Medical examiner shares former 'ALF' star Benji Gregory's cause of death

Officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, have announced the cause of death for former "ALF" star Benji Gregory.

The medical examiner's office said Sept. 13 that Gregory died of "environmental heat exposure in the setting of hepatic cirrhosis."

The manner of death was listed as an accident.

Gregory, who as a child actor starred on the popular 1980s sitcom, died June 13 at the age of 46. He was found in his car.

“It is with a heavy heart my family has suffered a loss way too early,” his sister, Rebecca Hertzberg-Pfaffinger, wrote in a Facebook post on her brother's page on July 10.

It is with a heavy heart my family has suffered a loss way too early. Ben was a great Son, Brother and Uncle. He was...

Posted by Rebecca Hertzberg-Pfaffinger on Wednesday, July 10, 2024

"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, 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 prime-time 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 article was originally published on TODAY.com