Benji Gregory, the Child Star of ‘ALF’ Dies at 46

Benji Gregory, who as a child star and actor starred on the popular 1980s television show “ALF,” has died at the age of 46. Gregory’s body was found on 13 June, with a cause yet to be determined.

According to TMZ, the actor was found in his car in a Chase Bank car park in Peoria, Arizona alongside the body of his service dog, Hans.

The actor’s sister Rebecca, speaking to the outlet about her brother, revealed that the child star suffered from bipolar disorder, depression, and a sleep disorder that sometimes caused him to remain awake for days at a time.

The outlet notes that those close to Gregory believe he might have died of heatstroke after falling asleep in his car.

Gregory appeared in all four seasons of the 1980s sitcom ALF, an acronym for “Alien Life Form”.

The series aired on ITV in the UK and, on vehicle saw the alien crash land in the garage of the Tanner family, led by Max Wright and Anne Scedeen, with Gregory playing their son Brian alongside Andrea Elson, who played his sister Lynn.

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“It is with a heavy heart my family has suffered a loss way too early,” his sister, Rebecca Hertzberg-Pfaffinger, wrote in a Facebook post on her brother’s page on July 10.

“Ben was a great Son, Brother, and Uncle. He was fun to be around and made us laugh quite often. Still, going through his things, I find myself laughing at little videos or notes of his, in between crying. My brother Ben was found in his car, along with his beloved service dog Hans, deceased on June 13. We believe he went there on the evening of the 12th to deposit some residuals. (Found in his car) and never got out of the car to do so. He fell asleep and died from vehicular heatstroke.”

Gregory a child star died in Arizona. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office said a cause of death is pending.

Gregory, whose birth name was Benjamin Hertzberg, played Brian Tanner on “ALF,” which ran for four seasons from 1986 to 1990 as a staple of NBC’s Monday night primetime lineup.

The sitcom revolves around a wise-cracking alien from the planet Melmac who lands on Earth and ends up living with a suburban family, inevitably causing all sorts of trouble while the family tries to keep him hidden from the world. The family named him ALF — short for Alien Life Form — as he learns about humans and tries to understand their ways.

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Gregory  a child star was born May 26, 1978, according to his IMDB page, which also said he joined the Navy.

Gregory was a busy child actor who had roles on shows such as “The A-Team,” “Punky Brewster” and “T.J. Hooker,” as well as the 1986 Whoopi Goldberg movie “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”

Gregory a child star and actor also did voice-over work, appearing on “Pound Puppies” and “Fantastic Max.” After “ALF” ended, he provided the voice of Biff Jr. in the animated “Back to the Future” TV series. He also starred in an episode of the original “Murphy Brown” series, while his last credit was a voice role in the 1993 movie “Once Upon a Forest.”