George Edward "Max" Wright (August 2, 1943 – June 26, 2019) was an American actor, known for his role as Willie Tanner on the
sitcom ''
ALF'' (1986–1990).
Early life
Wright was born August 2, 1943, in
Detroit, Michigan, as George Edward Wright. He took the nickname "Max" as other actors were already known as George Wright.
He moved to the suburb of Southfield as a child, graduating from Southfield Senior High School in 1961. While a student at Southfield, he was very active in the theatre program and had leads in two different musical productions.
Career
Film and television
Wright made supporting appearances on
television shows such as ''
WKRP in Cincinnati,''
and was a regular cast member on ''
Misfits of Science'',
''
AfterMASH'',
''
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, Bison hunting, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa, Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but ...
'',
and ''
The Norm Show'',
and the made-for-TV
adaptation
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...
of
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
's ''
The Stand''.
He appeared in the first and second seasons of the sitcom ''
Friends
''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...
'' as Terry, the manager of
Central Perk
''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...
.
He played
Günter Wendt
Günter F. Wendt (also spelled Guenter Wendt; August 28, 1923 – May 3, 2010) was a German-born American mechanical engineer noted for his work in the U.S. human spaceflight program. An employee of McDonnell Aircraft and later North American A ...
in the 1998
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
miniseries ''
From the Earth to the Moon''
and Dr.
Josef Mengele in ''
Playing for Time''.
''ALF''
From 1986 to 1990, Wright appeared in the sitcom ''ALF'' as Willie Tanner, a typical father of a middle-class family, who finds an alien who has crash-landed on Earth. Despite becoming his best-known performance, the actor despised the role due to its huge technical demands and the fact that he, a human, played a supporting character for an "inanimate object". "It was hard work and very grim", he stated in a 2000 interview to ''
People''.
He was also, reportedly, very happy when the show was canceled in 1990. "I was hugely eager to have it over with", he said in the same interview. According to his co-star in the show,
Anne Schedeen
Luanne Ruth Schedeen (born January 8, 1949), known professionally as Anne Schedeen, is an American actress who worked primarily in television. She appeared in numerous guest-starring television roles in the 1970s before portraying the lead role ...
, "there was one take, and Max walked off the set, went to his dressing room, got his bags, went to his car, and disappeared. Nobody had to say, 'Wrap,' and there were no goodbyes". However, Wright later admitted that as the years passed he looked back at ''ALF'' with less animosity and conceded that "It doesn't matter what I felt or what the days were like, ''ALF'' brought people a lot of joy."
Stage
Wright also had a stage career. In 1968, he appeared in the original production of ''
The Great White Hope'' at the
Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.
In 1998, he appeared on
Broadway in ''
Ivanov
Ivanov, Ivanoff or Ivanow (masculine, bg, Иванов, russian: ИвановSometimes the stress is on Ива́нов in Bulgarian if it is a middle name, or in Russian as a rare variant of pronunciation), or Ivanova (feminine, bg, Иванов ...
'', which garnered him a
Tony nomination,
and played Sir Andrew in ''
Twelfth Night'' at
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...
.
In 2007, he acted at the JET (Jewish Ensemble Theatre) in Detroit
and in the production of ''No Man's Land'' at the
American Repertory Theater.
He also appeared in
The Public Theater's 2010 production of ''
The Winter's Tale'' and ''
The Merchant of Venice'' at
Shakespeare in the Park festivals.
Personal life
Wright was married to Linda Ybarrondo from 1965 until her death from
breast cancer in 2017. The couple had two children.
Death
In 1995, he was diagnosed with
lymphoma, which was successfully treated and remained in remission until 2019.
He died from the disease on June 26, 2019, at the age of 75 at the
Lillian Booth Actors Home in
Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from por ...
.
Filmography
Film
Television
Source:
Stage
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Max
1943 births
2019 deaths
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
Deaths from cancer in New Jersey
Deaths from lymphoma in the United States
Male actors from Detroit
Wabash College alumni