Max Wright, legendary star of TV classic ALF, RIP

[samhexum]

Willie Tanner was 75.

 

[samhexum]

BTW, he hated ALF, and as soon as the taping of the last episode was completed, he just walked off the set and left without any goodbyes.

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Max Wright stated that he despised supporting a technically demanding inanimate object that received most of the good lines of dialogue. He admitted to being "hugely eager to have ALF over with." Artie Lange told of a time when Wright had become "crazed" and attacked ALF, causing producers to have to pull Wright off the puppet. Anne Shedeen added that on the last night of taping, "there was one take and Max walked off the set, went to his dressing room, got his bags, went to his car and disappeared... There were no goodbyes." Schedeen herself said "there was no joy on the set...it was a technical nightmare – extremely slow, hot and tedious... A 30-minute show took 20, 25 hours to shoot." While fond of her on-screen children, Schedeen said some adults had "difficult personalities. The whole thing was a big dysfunctional family." Schedeen added, "It's astonishing that ALF really was wonderful and that word never got out what a mess our set really was." Andrea Elson, who suffered from bulimia during the second season of shooting, stated, "If ALF had gone one more year, everybody would have lost it." Wright did later concede, though, that "It doesn't matter what I felt or what the days were like, ALF brought people a lot of joy."

Edited June 27, 2019 by samhexum

[+ poolboy48220]

I read an article a couple of years ago that said Alec Guiness found Star Wars to be rather silly, he didn't think it would be successful, and he only took the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi because they waved a lot of money at him. I think it said he took a percentage rather than flat salary and was grateful that it gave him a very comfortable life when he was older, but still never thought much of it.

[samhexum]

I read an article a couple of years ago that said Alec Guiness found Star Wars to be rather silly.

 

When my ex-roommate first got a computer & we shared it, I regularly changed all the sounds to amuse and/or annoy her. She didn't mind, but once I changed the windows shutdown to Obi-Wan saying "Remember, the force will be with you... always," she said I was NOT to change that... and I didn't. And I've done it with both computers I've had since she moved out.

 

So he's been saying that line whenever I shut down the computer for almost a quarter of a century. For the last few years I've often answered him. When he tells me the force will be with me, I ask him when, and when he tells me always, I respond "BULLSHIT!"