Alf has died; the diminutive actor Michu Meszaros who played the orange alien Gordon Shumway from Melmac has died, aged 76.

Michu Meszaros, the actor who portrayed the furry alien creature in the American sitcom Alf for four years has died. He was 76.

While Alf, broadcast in South Africa first on TV1 and then SABC2, was actually mostly seen as a puppet "standing" behind furniture, leaning over counters and sitting down, when he was walking around, it was Michu Meszaros inside the suit.

The character was voiced by Paul Fusco.

Viewers loved the zany adventures of the sarcastic Gordon Shumway, the Alien Life Form from the planet Melmac that lived with the American suburban Tanner family, and who had a fondness for cats (for dinner) and for creating utter havoc weekly inside the Tanner household.

TMZ reports that Michu Meszaros was found unresponsive in his bathroom last week by his manager and rushed to a hospital in Los Angeles where he died in a coma.

Michu Meszaros, born in Hungary, joined the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus in the '70s and once held the record as the "smallest man in the world".