Who is Alf? The actor hiding behind the doll. "Alf": actors and roles

Selfish and caring, funny and touching - so you can describe an alien from the ruined planet Melmak, who settled in the house of an ordinary American family Tanner. For the first time the inhabitants of America were able to get acquainted with this amusing red creature in 1986, when the first series of "Alpha" appeared on the screens. Seeing how the newcomer liked the audience, the creators of the series began to shoot more and more new series, which were then able to see the inhabitants of 80 countries.

However, to this day many of those who enthusiastically looked through all the series with the participation of this cute, short alien creature, tormented by the question: how could a lifeless doll of red furs be able to convey so well all the emotions that Alf experienced in the script? An actor of what size could get into such a small doll?

Paul Fusco: the person who created and "revived" Alpha

The idea of creating a beloved hero, appeared in 1984, belongs to Paul Fusco. After that, the name of the producer sounded quite different. After the owners of the cable network NBC launched the first series of "Alpha", they realized that the project is waiting for great success. From 1986 to 1990, the rest of the series went on the air.

In the series "Alf", the actor, who performs the main role, always hides behind the doll, only guiding the movement of her head and hands. The facial expressions of the long-nosed aliens turned out to be quite vivid: his eyes blinked, he smiled, squinted, chewed and moved his ears. Almost in all the scenes, only the upper part of the body of Alpha is visible, the control of which was skillfully directed by Paul Fusco himself. He also began to voice his hero. Mimicry Alpha dealt with Lisa Buckley and Bob Fappiano.

Michu Mezaros - assistant in creating the image of Alpha

In some scenes of the first part of the series, Alf appears on the screen in full growth, and going or running somewhere. This is where the main question arises: how is this possible? It's very simple: the actor who played Alpha in these short episodes - the Lilliputian Michu Mesaros.

He was born in Hungary in 1939. In addition to Alfa, the 84-centimeter actor played in four other films: "Warlock 2: Armageddon" and "Urodi" (1993) and "Shorty-Big Shit" and "Wax Museum" (1998). In addition, the actor, who plays Alfa in full growth, was a famous circus artist. The name of Michu Mesaros is included in the Guinness book with the inscription: "The smallest person in the world".

Other actors of the series

Let's talk about other participants of the beloved worldwide television series "Alf", the actors and roles in which were carefully designed. The head of the family, who took on the permanent residence of an alien, was Max Wright. Comic Willie Tanner in his performance turned out great. The actor appeared in no more than two dozen film projects, but spent most of his life working in the theater.

Anne Shedin, who played Keith Tanner, had the biggest role in Alfa in her life. After short appearances in a few more pictures, she decided to devote herself to interior design. Anne gives his acting talent to others through acting lessons.

The roles of the children of the family of Tanners went to Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory. They, like no one, approached the role of exemplary Lynn and Bryan in the TV series "Alpha." Actor Benjamin Gregory did not find his place in the television career and became a ship meteorologist. In the life of Andrea Elson, there were several more roles, but then the girl decided to devote herself entirely to motherhood.

Features of filming "Alpha"

The shooting of each series of "Alpha" took a very long time. Instead of 3-5 hours for each of them could take a day. Particularly tired many hours of shooting young Benjamin, who, in his own words, all the time dreamed of the end of the day to get the opportunity to ride on a skateboard.

On the set of the TV series "Alf", actress Andrea Elson found not only universal recognition, but also her future husband. On the set, she met Scott Hopper, 34-year-old assistant director, for whom she married three years after the release of the last series of "Alpha." During the filming, she developed bulimia, the cure of which occurred only during pregnancy in 1997.

For the fun, adventure-filled life of the happy Tanner family, there was not a very healthy atmosphere on the court. The shooting took place in tension and brought the actors to complete exhaustion. Paul Fusco sought to make every effort to achieve the high quality of each episode of his series, the end of which became a real holiday for the actors.

Every actor who played in the television series "Alf" laid out all the best. The greatest amount of effort and time was spent on reviving the most important character - the red hairy alien. The fact that the forces were spent in vain is evidenced by how much Alf liked the million-strong audience, consisting of representatives of different ages and nationalities.