Sully and Desperate Housewives star Valerie Mahaffey dies aged 71
Topics: Celebrity
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: ABC
Topics: Celebrity
Warning: This article contains discussion of cancer which some readers may find distressing.
Emmy-winning actor Valerie Mahaffey, known for her roles in Sully and Desperate Housewives, has died at the age of 71.
Her husband Joseph Kell announced the tragic news that his wife had passed yesterday (May 30) in Los Angeles, California, following a cancer diagnosis.
“I have lost the love of my life, and America has lost one of its most endearing actresses. She will be missed,” Kell said.
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Mahaffey, who was born in Indonesia and lived there for the first 11 years of her life, scooped her Primetime Emmy Award in 1992 for 'Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series', thanks to her role As Eve in the TV series Northern Exposure.
The veteran actor began her career on Broadway, in New York City, appearing in plays in the late 1970s.
The latest production that Mahaffey featured in was The 8th Day, which was released in March this year, playing Landon Mahoney.
The movie follows two small-time criminals, a young woman desperate to move out of a small Texas town, as well as an Mahaffey's character who guards a dark secret.
The storyline of the four characters align after eight days when visiting a check-cashing store full of money in the same Texas town.
Mahaffey also featured in 14 episodes of Young Sheldon, portraying Victoria MacElroy - an English teacher at the fictional Medford High School, where Sheldon goes to school.
She also starred as Diane Higgins in the Academy Award nominated biopic Sully, which saw Tom Hanks prise the role as Captain Chesley Burnett 'Sully' Sullenberger III - who landed a plane on the Hudson River.
Higgins was one of 155 people who survived the plane crash.
While previewing French Exit, a film released in 2021 - having previously been earmarked for release in 2020 but was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic - in which she played a widow, she cited a quote she believed was credited to Jack Nicholson.
"Acting is 10 percent preparation but 90 percent relaxation', in my early days, I didn’t know what that meant. But now, I do," she said per Filmspeak.
She continued: "What happens is, when you relax - you have your plan that you can do if you have to - but when you relax, stuff happens in the middle of a take that you didn’t plan, but you’re able to receive it from wherever it’s coming from and do it and it’s a huge gift."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.