Valerie Harper - Biography

Last Editor: amresh.manu				Valerie Harper Biography -   Name : Valerie Harper Profession : Actress Birth Details : born August 22, 1940 in Suffern, New York Height : 5' 6" (1.68 m) Personal 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."< Spouse : Tony Cacciotti (8 April 1987 - present) 1 child Richard Schaal (ca. 1964 - 1978) (divorced)

Valerie Harper Trivia -

Is a graduate of the Erhard Seminars Training (AKA est). Daughter, Cristina, born 1983 Stepdaughter, Wendy Schaal, is an actress. Valerie was born at Good Samaritan Hospital, Suffern, N.Y. She and her then husband actor Richard Schaal were also a writing team and wrote a script for the series "Love, American Style" (1969) called "Love and the Visitor", back in the early 70's. In the fall of 1987, she was abruptedly fired by Lorimar from her NBC TV-Series "Valerie" (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 Valerie Harper's "Valerie Hogan" character. Ms. Harper went to court with Lorimar over breach of contract and in the fall of 1988 was awarded 1.4 million dollars plus 12.5% of the profits of the show that continued on without her until 1991. Measurements: 36-26 1/2-40 (while on "Mary Tyler Moore" (1970)), 35 1/2-24-36 (trimmed down for her "Rhoda" (1974) spin-off). (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine) Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 206-207. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Valerie Harper Detailed Biography -

Valerie Harper (born August 22, 1940 in Suffern, New York) is an American actress, best known for the 1970s television role of Rhoda Morgenstern-Gerard, which she played on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and its spinoff, Rhoda. Harper was born in Suffern, Rockland County, New York, to a mixed Catholic/Protestant family, and raised in Oregon, and started out as a dancer/chorus girl on Broadway in the late 1950s and early 1960s in such shows such as Take Me Along and Subways Are for Sleeping, as well as Wildcat, on which she performed with Lucille Ball. She also appeared in bit parts in several films beginning with Li'l Abner (1959), when she was a teenager. During the late 1960s, however, Harper worked somewhat less, though she appeared in Carl Reiner's play Something Different in 1968. She also wrote an episode of Love, American Style with her then-husband, actor/writer, Richard Schaal, whose daughter, actress Wendy Schaal (who voices "Francine Smith" on American Dad), was her stepdaughter. Things changed when Harper got the role of the wise-cracking yet vulnerable uber-Jewish New Yorker, Rhoda Morgenstern, on two CBS TV sitcoms of the 1970s: The Mary Tyler Moore Show (she was a regular from 1970 - 1974) and its spin-off Rhoda (1974 - 1978), in which she played the title role. She won four Emmy awards and a Golden Globe for her work as Rhoda Morgenstern on both series. She also picked up a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year for her role in 1974's Freebie and The Bean. She also played family matriarch Valerie Hogan on the 1986 sitcom Valerie. It was renamed Valerie's Family in 1987 and finally The Hogan Family in 1988 after Harper abruptly left the series (following a dispute with the producers) and was replaced by Sandy Duncan. Harper has worked almost exclusively in television, and has also had roles in made-for-TV-movies and guest spots on a number of series, including Sex and the City. In the 1990s, she advocated hormone replacement therapy for the Eli Lilly company. Harper is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and ran for President in the 2001 election, being beaten in a bitter election feud by actress Melissa Gilbert. A 2000 project, Mary and Rhoda, was planned as a reunion series for Harper and her friend and longtime co-star, Mary Tyler Moore, but the project instead appeared as a made-for-TV movie on the ABC network. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (cast member from 1970 - 1974) Columbo: The Most Crucial Game (1972) Thursday's Game (1974) Rhoda (1974 - 1978) Night Terror (1977) Fun and Games (1980) The Shadow Box (1980) The Day the Loving Stopped (1981) Farrell for the People (1982) Don't Go to Sleep (1982) An Invasion of Privacy (1983) The Execution (1985) Valerie (cast member from 1986 - 1987) Strange Voices (1987) Drop-Out Mother (1988) The People Across the Lake (1988) City (1990) (canceled after 6 months) Stolen: One Husband (1990) Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Fashion (1991) A Friend to Die For (1994) The Office (1995) (canceled after 2 months) The Great Mom Swap (1995) Dog's Best Friend (1997) (voice only) Mary and Rhoda (2000) Dancing at the Harvest Moon (2002)