Benji Gregory, the child star of ‘ALF’ dies at 46

“Ben was a great Son, Brother and Uncle. He was fun to be around and made us laugh quite often. Still, going through his things, I find myself laughing at little videos or notes of his, in between crying. My brother Ben was found in his car, along with his beloved service dog Hans, deceased on June 13. We believe he went there the evening of the 12th to deposit some residuals. (Found in his car) and never got out of the car to do so. He fell asleep and died from vehicular heatstroke.”

Gregory died in Arizona. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office said a cause of death is pending.

Gregory, whose birth name was Benjamin Hertzberg, played Brian Tanner on “ALF,” which ran for four seasons from 1986 to 1990 as a staple of NBC’s Monday night primetime lineup.

The sitcom revolved around a wise-cracking alien from the planet Melmac who lands on Earth and ends up living with a suburban family, inevitably causing all sorts of trouble while the family tries to keep him hidden from the world. The family named him ALF — short for Alien Life Form — as he learns about humans and tries to understand their ways.

Gregory was born May 26, 1978, according to his IMDB page, which also said he joined the Navy.

Gregory was a busy child actor who had roles on shows such as “The A-Team,” “Punky Brewster” and “T.J. Hooker,” as well as the 1986 Whoopi Goldberg movie “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”

Gregory also did voice-over work, appearing on “Pound Puppies” and “Fantastic Max.” After “ALF” ended, he provided the voice of Biff Jr. in the animated “Back to the Future” TV series. He also starred on an episode of the original “Murphy Brown” series, while his last credit was a voice role in the 1993 movie “Once Upon a Forest.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY: