Valerie Mahaffey, the Emmy-winning managers known for his roles on Northern exhibitionDesperate Housewives and Young Sheldon, died on Friday. She was 71 years old.
Her husband, actor Joseph Kell, said in a statement to Variety: “I lost the love of my life, and America lost one of his most endearing actresses. We will miss it. “
Kell said she died on May 30 Los Angeles After a battle against cancer.
Mahaffey had a career that lasted almost 50 years and was known for having played eccentric characters, including the one for whom she won an Emmy support actress in 1992: under the name of Hypochondriac Eve living in the fictitious city of Alaska presented in Northern Exhibition, which was broadcast from 1990 to 1995.
Mahaffey recently received an independent appointment from the Spirit Award for her role as Madame Reynard optimistic in the French release of the black comedy of Azazel Jacobs.
Michelle Pfeiffer, who played in front of Mahaffey in French outing, posted on social networks: “One of our brightest stars was stolen from us yesterday. A remarkable talent and human.”
She played in Big Sky, the dramatic detective series of David E Kelley who broadcast on ABC from 2020 to 2021. She also portrayed the grandiose Lorna Harding in the first two seasons of Dead to Me, the comedy Netflix with Christina Applegate.
Mahaffey was born in Indonesia on June 16, 1953 and was raised there until the age of 11 before obtaining his graduation in secondary school in Texas and continuing his studies at the University of Texas. She started her career as an actress on stage in New York, appearing in six Broadway six plays including Dracula opposite Raul Julia and Play Memory directed by Harold Prince.
She also played Ashley Bennett on the soap opera, for which she obtained an appointment to the Emmy by day.
She collected two Obie Awards for her theater work in the best girls and in the talking heads of Alan Bennett.
The versatility of Mahaffey constantly kept her at the request of guest roles and she raised dozens of serial credits, including Seinfeld, Wings, Er, Glee, Gray’s Anatomy and The Mindy Project. She played the manipulator Alma Hodge, ex-wife of Orson Hodge of Kyle Maclachlan, on women at the desperate household from 2006 to 2007 and took over the teacher Victoria Macelroy on the young Sheldon from 2017 to 2020.
The survivors include her husband and daughter, Alice.
Rob Morrow, the Mahaffey’s Northern Exhibition co-star, posted on social networks that Mahaffey “was a breath of fresh air, joy and laughs” like Eve on the series. “We all loved it,” he said.
