Farrah Forke, Helicopter Pilot Alex Lambert on ‘Wings,’ Dies at 54

Mike Barnes
·2 min read
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Farrah Forke, the actress perhaps best known for her turn as the helicopter pilot Alex Lambert on the NBC sitcom Wings, died Friday at her home in Texas after battling cancer for several years, her family announced. She was 54.

“Farrah was fierce, tender, loyal, loving, strong, funny, smart, protective, kind, passionate and utterly irreplaceable,” they said in a statement. “She brought a light so great to the world that even after her passing, the light remains.”

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Forke recurred as attorney Mayson Drake on the second season (1994-95) of ABC’s Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman; starred as the manager of a software company on the short-lived CBS sitcom Dweebs in 1995; and played a member of the faculty on NBC’s Mr. Rhodes, which lasted 19 episodes in 1996-97.

She also was the voice of the superhero Big Barda on the DC Animated Universe series Batman Beyond in 2000 and Justice League Unlimited in 2005.

Forke appeared on 35 episodes of Wings from 1992-94 as the tough Alex, a former U.S. Army Apache helicopter pilot during Operation Desert Storm. On the show, she runs a Nantucket Island helicopter service and has a romance with Steven Weber’s Brian Hackett.

Born on Jan. 12, 1968, in Corpus Christi, Texas, Farrah Rachael Forke attended the Hockaday School, an all-girls private school in Dallas. She entered acting with a role in a local production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, then moved to New York to study drama at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute.

She made her onscreen debut in Brain Twisters (1991) and went on to appear on the big screen in other films including Barry Levinson’s Disclosure (1994), Michael Mann’s Heat (1995), Ground Control (1998) and Kate’s Addiction (1998).

She also was a regular in telefilms, with credits including 1993’s Nurses on the Line, Journey to the Center of the Earth and Complex of Fear, 1994’s Bionic Ever After? and 1995’s Abandoned and Deceived.

Forke reunited with her former Wings castmate Thomas Haden Church on a 1996 episode of Fox’s Ned & Stacey and served as the voice of national commercials for Vanderbilt, Arby’s and Cadillac.

She decided to step away from acting to raise her twin boys, Chuck and Wit.

In addition to her sons, survivors include her mother, Beverly; stepfather Chuck; sisters Paige, Jennifer and Maggie; and her best friend, Mike Peterson.

A private service was held by close family and friends. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to your favorite charity or to the American Cancer Society.

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