{"id":3503,"date":"2026-06-15T04:27:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T04:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/15\/anne-schedeen-actress-who-played-the-mom-on-alf-dies-at-77\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T04:27:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T04:27:00","slug":"anne-schedeen-actress-who-played-the-mom-on-alf-dies-at-77","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/15\/anne-schedeen-actress-who-played-the-mom-on-alf-dies-at-77\/","title":{"rendered":"Anne Schedeen, Actress Who Played the Mom on \u2018ALF,\u2019 Dies at 77"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tActress Anne Schedeen, best known for playing matriarch Kate Tanner on the late-\u201980s sitcom ALF<\/a><\/em>, has died. She was 77. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cIt is with the heaviest of hearts that we share Annie has passed peacefully,\u201d reads a post on her official Facebook page.<\/a> \u201cShe leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of creative energy, whip smart humor, delight in her family, adoration for little dogs, burning hatred for Trump, passion for second-hand thrifting, and love for a good story. We are bereft without her. We loved her so so much, as did all who met her.\u201d\u00a0 \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cShe was a force. And it is unimaginable to think about life without her in it,\u201d the Facebook post continued. \u201cBut as she said, \u2018I\u2019m always with you.\u2019 And she\u2019s right. The memories, artwork, belly laughter, handmade jewelry, oil paintings, sculptures, costumes, and all around joie de vivre live on. Raise a margarita in her honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHer agent, Tom Markley, also confirmed the news. A cause of death was not revealed.<\/p>\n

\tSchedeen was born Luanne Ruth Schedeen on Jan. 8, 1949, and grew up on a farm outside of Portland, Ore. She once told<\/a> The Washington Post<\/em> that she started acting at age 6 \u201cwith teapots and flowers\u201d and later took acting lessons at the Portland Civic Theater. She did local theater in Hawaii and studied at Portland State University and Fort Wright College in Spokane, Wash., before relocating to New York and taking a stab at acting professionally.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIt was a long wait. I sold clothes, modeled clothes, was a shoe model,\u201d she said. \u201cI played in summer stock and did a commercial. Then I got signed by a big agent. Within a month I had a contract with Universal. I thought I\u2019d come out here, take fencing lessons, drive a small Thunderbird and sit by the swimming pool. Instead, I was the daughter on Marcus Welby, M.D.<\/em>\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tShe landed roles in shows including Paper Dolls, Emergency!<\/em> and Simon & Simon<\/em> before ALF<\/em>. Schedeen played Kate Tanner on the sitcom about a wisecracking alien who lands in the garage of a family who lives in suburban California and moves in with them. The series ran from September 1986 to March 1990 on NBC and spawned several spinoffs, including an animated show.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWhen ALF<\/em> came along it was another pilot season,\u201d she says. \u201cI kept reading scripts. I almost got involved with one, then withdrew at the last minute. Then I read ALF<\/em>. I said, \u2018This is funny. It makes me laugh.\u2019 I met the people involved, I met ALF, and became more convinced I wanted to do it. That little alien made me laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHowever, Schedeen later revealed to People<\/em> Magazine<\/em> that working on the show was a \u201ctechnical nightmare \u2014 extremely slow, hot and tedious. If you had a scene with ALF, it took centuries. A 30-minute show took 20 to 25 hours to shoot. Some of the actors in the cast had difficult personalities. The whole thing was a big, dysfunctional family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tShe is survived by her husband of 55 years Christopher Barrett, daughter Tay Barrett, daughter-in-law Hilary Flynn, sister Sarabeth Schedeen, niece Minnie Schedeen brother Roland \u201cTony\u201d Schedeen and sister in-law Julieann Schedeen. The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Habitat for Humanity.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Actress Anne Schedeen, best known for playing matriarch Kate Tanner on the late-\u201980s sitcom ALF, has died. She was 77. \u201cIt is with the heaviest of hearts that we share Annie has passed peacefully,\u201d reads a post on her official Facebook page. \u201cShe leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of creative energy, whip smart humor, delight in her family, adoration for little dogs, burning hatred for Trump, passion for second-hand thrifting, and love for a good story. We are bereft without her. We loved her so so much, as did all who met her.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cShe was a force. And it is unimaginable to think about life without her in it,\u201d the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2008,2,100,85,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alf","category-hollywood","category-obituaries","category-tv","category-tv-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}