Benji Gregory was best known for his role as Brian Tanner on the hit television show Alf. Now, reports confirm that the former childhood star has passed away at the age of 46.
Gregory, at the time of his passing, was dealing with a myriad of health issues, his sister Rebecca Hertzberg-Pfaffinger, told TMZ.
Some of those issues included depression, bipolar disorder, and a sleep disorder that reportedly kept him awake for days.
Gregory and his service dog Hans were discovered deceased in his car in the parking lot of a Chase Bank in Peoria, Arizona on June 13. Preliminary reports believe they died of vehicular heatstroke as temperatures rose to 109 degrees on June 12.
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office told ABC7 Los Angeles, Gregory’s cause of death is still pending.
Rebecca confirmed her brother’s passing in a Facebook post.
“It is with a heavy heart my family has suffered a loss way too early,” Rebecca wrote. “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,” Rebecca continued, before confirming how Gregory was found.
“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.”
According to TMZ, Gregory left acting and joined the U.S. Navy where he was an aerographer’s mate stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was honorably medically discharged in 2005.