There are lives that are not designed for stardom. People who At one point they got into the sidecar of fame but they quickly saw that it was not for them. and that everything would go much better for them without being recognized on the street. Among child actors there are plenty of examples, a good handful of careers cut short in the search for a better life or simply to get out of the always bloody Hollywood machine. This is the case of Benji Gregory, the boy from ‘Alf’, whom you have probably never seen again. And there is a reason for this: His life has not exactly been a bed of roses.
Alf finally got it
Benji Gregory was born on April 26, 1978 (to understand us: he is already 45 years old) in Los Angeles, California. His grandmother was a representative, a large part of her family was dedicated to acting and she was born with good genes: The road to the family business was practically paved. He did a good handful of commercials (for example, for McNuggets) and soon had his first opportunity in ‘Punky Brewster’.
In fact, the two episodes in which he appeared, ‘Fenster Hall’, were really an attempt at a pilot for a series which would take place in an orphanage and would have occasional appearances by Punky (Soleil Moon-Frye). The series did not continue and Gregory continued playing occasional roles in ‘Amazing Tales’ or ‘The Twilight Zone’ before moving on the casting of a series that would become a true cult in the United States: ‘Alf’.
‘Alf’ lasted four seasons and just over 100 episodes, and along the way had two animated spin-offs, a Marvel comic that ran more than 50 issues, video games, a talk show and even a terrible movie that closed the saga. However, behind the cameras the atmosphere was not friendly at all: Alf’s doll was constantly breaking, The actors were tired of a piece of plush getting the best gags and Max Wright (Willie in the series) was on the verge of quitting on more than one occasion. The perfect film set for an eight-year-old boy.
Less bad it’s over
Brian Tanner, the boy of the family, conquered everyone. His half-mischievous, half-innocent smile was captivating, and his friendship with the alien Melmac was hilarious. But the cast didn’t even get along well, and no one has good memories of that stage. In fact, after the last shot of the last episode, Wright grabbed his things and left without even saying goodbye. That was the level. The end of filming party was an entelechy.
That It was described as “a large dysfunctional family” in which Benji Gregory had fallen. And he got his share of it, of course: in addition to putting up with fights (Wright once physically attacked Alf’s doll), he was forced to look stupid in interviews. saying that Alf was a real alien and no one moved him. It is not surprising that, despite the fact that he was pursuing a parallel career, at the age of twelve he was already fed up with fame.
Gregory had a small role in the movie ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and in series like ‘Murphy Brown’ or providing voices in animated series like ‘Back to the Future’ or ‘Pound Puppies’. In the end, it burned so much in such a short time that with his vocal role in the cartoon film ‘The Colored Forest’ he decided that Hollywood was good enough and put an end to his career. At 15, he had already had enough fame to last twenty lifetimes. “When ‘Alf’ was canceled it was a relief. I didn’t want to do more series, but I don’t regret anything,” she commented some time later.
alf army
In 2003, ten years after giving up audiovisual work and four years after getting married and enrolling in the San Francisco Academy of Art, Benji Gregory joined the military as an airbrusher, a branch dedicated to analyzing meteorological and oceanographic data. By then I already had insomniaso the night shifts I had to do flew by.
But when they transferred him to the kitchen, ended up clinically depressed and with aggravated insomnia What he did to him began to fail in his duty. Ultimately, in 2005, he was honorably discharged from the Army for medical reasons, which included bipolar disorder. And since then, Little else has been known about the former child actorbeyond the fact that he had to deal with drugs of all kinds from which he ended up detoxifying several years later.
We know thanks to his unglamorous Instagram, where he barely has 1000 followers, that sign autographs for free (although he asks that they not send him photos or he will throw them directly in the trash), he would not mind reprising his role as Brian Tanner in a reboot of ‘Alf’ and, although his mental health has improved, He still spends days and days without being able to fall asleep. Will you ever return to acting? At the moment, she claims that she is doing some work, but there is no more information out there. Who knows, maybe there is a Melmac series waiting for you…
