(PatriotsUnited.org) – Former child star Benji Gregory has sadly passed away at the age of 46.
The actor, who made his name as Brian Tanner on NBC’s iconic sitcom “ALF,” was located in his vehicle in the parking lot of a Chase Bank branch in Peoria, Arizona, on 13 June. While there has been no announcement on the causes of his passing, Gregory’s family claim he may have been a victim of vehicular heatstroke after falling asleep in his car. He had been visiting the bank to deposit residual checks. Arizona can often have dangerously high temperatures in summer, with it reaching a whopping 109 degrees Fahrenheit on 13 June. Gregory’s well-loved dog, Hans, also passed away in the car.
The celebrity’s issues with mental health conditions were known. He had reportedly been diagnosed with depression, bipolar disorder, and a major sleep disorder which sometimes made it impossible for him to sleep for several days. Writing in a moving post to social media, a cousin of Gregory’s, Camille Jazzy Jenkins, detailed the emotional trauma and grief of the citation on her and her relatives. Announcing Gregory’s passing, she said they were “not OK” but that she took comfort in “knowing he is with his grandmothers”. She also asked people to pray for Gregory’s sister, brother, and parents.
Addressing his tenure on the famous program in a 2022 interview, Gregory explained that he did not recall any particular “moment” when he realized ALF had become a famous show. Tanner became a household name during this era, in which he starred in more than 100 episodes of the show, which was one of the U.S.’ most popular comedy shows during the 1980s. The show explored the life of a family secretly looking after an alien that had crash-landed in their garage. Gregory did admit that he remembered other people on the set reviewing the Nielsen ratings the day after the show’s premiere. He said they were usually trying to beat ratings for a program titled ‘Major Dad’ and that they usually had better viewing figures.
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