Valerie Mahaffey, an actress known for her scene-stealing turns in "Desperate Housewives," and "Northern Exposure," died Friday in Los Angeles after battling cancer, her publicist said in a statement to CBS News. Mahaffey, who won an Emmy for playing Eve the hypochondriac on "Northern Exposure," was 71 years old.

I have lost the love of my life, and America has lost one of its most endearing actresses,” her husband, Joseph Kell, tells Page Six.