Valerie Harper (born August 22, 1939)
[Archive of American Television oral history, February 26, 2009] is an
American actress, best known for her role as
Rhoda Morgenstern on the 1970s
television show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and for her starring roles on the sitcoms
Rhoda (a
spin-off of
The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and
Valerie.
Biography
Early life and career
Harper was born in
Suffern, New York at Good Samaritan Hospital in
Rockland County,
New York, to a mixed
Catholic/
Lutheran family. Her mother, Iva (née McConnell), was a nurse, and her father, Howard Donald Harper, was a lighting salesman who kept getting promoted and so the family would move every two years:
South Orange, New Jersey,
New JerseySt. Andrews in Pasadena, California (where Harper attended the school St. Andrews); Monroe, Michigan, at age 10, where she attended St. Mary's Academy; then
Ashland, Oregon "at
[1] 11 to 13"; and then
Jersey City, New Jersey from eighth grade through age 18.
When her family returned to Oregon, Harper remained in the New York City area to study
ballet. She has an older sister, Leah; a younger brother, Don (originally Merrill); and a stepsister, Virginia, from his father's second marriage.
Harper based her future character
Rhoda Morgenstern both on her Italian stepmother, Angela Basilico, and Penny Ann Green (nee Joanna Greenberg from Brooklyn), with whom she danced in the Broadway musical
Wildcat.
