Cause of Death Revealed Two Months After Child Star’s Tragic Passing

For four years, Benji Gregory starred on the hit show ALF as Brian Tanner, the youngest member of the Tanner family, who agrees to take in an alien who shows up in their garage. ALF — short for Alien Life Form — was forced to flee his home planet of Melmac when it was destroyed in a nuclear war.

Brian, his dad, Willie, his mom, Lynn, and his sister, Kate, must keep ALF hidden from the Alien Task Force, which is intent on finding the outer space creature. They must also watch out for their family cat, Lucky, whom ALF constantly tries to eat.

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While Benji Gregory was best known for his role in ALF, he starred in several other projects throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He starred as R.E. ‘Reginald Ernest’ Davis in an episode of The Magical World of Disney, Ben Letterman in the series Fantastic Max, and Biff Jr. in the animated Back to the Future series, among other roles.

Mr. Gregory officially left Hollywood in 2003 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Two years later, he was given an honorable discharge and fell out of the spotlight.

Sadly, on June 13, 2024, the actor was found unresponsive in his car outside an Arizona bank. He was pronounced dead at the scene. He was just 4 years old. To add to the tragedy, his loyal service dog was found dead in the car beside him.

After news of his death broke one month later, Mr. Gregory’s sister Rebecca said that her brother suffered from several medical issues, including bipolar disorder, depression, and a sleep disorder that would keep him awake for days. She believed that her brother had gone to the bank to cash a check, fallen asleep in the car, and died of heat stroke.

Now, two months after Mr. Gregory’s death was made public, we have learned the truth about what happened to the beloved child star on that fateful June day.

According to the Maricopa County Medical Examiner, Gregory’s death was nothing more than a tragic accident. Per PEOPLE:

The death of the child actor, who was found deceased on June 13 in his car in Peoria, Arizona at the age of 46, has been ruled an accident by the Maricopa Medical Examiner, according to records. The report indicates that Gregory suffered “environmental heat exposure in the setting of hepatic cirrhosis,” leading to his passing.

According to the Mayo Clinic, hepatic cirrhosis is a chronic liver disease in which the liver is damaged over time, and the healthy tissue becomes scar tissue. The condition is made worse when there is significant heat exposure.

In 2018, it was announced that an ALF reboot was in the works, and it was possible that Mr. Gregory could have returned to reprise the role he was known and loved for. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. canceled the reboot after failing to find a home for the series to film.

Were you a fan of ALF? Would you love to have seen the show rebooted? Let us know in the comments!