Actress Valerie Harper, star of ‘Rhoda’ dies at 80

Valerie Harper, who achieved fame as Rhoda in the classic comedy “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and continued with the character in a popular spin-off series, died at the age of 80 after a long battle with cancer, her daughter Cristina Cacciotti and her Family friend Deanna Buskey told the media.

Buskey, a family friend for more than 20 years, said the family is not “providing details at this time.”

Buskey, who met Harper and her husband while working with them in their theatrical production of “All Under Heaven,” helped launch a GoFundMe account for Harper’s medical care earlier this summer.

In July, Harper’s husband, Tony Cacciotti, posted a message on Facebook saying that he would not follow the advice of his wife’s doctors and put her in palliative care, despite her worsening. He said “he would do everything possible to make Val as comfortable as possible.”

Cristina Cacciotti said her mother died at 10:06 a.m. Friday

Harper was chosen as Mary Richards’s best mocking friend, Rhoda Morgenstern, and became so popular that she had her own show, “Rhoda.” She won four Emmy awards for the role.