RIP Valerie Mahaffey

 

R.I.P. Valerie Mahaffey, character actor favorite

Mahaffey appeared on many of the biggest shows of the last 40 years, including Northern Exposure, ER, and Young Sheldon

AV Club.

By William Hughes

May 31, 2025

 

Valerie Mahaffey has died. Although her name may not be instantly recognizable to American TV fans of the last 40 years, her face and voice almost certainly will be: As a prolific character actor with a highly distinctive tone—often appearing as ostensibly sweet characters whose chipper exteriors could hide layers of darkness underneath—Mahaffey appeared in dozens of many of the biggest shows of the last half-century of television. Multi-episode arcs on shows like Northern Exposure, Desperate Housewives, and Young Sheldon helped cement her place in pop culture, but honestly, if you watched TV at at any point in recent memory, there’s a good chance you encountered her, often smiling brightly while saying terrifying things. Per Variety, Mahaffey’s death on May 30 was confirmed by her husband, actor Joseph Kell. Mahaffey was 71.

Born in Indonesia to Canadian and American parents, Mahaffey moved around the planet frequently as a child, before ultimately settling in Texas—and then, after college, New York, where she made her Broadway debut in 1975. She transitioned into film and TV in the late ’70s, first on long-running soap The Doctors, and then in increasingly prominent spots on the TV dial, landing guest star roles in Newhart, Quantum Leap, Cheers, Seinfeld, and more. Her profile rose considerably in 1991 when she was cast in a recurring role in Northern Exposure, playing Eve, the eccentric, hypochondriac partner of Adam Arkin’s Adam. The role scored Mahaffey her one Emmy win across her long career, securing the Best Supporting Actress statue in 1992.

The ’90s saw Mahaffey land one of the only TV regular gigs of her entire career, starring opposite David Hyde Pierce in NBC political satire The Powers That Be. (The show, which saw Mahaffey play a pampered upper-class daughter of a corrupt senator, was canceled after two seasons; its creators, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, would go on to slightly greater success with another TV project a few years down the road. Mahaffey, who threw her whole body into the part, later said she could have played that “marvelous twit” forever.) Mostly, though, Mahaffey simply continued to work, bringing bright energy and just a hint of madness (her mother apparently asked her once “Why do they always make you play crazy people?”) to shows like Wings, ER, The West Wing, and more.

MAHAFFEY, Valerie

Born: 6/16/1955, Sumatra, Indonesia

Died: 5/30/2025, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Valerie Mahaffey’s western – actress:

The Young Riders (TV) – 1989-1992