Valerie Harper
Valerie Harper is an actor, born 1939.
Valerie Harper began on Broadway as a dancer, first appearing as a replacement in the musical Li'l Abner, and the stage timing never left her. Television found her in 1970 with Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a part written as the friend and neighbour and played with enough bite to take a scene off anybody in it.
The industry noticed at once. She won three Primetime Emmys for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy, then a fourth in the lead category once Rhoda moved into her own series in 1974, and Golden Globes followed. The self-deprecation is what made it work: Harper delivered a put-down about herself with the relish other actors save for insulting somebody else, and the audience heard the confidence underneath it.
Her later career is a long guest-star run with one more starring vehicle, The Hogan Family, where she played Valerie Hogan from 1986 and stayed on network television for years. Films were scarcer, and mostly supporting: Consuelo in Freebie and the Bean, Karen Hollis in Blame It on Rio. She kept working into her seventies on Drop Dead Diva, Less than Perfect, Signed, Sealed, Delivered and Committed, and voiced a testing proctor on The Simpsons. She died in 2019.
Movies (6)
TV (9)
Where to start with Valerie Harper
Meet her on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and in the early seasons in particular, before Rhoda softened into an institution. The character was designed as a contrast, and Harper kept finding new places to put the emphasis, which is precisely why she got promoted.
Rhoda is the follow-up, best in its first stretch, when the show still had the nerve of the original. The Hogan Family is the 1980s version of her, warmer and more maternal. On film, Freebie and the Bean is the rougher and stranger performance while Blame It on Rio is the one people remember, and late on, Drop Dead Diva gave her a recurring judge she clearly enjoyed playing.