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Image: Valerie Harper Book Signing For \"I, Rhoda\"

Pop Culture

Valerie Harper

The Emmy Award-winning star of "Rhoda" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" boasts an acting career that dates back to the 1950s.

/ 11 PHOTOS
Image: Valerie Harper Book Signing For \"I, Rhoda\"

Actress and author

Valerie Harper, seen here signing her book "I, Rhoda" in Los Angeles on Feb. 13, 2013, announced in March that she has terminal brain cancer. "I've had a good run," Harper, 73, told People magazine. "What more could I ask for?"

— David Livingston / Getty Images North America
Image: Cloris Leachman, Valerie Harper

Pinching a pal

Harper mugs with Cloris Leachman in 2011. The two actresses co-starred together on the 1970s hit "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," with Harper playing Mary Richards' best friend Rhoda Morgenstern, and Leachman playing landlady Phyllis Lindstrom.

— Matt Sayles / AP
Image: Actors gather to honor actress Betty White

Mary's gang

Harper and more members of the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" cast reunited in 2008 when co-star Betty White, who played Happy Homemaker Sue Ann Nivens, was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. From left, the cast members are Gavin MacLeod, Cloris Leachman, Mary Tyler Moore, White, Harper, and Ed Asner.

— Fred Prouser / X00224
Mary Tyler Moore, Edward Asner, Georgia Engel, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Gavin MacLeod and GEORGIA ENGEL

From one great ensemble to another

"Mary Tyler Moore" cast members MacLeod, Leachman, Moore, Harper, Georgia Engel and Asner present the award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series at the 2007 Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles. The award that year went to the cast of "The Sopranos."

— Mark J. Terrill
Image: Valerie

Family affair

Harper starred on her own 1980s family-themed sitcom, which changed titles from "Valerie" to "Valerie's Family" to "The Hogan Family." Josh Taylor played her husband, a pilot, with Danny Ponce, Jeremy Licht and Jason Bateman as her sons.

— Gallery
Image: (FILE) American TV Actress Valerie Harper Diagnosed Terminal Brain Cancer Valerie Harper And Red Buttons

Comedy crossing generations

In 1982, Harper posed with legendary comedian Red Buttons in Los Angeles.

— Joan Adlen Photography / Hulton Archive
Image: (FILE) American TV Actress Valerie Harper Diagnosed Terminal Brain Cancer Valerie Harper

Colorful and classy

Harper was long known for her colorful use of head scarves, as seen here in this image from her "Mary Tyler Moore" spinoff, "Rhoda," in 1975.

— Cbs Photo Archive / CBS
Image: (FILE) American TV Actress Valerie Harper Diagnosed Terminal Brain Cancer Harper Filming Rhoda

Name in lights

Harper, shown here in 1975 at the set of "Rhoda," began with the character of Rhoda Morgenstern on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in 1970. Her character, Mary's best friend, became so popular that from 1974-1978, she starred in the "Rhoda" spinoff, which took the character away from Mary in Minneapolis and back to her hometown of New York. Although Morgenstern was famously Jewish, Harper herself is Catholic.

— Terry O'neill / Terry O'Neill
Image: (FILE) American TV Actress Valerie Harper Diagnosed Terminal Brain Cancer Rhoda

Friends forever

Harper and Moore share a laugh in 1975. After Harper left for "Rhoda," she still made appearances on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." In 2000, the actresses revisited their characters for the TV movie "Mary and Rhoda." In the film, both women are single with college-age daughters and living in New York. Fans were critical of the movie because it barely referenced the universe of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

— Cbs Photo Archive / CBS
Image: (FILE) American TV Actress Valerie Harper Diagnosed Terminal Brain Cancer Rhoda

All together now

The "Rhoda" cast featured Harold J. Gould and Nancy Walker as Rhoda's parents, Julie Kavner as sister Brenda, Harper, and David Groh as Rhoda's husband Joe.

— Cbs Photo Archive / CBS
Harper Asner

Emmy winners

Harper and "Mary Tyler Moore" co-star Ed Asner won Emmys for best supporting actress and actor in 1971. Harper would also win the supporting actress Emmy in 1972 and 1973, and then the Emmy for lead actress in 1975 once she'd moved on to "Rhoda."

— AP
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