Anne Schedeen, 1949 – 2026

Actress Anne Schedeen, who played ALF’s adoptive mother and Marcus Welby’s daughter, has died, her family announced on June 14. She was 77. In addition to those shows, she had recurring roles on Emergency! and Paper Dolls, and appeared on Ironside, Get Christie Love!, McCloud, The Bionic Woman, Three’s Company, Cheers, Magnum PI, and Judging Amy; she also appeared in the films Embryo and Second Thoughts. Schedeen is survived by her husband, talent agent Christopher Barrett, and their daughter, actress and comic Tay Barrett. She also worked as a decorator and acting coach. Schedeen said of ALF, “it was the hardest job that I ever had and will probably ever have. It was a technical nightmare—extremely slow, hot and tedious. If you had a scene with ALF, it took centuries. A 30-minute show took 20 to 25 hours to shoot. The whole thing was a big, dysfunctional family.”