PHOENIX — Benji Gregory, the child actor who starred in the hit 1980s sitcom "ALF" was found dead in his car in June. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner released his official cause of death on Friday.
Gregory and his service dog Hans were found dead in his vehicle in an Arizona bank parking lot on June 13. His family believes he fell asleep in the car and died of heatstroke.
The medical examiner's office ruled his death as an accident and the cause as "environmental heat exposure in the setting of hepatic cirrhosis" — a form of liver damage caused by heatstroke.
Heatstroke is a life-threatening condition that can cause multiple organ failure. Although the National Library of Medicine notes that severe liver injury and acute liver failure are rare, vehicle interiors can reach intensely hot temperatures during Arizona summers.
Multiple deaths have already been linked to people, often children, being left in cars this year. Hundreds of heat-related deaths have been recorded in Maricopa County as of Sept. 13, 2024.
Gregory's sister told TMZ that he suffered from depression, bipolar disorder and a sleep disorder that would often keep him awake for days at a time.
Gregory, who was 46 at the time of his death, took on the role of Brian Tanner in NBC's "ALF" when he was 8 years old. The hit show, featuring a suburban family who takes in a fuzzy alien (whom they name Alien Life Form, or "ALF" for short) from planet Melmac that crashes into their garage, aired from 1986 to 1990. He made guest appearances on a number of shows throughout the 80s, like "The A-Team," "T.J. Hooker," "Amazing Stories" and "The Twilight Zone," and voiced Biff Tannen Jr. on the animated "Back to the Future" series.
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