Valerie Mahaffey, the actress finest identified for her roles on Northern Exposure and Young Sheldon, has died.

A consultant for the actress confirmed her demise on the age of 71 to Leisure Weekly on Saturday.

Mahaffey's husband, actor and director Joseph Kell, mourned her demise in a press release to EW. "I’ve misplaced the love of my life, and America has misplaced one in every of its most lovable actresses," he mentioned. "She can be missed."

Mahaffey's daughter, actress Alice Ziolkoski, mentioned her mom had been battling most cancers in a tribute to her on Instagram. "Don't actually have the phrases to say proper now. Most cancers sucks," she wrote. "I'll search for you in all of the enjoyable moments of life. I do know that's the place you'll be💕🪽. I do know we'll see one another once more sometime. I really like you infinity a lot."

The actress' former supervisor, Scott Howard, additionally remembered Mahaffey in a press release to EW. "I all the time appreciated Valerie very a lot, and solely have the nicest issues to say about her and her household," he wrote. "She was a beautiful lady and fantastic actor, stuffed with empowerment, energy, and resilience."

In a profession that spanned six a long time, Mahaffey landed quite a lot of supporting performances throughout tv and movie. She gained an Emmy for her five-episode stint on the Nineteen Nineties comedy-drama Northern Publicity taking part in rich hypochondriac Eve, and in addition portrayed Alma Hodge on 9 episodes of Desperate Housewives. Her best-known current venture was Younger Sheldon, on which she performed Victoria MacElroy, Sheldon's homeroom and English instructor.

Born in Indonesia in 1953 to a Canadian mom and an American father, Mahaffey earned a Bachelor of Tremendous Arts on the College of Texas at Austin and made her debut on Broadway as Catherine Howard within the Richard Rodgers musical Rex in 1976. The next yr, she made her display debut within the TV film Inform Me My Title.

The actress' second credited display function got here on the NBC cleaning soap opera The Medical doctors. She portrayed Ashley Bennett for over 100 episodes between 1979 and 1981, and earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for Excellent Supporting Actress in a Drama Collection.

In 1986, Mahaffey starred alongside Susan Sarandon and Kristy McNichol within the TV film Girls of Valor, and in addition appeared in each episode of the soap-spoof miniseries Fresno, which additionally starred Carol Burnett, Dabney Coleman, Teri Garr, and Charles Grodin. She spent the subsequent a number of years making one-off appearances on exhibits like Newhart, Quantum Leap, and Cheers, and in addition performed D.A. Barbara August in two 1989 Perry Mason TV motion pictures.

'Big Sky' star Valerie Mahaffey on that mother of a twist Rob Morrow and Janine Turner are launching a 'Northern Exposure' rewatch podcast

Mahaffey additionally performed Patrice, the ex-girlfriend of Jason Alexander's George Costanza within the 1991 Seinfeld episode "The Fact." In it, Patrice calls for that George clarify why he broke up together with her, and George admits that he's delay by her pretentious pronunciation patterns.

The identical yr, Mahaffey joined Northern Publicity as Eve, the spouse of grasp chef Adam (Adam Arkin). The function earned Mahaffey an Emmy for Excellent Supporting Actress in a Drama Collection in 1992.

Mahaffey was additionally a forged member on the short-lived political sitcom The Powers That Be from 1992 to 1993. Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman earlier than they created Buddies, the present additionally starred John Forsythe, Holland Taylor, David Hyde Pierce, and a younger Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

The actress scored recurring roles on different '90s exhibits, together with ER, The Consumer, and Wings. Across the identical time, she performed supporting roles in a handful of movies, together with the Tim Allen comedy Jungle 2 Jungle and the political comedy Nationwide Lampoon's Senior Journey, which was additionally Jeremy Renner's film debut.

Within the 2000s, Mahaffey appeared in episodes of The West Wing, Frasier, CSI, Private Practice, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and quite a few different exhibits. She additionally appeared in 2003's Seabiscuit and had a recurring function on Showtime's United States of Tara. Nonetheless, her best-known function of the 2000s was on Determined Housewives, on which she portrayed Alma Hodge, the primary spouse of Kyle MacLachlan's Orson Hodge, for eight episodes on the present's third season earlier than dying after falling out a window. She returned in season 8 in 2012 as a ghost.

Within the 2010s, the actress acted in episodes of exhibits like Hannah Montana, Grey’s Anatomy, The Mindy Project, Workaholics, and Elevating Hope. She had multi-episode runs on quite a few different collection, together with Glee, Hart of Dixie, Devious Maids, and The Man in the High Castle. She additionally performed Katie Holmes' mom within the Adam Sandler car Jack and Jill and acted reverse Tom Hanks in Clint Eastwood's biopic Sully.

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Mahaffey's last slate of tasks included Dead to Me, on which she performed Christina Applegate's character's mother-in-law, and on Massive Sky, on which she performed the mom of Brian Geraghty's character. She additionally starred within the movie French Exit, wherein she portrayed the neighbor of Michelle Pfeiffer's character, and earned an Impartial Spirit Award nomination for Finest Supporting Feminine.

Mahaffey is survived by her husband and her daughter.

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