Valerie Mahaffey
Birthday: Born in 1953-06-16 in Sumatra, Indonesia
Deathday: 2025-05-30
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.
TV Credits
L.A. Law
Character: Andrea Rossoff
L.A. Law is an American television legal drama series that ran for eight seasons on NBC from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it contained many of Bochco's trademark features including a large number of parallel storylines, social drama and off-the-wall humor. It reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s, and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot-topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay right...
Cheers
Character: Valerie Hill
The story about a blue-collar Boston bar run by former sports star Sam Malone and the quirky and wonderful people who worked and drank there....
Seinfeld
Character: Patrice
A stand-up comedian and his three offbeat friends weather the pitfalls and payoffs of life in New York City in the '90s. It's a show about nothing....
That's My Bush!
Character: Janet Rove
That's My Bush! is an American comedy television series that aired on Comedy Central from April 4 to May 23, 2001. Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, best known for also creating South Park, the series centers on the fictitious personal life of President George W. Bush, as played by Timothy Bottoms. Carrie Quinn Dolin played Laura Bush, and Kurt Fuller played Karl Rove. Despite the political overtones, the show itself was actually a broad lampoon of American sitcoms, including lame jokes, a ...
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Character: Dora Pomerantz
A Las Vegas team of forensic investigators are trained to solve criminal cases by scouring the crime scene, collecting irrefutable evidence and finding the missing pieces that solve the mystery....
Desperate Housewives
Character: Alma Hodge
Looking down on her friends and family isn't a way of life for Mary Alice Young... it's a way of death. One day, in her perfect house, in the loveliest of suburbs, Mary Alice ended it all. Now she's taking us into the lives of her family, friends and neighbors, commenting from her elevated P.O.V....
Ally McBeal
Character: Dr. Sally Muggins
Ally McBeal is a young lawyer working at the Boston law firm Cage and Fish. Ally's lives and loves are eccentric, humorous, dramatic with an incredibly overactive imagination that's working overtime!...
Crumbs
Character: Carolyn Pierce
Two estranged brothers reunite in their small hometown to deal with their mother who has just been released from a psychiatric facility and has yet to discover her ex-husband is about to have a baby with his new girlfriend....
Judging Amy
Character: Ms. Morlock
Judging Amy is an American television drama that was telecast from September 19, 1999, through May 3, 2005, on CBS-TV. This TV series starred Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly. Its main character is a judge who serves in a family court, and in addition to the family-related cases that she adjudicates, many episodes of the show focus on her own experiences as a divorced mother, and on the experiences of her mother, a social worker who works in the field of child welfare. This series was based on the li...
Tales of the Unexpected
Character: Jane
A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars....
Wings
Character: Sandy Cooper
Brothers Brian and Joe Hackett attempt to run an airline on the New England island of Nantucket while surrounded by their various wacky friends and employees....
Without a Trace
Character: Bonnie Toland
The series follows the ventures of a Missing Persons Unit of the FBI in New York City....
Quantum Leap
Character: Mary Greely
Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished... He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to...
Newhart
Character:
Dick Loudon and his wife Joanna decide to leave life in New York City and buy a little inn in Vermont. Dick is a how-to book writer, who eventually becomes a local TV celebrity as host of "Vermont Today." George Utley is the handyman at the inn and Leslie Vanderkellen is the maid, with ambitions of being an Olympic Ski champion; she is later replaced by her cousin Stephanie, an heiress who hates her job. Her boyfriend is Dick's yuppie TV producer, Michael Harris. There are many other quirky char...
Private Practice
Character: Marilyn Sullivan
Having left behind Seattle Grace Hospital, renowned surgeon Addison Forbes Montgomery moves to Los Angeles for sunnier weather and happier possibilities. She reunites with her friends from medical school, joining them at their chic, co-op, Oceanside Wellness Center in Santa Monica....
Out of Practice
Character:
Out of Practice is an American situation comedy...
Night Visions
Character: Sally Osgoode (segment "Neighborhood Watch")
Horror anthology series, with each episode comprising two half-hour stories dealing with themes of the supernatural or simply the dark side of human nature....
Raines
Character: Arlene
Raines is a crime drama television series focused on Michael Raines, a 'mentally haunted' LAPD detective, who interacts with imaginary manifestations of dead crime victims in order to solve criminal cases. Raines must deal with his unique, unintentional method, as it causes problems with his co-workers and in his personal life....
ER
Character: Joi Abbott
ER explores the inner workings of an urban teaching hospital and the critical issues faced by the dedicated physicians and staff of its overburdened emergency room....
United States of Tara
Character: Dr. Ocean
Tara's multiple personalities include "T" the wild-child teenager, "Buck" the rough and tumble biker dude, and "Alice" the type-A homemaker. But with a family that loves her just the way she is, Tara never gives up hope that someday she can just be herself....
Boston Legal
Character: Mary Winston
Alan Shore and Denny Crane lead a brigade of high-priced civil litigators in an upscale Boston law firm in a series focusing on the professional and personal lives of brilliant but often emotionally challenged attorneys. A spin-off of long-running series The Practice....
The Powers That Be
Character: Caitlyn Van Horne
The Powers That Be is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman that aired briefly on NBC from 1992 to 1993. Norman Lear served as executive producer for the show....
Baby Talk
Character:
Baby Talk is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from March 8, 1991 until May 8, 1992 as part of ABC's TGIF lineup. The show was loosely based on the popular Look Who's Talking movies and was adapted for television by Ed Weinberger. Amy Heckerling created original characters for the series while using key creative and script elements from Look Who's Talking, which she had written and directed. Weinberger served as executive producer during the first season, and was replaced by Saul Turteltaub a...
Murphy's Law
Character:
Murphy's Law was an American television series that starred George Segal and Maggie Han, loosely based on the Trace novels by Warren Murphy....
The Exes
Character: Anne
A sitcom about three divorced men sharing an apartment across the hall from their female divorce attorney, who is also their landlord....
Buddy Faro
Character:
Buddy Faro was the best private detective in the business, until he disappeared in 1978 after a case went bad. Twenty years later, he's brought back to Los Angeles by private detective Bob Jones and they reopen Buddy Faro Investigations....
The West Wing
Character: Tawny Cryer
The West Wing provides a glimpse into presidential politics in the nation's capital as it tells the stories of the members of a fictional presidential administration. These interesting characters have humor and dedication that touches the heart while the politics that they discuss touch on everyday life....
Northern Exposure
Character: Eve
After receiving a scholarship from the state, a recent Columbia University medical school graduate is required to set up his practice in an eccentric Alaskan town....
The Mindy Project
Character: Juliet
Obstetrician/gynecologist Mindy Lahiri tries to balance her personal and professional life, surrounded by quirky co-workers in a small medical practice in New York City....
Frasier
Character: Peggy
After many years spent at the “Cheers” bar, Frasier moves back home to Seattle to work as a radio psychiatrist after his policeman father gets shot in the hip on duty....
Impastor
Character: Susie Kerry
Buddy Dobbs, a slacker on the run from a loan shark, steals a man's identity and ends up posing as a small town's new gay pastor....
Fresno
Character: Tiffany Kensington
In Fresno, California, the once-wealthy Kensington family's raisin-growing empire has fallen on hard times. They are led by widowed matriarch Charlotte, who is locked in a deadly power struggle with rival raisin magnate Tyler Cane....
Big Sky
Character: Helen Pergman
Private detective Cassie Dewell partners with ex-cop Jenny Hoyt on a search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. When they discover that these are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area, they must race against the clock to stop the perpetrator before another woman is taken....
Franklin & Bash
Character: Julie
When they're not hanging out at their favorite hot dog stand pontificating on what they'd go through to enjoy a night with their favorite female celebrities, Jared Franklin and Peter Bash are chasing down their latest clients...sometimes literally. With business cards in hand, they're ready to nab a client within seconds after a car accident, arrest for solicitation or any other incident where their legal services may be needed. Once in the courtroom, they show their flair for the dramatic and t...
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Character: Brooke Thornburg
In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories....
Monday Mornings
Character: Fran Horowitz
Set at the Chelsea General Hospital in Portland, Oregon, the show follows the lives of doctors as they push the limits of their abilities and confront their personal and professional failings. Based on a novel by Sanjay Gupta....
Women of the House
Character: Jennifer Malone
Women of the House is an American situation comedy television series. It is a spin-off of Designing Women and stars Delta Burke, who had reconciled with producers after a bitter, highly publicized, off-screen battle....
Grey's Anatomy
Character: Donna Kaufman
Follows the personal and professional lives of a group of doctors at Seattle’s Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital....
Hannah Montana
Character: Ms. Jameson
At home and school, she's Miley Stewart, a typical teenager, but when the lights go down and the curtain goes up, she emerges as the glamorous and talented Hannah Montana. Having the "Best of Both Worlds" is a complicated proposition, and keeping her identity under wraps leads Miley and her friends into some hilarious capers as she tries to balance her normal life with her rock star persona....
Glee
Character: Rose Pillsbury
In this musical comedy, optimistic high school teacher Will Schuester tries to refuel his own passion while reinventing the high school's glee club and challenging a group of outcasts to realize their star potential as they strive to outshine their singing competition while navigating the cruel halls of McKinley High....
Young Sheldon
Character: Victoria MacElroy
The early life of child genius Sheldon Cooper, later seen in The Big Bang Theory....
The Man in the High Castle
Character: Susan
Explore what it would be like if the Allied Powers had lost WWII, and Japan and Germany ruled the United States. Based on Philip K. Dick's award-winning novel....
Hart of Dixie
Character: Mae Ellen Waterloo
New Yorker Zoe Hart has it all figured out - after graduating top of her class from medical school, she'll follow in her father's footsteps and become a cardio-thoracic surgeon. But when her dreams fall apart, Zoe decides to work at a small practice in Bluebell, Alabama....
Dream On
Character: Helen Harley
The family life, romantic life, and career of Martin Tupper, a divorced New York City book editor. The show distinctively interjected clips from older black and white television series to punctuate Tupper's feelings or thoughts....
Kirstie
Character: Victoria
The son of a Broadway star, who was given up for adoption 26 years ago, tries to connect with his birth mother after his adopted mother dies....
Better With You
Character: Ariel
Maddie and Ben have been dating for nine years and they know each other inside and out. Maddie's younger sister, Mia, has been dating Casey for seven weeks. With a shared c'est la vie attitude, Mia and Casey announce they're getting married and having a baby. It's news that throws Maddie for a loop. Surprisingly, the girls' parents, who have recently adopted a carpe diem sort of philosophy, couldn't be more pleased....
Dead to Me
Character: Lorna Harding
A hotheaded widow searching for the hit-and-run driver who mowed down her husband befriends an eccentric optimist who isn't quite what she seems....
George & Leo
Character:
George & Leo is a short-lived American sitcom starring Bob Newhart and Judd Hirsch. Set on Martha's Vineyard, the series aired on CBS from September 15, 1997 to March 16, 1998....
Caroline in the City
Character: Alicia Crawford-Lane
Caroline in the City is an American situation comedy that ran on the NBC television network. It stars Lea Thompson as cartoonist Caroline Duffy, who lives in Manhattan in New York City. The series premiered on September 21, 1995 in the "Must See TV" Thursday night block after Seinfeld. The show ran for 97 episodes over four seasons, before it was cancelled; its final episode was broadcast on April 26, 1999....
Good Morning, Miami
Character: Sara
A talented young TV producer arrives in Miami to revamp the lowest-rated morning show in the country. Jake Silver risks taking the job when he sets eyes on the show's beautiful, down-to-earth hair stylist Dylan, who wows him like nobody before – and presents a romantic challenge....
Devious Maids
Character: Olivia Rice
The series centers on four Latina maids working in the homes of Beverly Hills’ wealthiest and most powerful families, and a newcomer who made it personal after a maid was murdered and determined to uncover the truth behind her demise, and in the process become an ally in their lives....
Raising Hope
Character: Margine
James "Jimmy" Chance is a clueless 24-year-old who impregnates a serial killer during a one-night-stand. Earning custody of his daughter after the mother is sentenced to death, Jimmy relies on his oddball but well-intentioned family for support in raising the child....
Workaholics
Character: Celeste
The misadventures of three recent college dropouts, roommates, and co-workers at a telemarketing company and their drug dealer....
Movie Credits
National Lampoon's Senior Trip
Character: Miss Tracy Milford
While on detention, a group of misfits and slackers have to write a letter to the President explaining what is wrong with the education system. There is only one problem, the President loves it! Hence, the group must travel to Washington to meet the Main Man....
Witch Hunt
Character: Trudy
Magic and murder connect an actress, a private eye, a senator and a witch in 1950s Hollywood....
Summer Eleven
Character:
The poignant, coming of age story about a group of eleven year old girls in their final summer before middle school....
A Previous Engagement
Character: Grace
When Julia Reynolds talks her husband into a family vacation in Malta she has a secret agenda: a date made twenty-five years earlier with her first love....
The 8th Day
Character: Landon Mooney
Two small-time thugs, an old woman living with a dark secret, a young woman desperate to get out, and a check cashing store full of money will all intersect in a small Texas town… in eight days....
Par 6
Character: Pecan Hegelman
A cynical man returns to his family's homestead in Texas and starts up a golf course with his brothers and sisters....
If I Were You
Character: Lydia
When a woman tries to outwit her husband's sexy young mistress, the unexpected consequences include starring as King Lear in a very amateur production - with the mistress, an aspiring actress, playing The Fool....
Women of Valor
Character: Lt. Katherine R. Grace
A group of American Army nurses are captured by the Japanese in April 1942 and spend three years in a prisoner-of-war camp in Bataan. Lt Margaret Ann Jessup, the head army nurse, survives the camp and testifies against the Japanese in front of the United States Congressional subcommittee years later as a colonel....
No Ordinary Baby
Character: Virginia Hytner
A reporter gets the scoop on the first ever human cloning, but the furor surrounding the event jeopardizes the baby's birth and the career of the responsible doctor....
Dinner at Fred's
Character: Susan
A young businessman with a skill for magic tricks breaks down en route to his fiancee's parents' house on Christmas and ends up spending the holiday with a very different kind of family....
Jack and Jill
Character: Bitsy Simmons
Jack Sadelstein, a successful advertising executive in Los Angeles with a beautiful wife and kids, dreads one event each year: the Thanksgiving visit of his twin sister Jill. Jill's neediness and passive-aggressiveness is maddening to Jack, turning his normally tranquil life upside down....
They
Character: Chris Samuels
A father experiences strange apparitions after his daughter is killed in a car accident....
Tell Me My Name
Character: Alexandra / Sarah
Based on the book by Mary Carter, "Tell Me My Name" is about a girl's visit to the woman who gave her up for adoption 19 years earlier. The adoption was a secret which now threatens to destroy the entire family....
Seabiscuit
Character: Annie Howard
True story of the undersized Depression-era racehorse whose victories lifted not only the spirits of the team behind it but also those of their nation....
Sully
Character: Diane Higgins
On 15 January 2009, the world witnessed the 'Miracle on the Hudson' when Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger glided his disabled plane onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 souls aboard. However, even as Sully was being heralded by the public and the media for his unprecedented feat of aviation skill, an investigation was unfolding that threatened to destroy his reputation and career....
No Pay, Nudity
Character: Lisa Zweibal
Aging actor Lester Rosenthal (Gabriel Byrne), who has lost his way with his career, with his family, and with his friends (Nathan Lane, Frances Conroy, & Boyd Gaines) finds out that the way out is through....
Till Death Us Do Part
Character: Gail Bugliosi
This is a true crime story based on the book of the same title by prosecuting attorney, Vincent Bugliosi. (Bugliosi is the L.A. prosecutor that put Charles Manson away.) On December 11, 1966, a murder occurs in a small neighborhood of El Sereno, CA. In the middle of the night, Henry Stockton is shot three times in the head and twice in the chest and then his house is set on fire. The murderer left no clues, baffling the police, until a year later when a young pregnant woman is found bludgeoned t...
Crazy Eyes
Character: Zach's Mother
Zack is a young, divorced father who starts to develop romantic feelings towards his friend Rebecca, whom he refers to as "Crazy Eyes". He spends a lot of time at a bar run by his best friend Dan Drake and hanging out with Autumn. As he pursues a sexual relationship with Rebecca, Zack grows increasingly aware of the importance of his son's role in his life amidst the failing health of his own father....
My First Wedding
Character: Grace
A young lady about to get married realizes that she has a problem: she fantasizes about every man she sees. She goes to confess at church but unknowingly confesses to a young man who is not a priest. He agrees to help her, but falls in love with her along the way. Unfortunately she still thinks he is a priest....
Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures
Character: Mrs. Bill
Based on the "Saturday Night Live" shorts, Mr. Bill stars in his own show, but this time he's played by a human actor....
The Witch Files
Character: Claire's Mom
A coven of young women with incredible powers and difficult pasts discovers that they are able to make their every wish come true. Things, however, take a dangerous turn when they discover that their newly-found abilities come with a price and that they may not be as in control as they think....
Jungle 2 Jungle
Character: Jan Kempster
Uptight New York City executive, Michael Cromwell, pursues his soon-to-be ex-wife to South America and returns home with the son he never knew he had—a boy raised in a tribal village in Brazil. Armed with only his blowgun, the 13-year-old Mimi-Siku discovers that the world outside his jungle home is indeed a strange place....
French Exit
Character: Mme Reynard
“My plan was to die before the money ran out,” says 60-year-old penniless Manhattan socialite Frances Price, but things didn’t go as planned. Her husband Franklin has been dead for 12 years and with his vast inheritance gone, she cashes in the last of her possessions and resolves to live out her twilight days anonymously in a borrowed apartment in Paris, accompanied by her directionless son Malcolm and a cat named Small Frank—who may or may not embody the spirit of Frances’s dead husband....
Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder
Character: D.A. Barbara August
A young theatre director is accused of killing a more famous Broadway director. Perry takes his case....
Perry Mason: The Case of the All-Star Assassin
Character: D.A. Barbara August
A hockey player of friend of Ken Malansky's is accused of murdering a team owner. Perry takes the case....
Her Secret Life
Character: Becky
Kate Capshaw plays a schoolteacher and suburban housewife who happens to be an ex-spy. Nobody knows of Capshaw's previous espionage activities, least of all her somewhat obtuse husband Cliff De Young. When Capshaw's ex-lover Jeroen Krabbe, an intimate of Castro, lands in a Cuban prison, she is swept back into the spy business, leaving her nonplussed hubby in the dust....
The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket
Character: Alice
A young boy is ridiculed by his school mates for his eccentric behavior and assertions that he can fly. Little do they know..... All parts are performed by adults in a stage-play type setting....