We are devastated to report Valerie Harper passed away on Friday. She was 80 years old.
Sadly, the legendary Mary Tyler Moore Show star endured a long battle with cancer in recent years, though the official cause of her death is thus far unknown. Her daughter, Cristina, broke the bad news to ABC late Friday afternoon.
Related: Oprah Winfrey Discusses Her ‘Role Model,’ Mary Tyler Moore
While the longtime TV star had beaten lung cancer back in 2009, several years later she was diagnosed again, this time with a form of terminal brain cancer. In recent years, she had come to terms with the disastrous disease, viewing her illness from a positive perspective and admitting she was “ready to go.”
On July 29, 2015 the actress was set to perform at Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine in the second act of the musical Nice Work If You Can Get It when she was reportedly found unconscious backstage. Valerie was rushed to York Hospital, and while the theater and the show’s director both stated she would get better soon, one insider felt it was more serious than that.
Despite reports of being discharged the following day, sources claimed she wasn’t actually released from the hospital — but instead had slipped into a coma and was moved to a larger facility. Still, she persisted for several years, even leading doctors to wonder whether she had nearly beaten the cancer back into remission at one point.
A TV Legend
An incredibly popular actress during her lengthy career on TV, Harper was best-known for her portrayal of the loud-mouthed New Yorker Rhoda Morgenstern on the ’70s smash hit The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
She was so popular she later moved to her own spin-off, Rhoda. For her work on both shows combined, spanning eight full seasons of TV, Harper ended up taking home four Emmys and a Golden Globe — and helped forever change how women were portrayed on television.
She also appeared on her own self-titled sitcom Valerie for two season in the 1980s before leaving the show over a contract dispute, as well as a host of other shows, plays, and theatrical productions throughout her decades-long career.
The actress even worked on Broadway as late as 2010. Most recently, she competed on the seventeenth season of Dancing With The Stars back in 2013, where she was the third star eliminated, after NFL veteran Keyshawn Johnson and scientist Bill Nye.
But no matter what she was doing on stage or on screen, throughout her career, Valerie was a beloved talent, and her presence and impact on the entertainment industry will surely be missed. She is survived by her second husband, Tony Cacciotti, and their adult daughter, Cristina.
Our hearts are with her friends, family, and everyone else affected during this terrible time.
R.I.P. Rhoda…
[Image via WENN]
