for hospital visit secret during a 2001 run-in
Ryan ColemanSat, October 3, 2026 at 6:13 PM UTC
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Peter Krause; Carol BurnettCredit: Mark Van Holden/NBC via Getty; Araya Doheny/GettyKey Points -
Peter Krause is looking back on a chance encounter with his old costar Carol Burnett.
Burnett cast the up-and-coming Krause in her short-lived comedy anthology series Carol & Company, and Krause says he still imagines her “watching somewhere,” tracking his career.
They met again in 2001 at a hospital, Krause says, where Burnett kept the tragic reason for her visit a secret.
Because Peter Krause knew Carol Burnett, he has been changed for good.
Before Krause blew up as the Emmy-nominated Nate Fisher on Six Feet Under, he’d been part of the titular company on Burnett’s short-lived comedy anthology series, Carol & Company. Though they only played together for two seasons, Krause revealed in a recent Esquireinterview that Burnett has had a lasting impact on his career.
“I learned a great deal from her in terms of what it meant to be professional. I’m grateful that I had that early on,” he said. Krause was reminded just how professional and composed Burnett remains years later, during a chance encounter at a Los Angeles hospital.
Carol Burnett and Peter Krause on ‘Carol & Company’ in 1990Credit: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
In 2001, Krause was at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, “where my son had been born, and I was getting the house ready and getting ready to bring him home... I went to the elevators, the doors opened up, and Carol Burnett walked out.”
Burnett recognized her old costar, and congratulated him on the early success of Six Feet Under, which premiered earlier that year. “She was very complimentary about how different that work was than the work that we did with each other in sketch comedy,” Krause recalled, and Burnett “asked me what I was doing [at the hospital], and I said, ‘Oh, I just had a child. I’m here to pick up my son and bring him home.’ She very quickly said, ‘Congratulations!’ and gave me a big hug and a kiss.”
Only later did Krause learn why Burnett herself was at the hospital.
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“It was later that I found out that she was there at the hospital to visit her daughter Carrie, who a short time later passed away,” he revealed. “But just in her graceful manner, she congratulated me and then moved on. She’s a really beautiful person, and I’m really grateful that I got to have the time with her that I did early in my career. I would say it set me up for success and deepened the work ethic for me.”
Krause said he learned to “think on my toes” from Burnett, whom he praised as “very sharp, very accomplished, but a very humble woman when I met her.” The actor “always felt like, if I’m out there in the business, she’s watching somewhere.”
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for Burnett for comment.
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Krause’s son Roman with ex Christine King was born in November 2001. Carrie Hamilton, whom Burnett had with ex Joe Hamilton in 1963, died of cancer on January 20, 2002, at the age of 38.
In 2018, Burnett opened up about Carrie’s death. “I think of her every day,” Burnett shared. “She never leaves me…I just feel her.”
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
