Valerie Harper

Valerie Harper (August 22, 1939 – August 30, 2019) was an American movie and television actress. She was best known for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and starring in the sitcom Valerie. She also did stage acting. She began her career as a dancer and chorus girl on Broadway in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Personal life
Harper was born in Suffern, New York. She was Wendy Schaal's former step-mother. She was married to Richard Schaal from 1964 until they divorced in 1978. She married Tony Cacciotti in 1987.

Illness
On March 11, 2013, Harper announced that she had an incurable brain tumor. Doctors said that she had less than three months to live. Although the disease is incurable, her doctors said they were treating her with chemotherapy in an effort to slow its progress. On July 30, 2015, Harper was hospitalized in Maine after falling unconscious. Later on the 30th she was taken via medevac to a larger hospital for further treatment. She was later released.

Harper died on the morning of August 30, 2019 from meningitis caused by brain cancer, in Los Angeles a week after her 80th birthday.

Other websites

 * Valerie Harper official website
 * FilmReference profile
 * Archive of American Television
 * Archive of American Television