Actress Valerie Mahaffey, 72, died on May 30. The whisper-thin Mahaffey, with her quavery voice (I could never tell her from Julie Hagerty) was born in Sumatra and moved to Texas at 16. She made her Broadway debut in 1976’s Rex, also appearing in the 1977 hit Dracula (her other B’way shows were all bombs). Mahaffey had recurring roles on The Doctors, Fresno, The Powers that Be, Women of the House, Wings (as Joe’s crazy high-school classmate), ER, United States of Tara, Desperate Housewives, Young Sheldon, and Dead to Me, as well as one-shots on numerous other shows (she won an Emmy for her turn on Northern Exposure). “Acting is 10% preparation but 90% relaxation,” she told Kaleena Steakle in 2021. “In my early days, I didn’t know what that meant. But now, I do. What happens is, 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.” Mahaffey is survived by her husband, actor Joseph Kell.
