Biography

Valerie Harper

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Overview

Born
August 22, 1939 · Suffern, New York, USA
Died
August 30, 2019 · Los Angeles, California, USA (brain cancer)
Birth name
Valerie Kathryn Harper
Nickname
- Val
Height
5′ 6″ (1.68 m)

Mini bio

Making people laugh was only one facet of Valerie Harper's career, which extended from the stage to television and feature films. A native of Suffern, New York -- "I was born to suffer" -- Harper began her career as a dancer with the corps de ballet at Radio City Hall during its spectacular heyday. She gradually moved into acting, working in everything from industrial shows to regional theatre to the Second City comedy troupe of Chicago. Eventually, she made it to Broadway in productions of Dear Liar, the Tony Award winning Story Theatre, Something Different and Metamorphosis. Stardom came with television, including four Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for her work in The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) and Rhoda (1974), in which the latter she played the title role. Harper won Harvard's Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year, and her Rhoda's Wedding episode set that 1974's ratings record. Since retiring Rhoda Morganstern to re-runs, Harper was active on stage and in movies. Her feature films included Freebie and the Bean (1974), Chapter Two (1979), The Last Married Couple in America (1980) and Blame It on Rio (1984). In television, she starred on all three networks in movies of the week, including Farrell for the People (1982) (NBC), Don't Go to Sleep (1982) (ABC) and An Invasion of Privacy (1983) (CBS). A strong supporter of women's rights, Harper worked since the mid-80s on a film with second husband Tony Cacciotti which will probably never reach fruition after all this time, based on a true story involving domestic violence.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents

Trademark

Her characters often reflected a Jewish personality.
Sweet, sultry voice.

Trivia

In the fall of 1987 she was abruptly fired by Lorimar from her NBC TV series The Hogan Family (1986). She didn't show for filming one day. The series decided to continue on without her as "Valerie's Family" with Sandy Duncan playing Sandy Hogan, replacing Harper's "Valerie Hogan" character. Harper sued Lorimar for breach of contract and in the fall of 1988 was awarded $1.4 million plus 12.5% of the profits of the show, which continued on without her until 1991.
On 3/6/2013 she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and was given only months to live. With treatments, she was able to beat the odds and live for over six more years.
First met Mary Tyler Moore on set of The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961), where her then-husband, Richard Schaal, was guest-starring.
Valerie is the only woman in TV history to win the comedy Emmy award for a supporting role in the original show in which her character appeared (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and the lead role in which her character spun-off (Rhoda). Robert Guillaume is the only man.
She and her then-husband Richard Schaal were also a writing team and wrote a script for the series Love, American Style (1969) called "Love and the Visitor", Love and the Elopement/Love and the Visitor (1970), back in the early 1970s.

Quotes

I used to get some ego thing out of saying I wasn't a star, just an actress. Forget it. I'm a star. I wanted it. I worked for it. I got it.
[January, 2013, on being told she has months to live] I don't think of dying. I think of being here now.
Life is a miracle.
[in 2015, on her cancer,] I talk to the cells all the time. I say, "What the hell are you doing? Not only are you destructive, coming in and ruining all my plans, but you are dumb! You are killing the host. If you take a low profile I can live with you, here on the edge of the sword. You can fall one way or the other". Right now, things are working fantastically. Tomorrow, I don't know.
We're all terminal; none of us are getting out of this alive.