Valerie Mahaffey, Starlet on ‘Northern Direct exposure,’ ‘Desperate Homemakers’ and ‘Young Sheldon,’ Passes Away at 71 

Valerie Mahaffey, the Emmy-winning starlet understood for her deal with such programs as Northern Direct Exposure, Desperate Homemakers, Young Sheldon and Dead to Me, passed away Friday. She was 71.

Mahaffey passed away in Los Angeles after a fight with cancer, press agent Jillian Roscoe revealed.

Understood for playing eccentric characters, Mahaffey got a Spirit Award election for her turn as widowed American expat Madame Reynard in French Exit ( 2020) opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges as mom and kid.

From 1991-94, she appeared on 5 episodes of CBS’ Northern Direct Exposure over 3 seasons and got a supporting starlet Emmy in 1992 for representing the hypochondriac Eve, better half of Adam Arkin’s character.

She played the manipulative Alma Hodge, ex-wife of Kyle MacLachlan’s Orson Hodge, on ABC’s Desperate Homemakers from 2006-07; repeated as the instructor Victoria MacElroy on CBS’ Young Sheldon from 2017-20; and played Lorna Harding, Christina Applegate’s egotistical mother-in-law, on Netflix’s Dead to Me from 2019-22.

She likewise was just recently seen on the Apple television+ series Echo 3

Born upon June 16, 1953, in Indonesia and raised there up until she was 11, Mahaffey finished from Austin High School and after that, in 1975, from the University of Texas.

She started her acting profession in New york city City and appeared on Broadway 6 times from 1976-84, with turns in Dracula, starring Raul Julia, and Play Memory, directed by Harold Prince.

On the other hand, she was appearing in 1979-80 as Ashley Bennett on the NBC daytime drama The Physicians, for which she was chosen for a Daytime Emmy.

She likewise won Obie Awards for her operate in Leading Women at the general public Theatre and in Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads at the Minetta Lane. Her other theater credits consisted of turns as Desdemona in Othello opposite Morgan Freeman and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet with Tom Hulce.

Mahaffey was a routine on the 1992-93 Norman Lear-produced NBC series The Powers That Be and played the mom of Jayma Mays’ Emma Pillsbury on Fox’s Glee from 2011-13 and the unsteady Olivia Rice on ABC’s Sneaky Housemaids from 2013-15.

She likewise appeared on episodes of Newhart, Seinfeld— she’s the previous accounting professional who assists George with his taxes on the 1991 episode “The Fact”– Wings, ER, Cheers, Huge Sky and The Mindy Job and in movies consisting of Jungle 2 Jungle (1997 ), Seabiscuit (2003 ), Summertime Eleve n (2010 ), Sully (2016) and No Pay, Nudity (2016 ).

Survivors include her spouse, Joseph Kell, and her child, Alice. “I have actually lost the love of my life, and America has actually lost among its most capitivating starlets,” Kell stated in a declaration.