
Valerie Mahaffey (June 16, 1953 – May 30, 2025) was an American actress and producer. She began her career starring in the NBC daytime soap opera The Doctors (1979–81), for which she received a nomination for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. In 1992, Mahaffey won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role in the CBS drama series Northern Exposure. She later won fame through her portrayal of extroverted and friendly but ultimately insane women on the television shows Wings, Desperate Housewives, Devious Maids and Big Sky. Mahaffey also appeared in a number of movies, including Senior Trip (1995), Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), Jack and Jill (2011), Sully (2016), and most notably French Exit (2020), for which she received critical acclaim and an Independent Spirit Award nomination. Description above from the Wikipedia article Valerie Mahaffey, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Grey's Anatomy
TV • 2005

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
TV • 1999

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
TV • 2000

Frasier
TV • 1993

Cheers
TV • 1982

Boston Legal
TV • 2004

Seinfeld
TV • 1989

Northern Exposure
TV • 1990

Desperate Housewives
TV • 2004

The West Wing
TV • 1999

Without a Trace
TV • 2002

ER
TV • 1994

Young Sheldon
TV • 2017

Big Sky
TV • 2020

Glee
TV • 2009

Private Practice
TV • 2007

L.A. Law
TV • 1986

The Mindy Project
TV • 2012