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R.I.P. Farrah Forke, best known as Alex the helicopter pilot in Wings

By: Start TV Staff     Posted: March 2, 2022, 5:40PM

Even though she was only in 35 of the show's 172 episodes, Farrah Forke made quite the impression on the Nineties sitcom Wings. She played helicopter pilot Alex Lambert who ran a flying service on Nantucket and dated Brian, played by Steven Weber. 

Alex was a seriously skilled pilot and Army veteran. She flew Apache helicopters in Operation Desert Storm. Forke played her with the perfect combination of sly humor and a tough-as-nails attitude. 

Born in Corpus Christie, Texas, Forke moved to New York City after high school to study at the famed Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute.  

She made her screen debut in the cult 1991 video game horror film Brain Twisters. She then recurred on three seasons of Wings from 1992-1995. She also played a small role in the Michael Douglas–Demi Moore dramaDisclosure and appeared in the Michael Mann thriller Heat starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.

Forke starred in two short-lived Nineties shows that unfortunately never made it past the first season. In 1995’s Dweebs, she played Carey, a secretary at a tech company surrounded by nerds played by Peter Scolari, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Corey Feldman. In Mr. Rhodes a year later, she played a prep school faculty member alongside Ron Glass, Jessica Stone, and Tom Rhodes. 

Forke starred in the late-Nineties movies Ground Control, with Kiefer Sutherland, Kate’s Addiction, and Hitman's Run

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Forke left acting in the early 2000s to raise her twin sons. 

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

She was 54.