Valerie Mahaffey, the Emmy-winning actress known for her work on such shows as Northern Exposure, Desperate Housewives, Young Sheldon and Dead to Me, died Friday. She was 71.
Mahaffey died in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer, publicist Jillian Roscoe announced.
Known for playing eccentric characters, Mahaffey received a Spirit Award nomination for her turn as widowed American expat Madame Reynard in French Exit (2020) opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges as mother and son.
From 1991-94, she appeared on five episodes of CBS’ Northern Exposure over three seasons and received a supporting actress Emmy in 1992 for portraying the hypochondriac Eve, wife of Adam Arkin’s character.
She played the manipulative Alma Hodge, ex-wife of Kyle MacLachlan’s Orson Hodge, on ABC’s Desperate Housewives from 2006-07; recurred as the teacher Victoria MacElroy on CBS’ Young Sheldon from 2017-20; and played Lorna Harding, Christina Applegate’s narcissistic mother-in-law, on Netflix’s Dead to Me from 2019-22.
She also was recently seen on the Apple TV+ series Echo 3.
Born on June 16, 1953, in Indonesia and raised there until she was 11, Mahaffey graduated from Austin High School and then, in 1975, from the University of Texas.
She began her acting career in New York City and appeared on Broadway six times from 1976-84, with turns in Dracula, starring Raul Julia, and Play Memory, directed by Harold Prince.
Meanwhile, she was appearing in 1979-80 as Ashley Bennett on the NBC soap opera The Doctors, for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy.
She also won Obie Awards for her work in Top Girls at the Public Theatre and in Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads at the Minetta Lane. Her other theater credits included turns as Desdemona in Othello opposite Morgan Freeman and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet with Tom Hulce.
Mahaffey was a regular on the 1992-93 Norman Lear-produced NBC series The Powers That Be and played the mother of Jayma Mays’ Emma Pillsbury on Fox’s Glee from 2011-13 and the unstable Olivia Rice on ABC’s Devious Maids from 2013-15.
She also showed up on episodes of Newhart, Seinfeld — she’s the former accountant who helps George with his taxes on the 1991 episode “The Truth” — Wings, ER, Cheers, Big Sky and The Mindy Project and in films including Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), Seabiscuit (2003), Summer Eleven (2010), Sully (2016) and No Pay, Nudity (2016).
Survivors include her husband, Joseph Kell, and her daughter, Alice. “I have lost the love of my life, and America has lost one of its most endearing actresses,” Kell said in a statement.
