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Actress Valerie Harper dies at 80

The four-time Emmy winner, who played TV's Rhoda Morgenstern, passed away after a battle with cancer.

Valerie Harper, who scored guffaws, stole hearts and busted TV taboos as the brash, self-deprecating Rhoda Morgenstern on back-to-back hit sitcoms in the 1970s, has died.

Longtime family friend Dan Watt confirmed Harper died Friday. She had been battling cancer for years, and her husband said recently he had been advised to put her in hospice care. She was 80.

Portrait Of Valerie Harper
Actress Valerie Harper as her classic TV character Rhoda Morgenstern, 1975.Getty Images

Cristina Cacciotti, Harper's daughter with husband Tony Cacciotti, tweeted: "My dad has asked me to pass on this message: 'My beautiful caring wife of nearly 40 years has passed away at 10:06am, after years of fighting cancer. She will never, ever be forgotten. Rest In Peace, mia Valeria. -Anthony.'"

Ed Asner, Harper's co-star on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," also tweeted his condolences:

Harper was a breakout star on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," then the lead of her own series, "Rhoda."

She won three consecutive Emmys (1971-73) as supporting actress on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and another for outstanding lead actress for "Rhoda," which ran from 1974-78. Beyond awards, she was immortalized — and typecast — for playing one of television's most beloved characters, a best friend the equal of Ethel Mertz and Ed Norton in TV's sidekick pantheon.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The cast of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show": (back row left to right) Valerie Harper as Rhoda Morgenstern, Ed Asner as Lou Grant, Cloris Leachman as Phyllis Lindstrom, (front row, left to right) Gavin McLeod as Murray Slaughter, Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards, and Ted Knight as Ted Baxter, 1972. CBS via Getty Images

Fans had long feared the news of her passing. In 2013, she first revealed that she had been diagnosed with brain cancer and had been told by her doctors she had as little as three months to live. Some responded as if a family member were in peril.

But she refused to despair. "I'm not dying until I do," Harper said in an interview on TODAY. "I promise I won't." Harper did outlive her famous co-star: Mary Tyler Moore died in January 2017. Ed Asner, Cloris Leachman and Betty White are among the former cast members who survive her.

In recent years, Harper's other appearances included "American Dad!" ''The Simpsons" and "Two Broke Girls."

Hallmark Channel & Hallmark Movie Channel 2014 Winter TCA Party
Valerie Harper and husband actor Tony Cacciotti.Barry King / FilmMagic

Harper was a chorus dancer on Broadway as a teen before moving into comedy and improv when, in 1970, she auditioned for the part of a Bronx-born Jewish girl who would be a neighbor and pal of Minneapolis news producer Mary Richards on a new sitcom for CBS.

It seemed a long shot for the young, unknown actress. As she recalled, "I'm not Jewish, not from New York, and I have a small shiksa nose." And she had almost no TV experience.

But Harper, who arrived for her audition some 20 pounds overweight, may have clinched the role when she blurted out in admiration to the show's tall, slender star: "Look at you in white pants without a long jacket to cover your behind!"