Valerie Mahaffey, the Emmy-award winning actor known for her roles on Northern Exposure, Desperate Housewives and Young Sheldon, died on Friday.
Mahaffey most recently received an Independent Spirit award nomination for her role as the optimistic Madame Reynard in Azazel Jacobs’ 2020 dark comedy French Exit.
Michelle Pfeiffer, who played opposite Mahaffey in French Exit, posted on social media: “One of our brightest stars was stolen from us yesterday.
She also played Ashley Bennett on the soap opera The Doctors, for which she earned a Daytime Emmy nomination.
Rob Morrow, Mahaffey’s Northern Exposure co-star, posted on social media that Mahaffey “was a breath of fresh air, joy and laughs” as Eve on the series.
Actress Valerie Mahaffey, who won an Emmy for her work on Young Sheldon, Desperate Housewives, and Northern Exposure, passed away on Friday. She was seventy-one.
In a statement to Variety, her husband, actor Joseph Kell, said: “America has lost one of its most charming actresses, and I have lost the love of my life. We shall miss her. “”.
According to Kell, she battled cancer until her death in Los Angeles on May 30.
Over the course of her nearly 50-year career, Mahaffey gained recognition for her portrayal of quirky characters, such as the one for which she received an Emmy in 1992 for supporting actress: the hypochondriac Eve who lived in the made-up Alaskan town in Northern Exposure, which ran from 1990 to 1995.
Mahaffey was most recently nominated for an Independent Spirit award for her portrayal of the upbeat Madame Reynard in the dark comedy French Exit, directed by Azazel Jacobs in 2020.
On social media, Michelle Pfeiffer, who costarred with Mahaffey in French Exit, wrote: “Today, one of our biggest stars was taken from us. What an amazing human being and talent. “”.
In the 2020–2021 season of ABC’s ensemble detective drama series, Big Sky, she costarred with David E. Kelley. She also starred in the first two seasons of Christina Applegate’s Netflix comedy Dead to Me as the ostentatious Lorna Harding.
Before graduating from high school in Texas and attending the University of Texas, Mahaffey was born on June 16, 1953, in Indonesia and raised there until she was eleven years old. She started her acting career in New York City, where she starred in six Broadway productions, including Harold Prince’s Play Memory and Dracula, opposite Raul Julia.
She also received a nomination for a Daytime Emmy for her role as Ashley Bennett in the soap opera The Doctors.
For her roles in Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads and Top Girls, she won two Obie awards for theater.
Mahaffey accumulated dozens of series credits, including Seinfeld, Wings, ER, Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Mindy Project, thanks to her versatility, which kept her in high demand for guest roles. She recurred as the teacher Victoria MacElroy on Young Sheldon from 2017 to 2020 after playing the cunning Alma Hodge, the ex-wife of Kyle MacLachlan’s Orson Hodge, on Desperate Housewives from 2006 to 2007.
Alice, her daughter, and her husband are survivors.
On social media, Rob Morrow, who costarred with Mahaffey in Northern Exposure, wrote that Mahaffey “was a breath of fresh air, joy, and laughs” in her role as Eve. He declared, “We all loved her.”.
