Running for four seasons from 1986 to 1990, ALF followed Gordon Shumway, a wisecracking extraterrestrial from the planet Melmac whose nickname stood for 'Alien Life Form'. After crash-landing in suburban California, the furry alien moved in with the Tanner family and quickly became a pop culture phenomenon. He also starred in the 1987 TV special ALF Loves a Mystery, before returning in the 1996 TV movie Project: ALF and hosting a short-lived talk show in 2004.

Yet behind the family-friendly comedy lay a surprisingly troubled history. Read on to discover the fortunes of ALF's stars, with wealth estimates courtesy of Celebrity Net Worth.

All dollar values in US dollars

ALF's on-screen laughs masked a very different atmosphere behind the scenes. Anne Schedeen called the set joyless and a "technical nightmare", while Andrea Elson recalled tensions over the cast playing second fiddle to a puppet. Paul Fusco also fought with NBC over cat-eating jokes and his wish for ALF to drink beer.

More alarmingly, children reportedly copied the show, with one putting a cat in a microwave and another nearly electrocuting himself in a bathtub stunt. And in 2010, leaked outtakes showed Fusco, voicing ALF, using the N-word and making other extremely offensive comments.

Several celebrities appeared as themselves on ALF. Radio legend Casey Kasem, who was worth an estimated $80 million (£59.3m) when he died in 2014, appeared in a season-four dream sequence. NFL star Joe Namath (pictured), now worth $25 million (£18.6m), also popped up in an earlier dream sequence, while actress Sandy Duncan is worth $4 million (£3m).

In a separate two-part episode, ALF guest-hosted The Tonight Show alongside Dr Joyce Brothers, Rich Little and Ed McMahon. Brothers was worth $8 million (£5.9m) at the time of her death, and Little is worth $5 million (£3.7m). McMahon was reportedly $2 million (£1.5m) in debt at the time of his death in 2009.

Several of ALF's main cast and guest stars lack credible published net worth estimates. These include the late Max Wright, who played family patriarch Willie Tanner; the aforementioned Andrea Elson as daughter Lynn; and Benji Gregory as young Brian. Gregory tragically died in 2024, aged just 46.

Also without estimates are the late Michu Meszaros (pictured), who physically portrayed ALF in full-body shots, as well as recurring neighbour John LaMotta and veteran performers Liz Sheridan and Ray Walston, who are also no longer with us.

At the very bottom is Dawn Wells, who reprised her iconic Gilligan's Island role of Mary Ann Summers in a 1987 ALF episode. The veteran actress was worth just $50,000 (£37k) when she died in 2020.

Next up are Dean Cameron and Larry Hankin, both worth $400,000 (£296k). Cameron appeared in three episodes as Lynn's boyfriend Robert Sherwood, and later gave a darkly comic account of the show's unhappy set, while Hankin guest-starred as burglar Andrew Seminick. Judy Landers, who played Brenda, follows with $500,000 (£370k), while Tracey Walter, the actor behind hobo Gravel Gus, has an estimated fortune of $800,000 (£593k).

Anne Schedeen, who played sharp-witted Kate Tanner throughout ALF's four-season run, was worth an estimated $1 million (£743k) when she died in June 2026 aged 77. As we've seen, she didn't have the happiest time making the sitcom, though Kate became her defining role. Earlier credits included Emergency! and The Rockford Files, with Judging Amy among her later work.

Also worth a reported $1 million (£743k) is John Schuck, General Myron Stone in Project: ALF. His long career has encompassed M*A*S*H, The Munsters Today, Star Trek VI and Law & Order: SVU.

Cleavon Little (pictured) guest-starred in ALF's unusually sombre 1987 two-part Christmas episode as Mr Foley, a grieving widower who ALF talks out of taking his own life. Best remembered as Sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles, Little also won a Tony for Purlie and was worth an estimated $2 million (£1.5m) when he died in 1992.

Also worth $2 million (£1.5m) are David Leisure, who played two different ALF characters and later starred in Empty Nest, and Jim J. Bullock, who joined season four as Willie's brother Neal after finding fame in Too Close for Comfort.

Willie Tanner's psychologist friend, Dr Larry Dykstra, was played by Bill Daily, who appeared in four ALF episodes. The role came after two major TV successes: astronaut Roger Healey in I Dream of Jeannie and neighbour Howard Borden in The Bob Newhart Show. Daily's ALF debut even included a nod to the latter, with Jack Riley, another Newhart regular, appearing in the same episode.

Daily continued working into later life and was worth an estimated $4 million (£3m) when he died in 2018 at the ripe old age of 91.

One of ALF's younger guest stars, Carla Gugino played Laura, a love interest for Jake Ochmonek, in the 1989 episode Standing in the Shadows of Love. The appearance came near the very start of a career that would later include the Spy Kids trilogy, Sin City and Night at the Museum.

Gugino has also found major success on TV, with starring roles in The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Fall of the House of Usher.

A year before joining the trailblazing sketch show In Living Color, David Alan Grier made a brief ALF appearance as the generically named FBI #1 in season four's Wanted: Dead or Alive. His subsequent screen career has included Boomerang, Jumanji, The Big Sick and the sitcom The Carmichael Show.

Grier has also enjoyed considerable success on stage, winning a Tony Award in 2021 for A Soldier's Play after three previous nominations.

Project: ALF cast Miguel Ferrer as Dexter Moyers, adding another established screen actor to the 1996 TV movie. Ferrer's breakthrough came with 1987's RoboCop, and he later became closely associated with Twin Peaks, Crossing Jordan and NCIS: Los Angeles. His voice work included Disney's Mulan, while 2013's Iron Man 3 marked his final live-action film role.

Acting also ran in the family: his parents were Oscar-winner José Ferrer and singer Rosemary Clooney, making George Clooney his first cousin. Ferrer was worth $4 million (£3m) when he died aged 61 in 2017.

Few people are as inseparable from their creation as Paul Fusco is from ALF. He co-created the series, devised the character and supplied ALF's distinctive voice, while also serving as his principal puppeteer.

Fusco continued playing his famous creation long after the sitcom ended, including in Project: ALF and ALF's Hit Talk Show. As mentioned earlier, his legacy was later tarnished by the offensive outtakes that surfaced in 2010, though he reprised the role of ALF in 2016 for Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie.

Robert Pine guest-starred on ALF as a character credited simply as Father in the episode A Little Bit of Soap. Best known for playing Sergeant Joseph Getraer throughout all six seasons of CHiPs, he later reprised the role in the 1998 TV movie CHiPs '99.

Pine's extensive career has also included Independence Day, Murder, She Wrote and The Office. His son Chris Pine would go on to eclipse his father's fame, starring in the Star Trek reboot movies, Wonder Woman and other major movies.

In Project: ALF, Ed Begley Jr portrayed Dr Warner, one of the scientists examining the captive alien. By then, Begley had already earned six consecutive Emmy nominations for the medical drama St. Elsewhere, while his film credits have ranged from This Is Spinal Tap and The Accidental Tourist to Batman Forever and Pineapple Express.

Away from acting, Begley Jr has become almost as famous for his environmental activism, having championed electric cars, solar power and sustainable living for decades.

Alan Hale Jr reprised his most famous role, Gilligan's Island skipper Jonas Grumby, in the 1987 ALF episode Somewhere Over the Rerun, alongside other stars of the show.

Hale had played the character throughout the original 1960s sitcom and returned for several TV movies and animated spin-offs. His lengthy career also encompassed numerous Westerns and films, including Hang 'Em High, while he ran an LA seafood restaurant on the side. The seasoned star was worth $6 million (£4.4m) when he died in 1990.

As Maura Norris, Dorothy Lyman guest-starred in one episode of ALF. By then, she was already a major name, having won two Daytime Emmys as Opal Gardner on All My Children before landing the role of Naomi Harper in Mama's Family.

Lyman later appeared in films including Blow and World Trade Center, while also moving behind the camera. She directed numerous episodes of The Nanny between 1995 and 1998 and served as a producer on the sitcom.

David Ogden Stiers guest-starred on ALF as Flakey Pete, but he was far better known for playing Major Charles Winchester on M*A*S*H, a role that earned him two Emmy nominations.

Stiers later built an equally stellar career as a voice actor, playing Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast and appearing in Disney films including Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Lilo & Stitch. The actor was worth an estimated $8 million (£5.9m) when he passed away in 2018 aged 75.

Appearing as the mysterious Lady in Red in the 1987 TV special ALF Loves a Mystery, Shannen Doherty was just a year away from her breakout in the cult movie Heathers. Her career then exploded with the role of Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210, followed by another major TV success as Prue Halliwell in Charmed.

After bravely living with breast cancer for almost a decade, Doherty died in 2024 aged just 53. Celebrity Net Worth estimates she was worth $10 million (£7.4m) at the time of her passing.

Anne Meara had a recurring ALF role as Kate Tanner's formidable mother Dorothy Halligan, whose frosty relationship with the alien gradually softened. Away from the sitcom, Meara was one half of the hugely successful comedy duo Stiller and Meara with husband Jerry Stiller, and the mother of actors Ben Stiller and Amy Stiller.

Her own lengthy career included Archie Bunker's Place, The King of Queens, Sex and the City and movies such as Fame and Awakenings. Meara was worth an estimated $12.5 million (£9.3m) when she died in 2015 at the age of 85.

Reprising Gilligan of Gilligan's Island fame, Bob Denver appeared alongside other stars of the show in the 1987 ALF episode Somewhere Over the Rerun. The appearance came two decades after the original sitcom ended, though Denver had continued playing Gilligan in reunion movies and animated spin-offs.

Before becoming the hapless castaway, he was known as beatnik Maynard G Krebs in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Denver had a fortune of $20 million (£14.9m) when he died aged 70 in 2005.

Playing Brian's school principal Mrs Lyman in two season-one episodes of ALF was Marcia Wallace, whose career spanned five decades. She'd already enjoyed a major sitcom role as receptionist Carol Kester on The Bob Newhart Show before finding a whole new generation of fans as the voice of Bart Simpson's long-suffering teacher Edna Krabappel on The Simpsons from 1990 until her death in 2013.

Other credits included Bewitched, Magnum, P.I., Full House and Murphy Brown. Wallace was worth an estimated $20 million (£14.9m) when she died.

Paul Dooley had a recurring ALF role as Whizzer Deaver, the bandleader who eventually marries Kate's mother Dorothy. The veteran character actor is also known for Breaking Away, Sixteen Candles, Runaway Bride and voicing Sarge in Pixar's Cars movies.

Celebrity Net Worth lists Dooley's fortune at $25 million (£18.5m), although it also states $70 million (£51.2m). It attributes most of that larger sum to his wife Winnie Holzman, co-writer of the wildly successful musical Wicked and a key beneficiary of its bumper royalties.

Playing Colonel Gilbert Milfoil in Project: ALF was an unlikely detour for Martin Sheen, whose career had already included the landmark films Badlands and Apocalypse Now. He later reached another career peak as President Josiah Bartlet in The West Wing, earning six Emmy nominations for the role, while subsequent credits have included The Departed and Grace and Frankie.

Father to actors Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen, he has amassed an estimated fortune of $60 million (£44.4m).

While starring as the charmingly naive Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls, Betty White popped up as Aunt Harriet in the 1987 TV special ALF Loves a Mystery. By then, her extraordinary TV career had already encompassed The Mary Tyler Moore Show, game shows and decades of hosting and acting, while later successes included Hot in Cleveland, The Proposal and a celebrated Saturday Night Live appearance.

White died in 2021 aged 99, just weeks before her 100th birthday, with an estimated fortune of $75 million (£55.6m).

Harry Shearer appeared twice in the ALF universe, first playing Larry and the President in the 1986 episode Pennsylvania 6-5000, then impersonating 60 Minutes journalist Mike Wallace in the 1989 special ALF Takes Over the Network.

Much greater fame followed with The Simpsons, where he voices characters including Mr Burns, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner and Smithers. Shearer also co-created cult 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, playing bassist Derek Smalls.

Like fellow ALF alumnus Harry Shearer, Dan Castellaneta went on to become one of the principal male voices behind The Simpsons. He guest-starred on ALF in 1990 as Steve Michaels, shortly after beginning the role that would define his career, Homer Simpson. Castellaneta also voices Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Barney Gumble and numerous other Springfield residents.

Fittingly, ALF himself has cropped up repeatedly on The Simpsons over the years, including appearances or references in Bart Sells His Soul and The Springfield Files. Celebrity Net Worth estimates Castellaneta's fortune at $85 million (£63m), tying him with Shearer at the top of the ranking.

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