David Lawrence Angell was born in West Barrington, Rhode Island in 1947. He had little desire to be in showbiz as a child, indeed he once planned on becoming a priest like his brother Kenneth. He thought of becoming a doctor for a while before he went to Providence College, where he gained a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature. After college he joined the army, where he worked for 2.5 years until 1972. David had a clerical assignment at the Pentagon in 1972.

After returning to civilian life, David wrote manuals for insurance companies and also worked as a methods analyst. One day he watched The Mary Tyler Moore Show and wondered if he could write like the writers of the show. David wrote some scripts, and luckily for him two of the producers of Rhoda picked up his scripts and said he showed promise.

David and his wife Lynn sold their house and moved to LA in 1977. He managed to get a job writing some scripts for Barney Miller, but was then unemployed for 5 years. He stuck at it though, believing he could really do it. He managed to find work in the early 1980's, writing scripts for Family Ties, The Bob Newhart Show and Condo before becoming a staff writer on Cheers, where he met Peter Casey and David Lee in 1985. David won an Emmy for his script for the Cheers episode "Old Flames", where Sam Malone's friend says he can break Sam and Diane up in 24 hours.

The trio set up their own production company, Grub Street Productions in the late 1980s. The name is a British slang phrase meaning "a lot of hard work". In 1990 they created their first sitcom, Wings, set in a Nantucket airfield. It was very successful and ran for 7 seasons, including an episode where Frasier and Lilith Crane visited from Boston.

In 1993 when Cheers ended, the trio came up with the idea of giving Frasier Crane his own series. They decided to let him leave Boston and move to Seattle - a town they chose because it was so far away from Boston that they wouldn't be able to have a Cheers character drop by every few weeks like the producers wanted.

Sadly, David Angell was killed in the New York disaster on September 11th 2001. He and wife Lynn were on board American Airlines Flight 11 - the Boston - LA flight that was hijacked and crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, New York. He will be missed by friends, family and colleagues.