Fans of Valerie Harper undoubtedly remember her short-lived run on the sitcom “Valerie,” which was initially created around her as the lead character. On the show, Harper played the role of Valerie Hogan, a mom raising three adolescent boys largely without their father. Harper initially got the role of Hogan in 1986 and played her for two years, but after season two she asked for a raise, which the network denied. Not only did the network fire Harper, but they also killed off her character and renamed the show (twice). Harper would eventually win a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the network, but never appeared on another episode of “Valerie” past season two.
Harper continued to act, both on TV and doing voiceover work, but in 2009 she was diagnosed with lung cancer, which eventually spread and turned into leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a type of brain cancer. In 2013, she was told the cancer was terminal and was only given a few months to live, but a year later in 2014 she was still acting and the cancer was not spreading.
While she continued to act and do voiceover work, by July of 2019 her condition had deteriorated while going through chemo, and she set up a GoFundMe to help defray the medical expenses. Sadly, on August 30, 2019, Harper passed away due to complications from her cancer, at the age of 80 years old.
