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After defying the odds, beloved television icon Valerie Harper has died at age 80



This is sad news about a beloved television icon: Valerie Harper has died at the age of 80.

In March 2013, Harper revealed that she had been diagnosed with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare and typically incurable form of cancer; at the time, she said doctors had given her as little as three months to live.

But with groundbreaking drugs, she defied the odds for more than six years out outlived her MTM Show costars Moore and Georgia Engel.

She’s a four-time Emmy winner who we got to know as Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She spent four seasons on the show before getting her own hit spinoff, Rhoda, which lasted for five seasons.

Her next hit series came in the mid-80s: Valerie.

But in the second season, she was fired in a pay dispute and the show became Valerie’s Family then The Hogan Family. Harper sued and won but her later attempts at series television, City and The Office, last just one season each.

But she found success on Broadway in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife and Looped (Tony nomination) and for two years starred at Golda Meir in the national tour of Golda’s Balcony which was made into a film.

She has also remained in demand on television in TV movies and guest spots on such shows as Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives and Melrose Place.

Valerie unsuccessfully ran for president of the Screen Actors Guild in 2002 against Melissa Gilbert and I did several interviews with her then because I was covering the unions for the LA Daily News.

I remember one particular interview especially. She was literally moments away from going onstage in Allergist’s Wife but I needed a response to something Gilbert had said and Valerie’s husband got the phone to her in the wings and she gave me the quote!

Anyway, my thoughts are with the family of this television treasure and I hope she knew how much we all appreciate her talent and her spirit.

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  1. Harper left an incredible legacy. There are legions of fans who will remember her for the rest of their lives. I hope she rests in peace.

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