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Valerie Harper turns to crowdfunding

Campaign for '70s sitcom actress will fund the costs of cancer treatments.

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Former ’70s sitcom actress Valerie Harper is drawing upon a crowdfunding campaign to fund the costs of cancer treatments.

Harper, 79, is best known for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and starring in her own spinoff Rhoda. She also starred in the 1980s sitcom Valerie and Valerie’s Family.

In 2009 she was diagnosed with lung cancer while in 2013 doctors discovered a rare brain cancer.

Harper’s husband, Tony Cacciotti, started a GoFundMe campaign titled The Valerie Harper Cancer Support Fund on July 8.

“Valerie is currently taking a multitude of medications and chemotherapy drugs as well as going through extreme physical and painful challenges now with around the clock, 24/7 care immediately needed, which is not covered by insurance,” the page says. “This is just part of the daily cost that is without a doubt a financial burden that could never be met alone. This GoFundMe initiative from Tony, is to ensure she receives the best care possible.”

So far the campaign has raised $17,500.

Source: Deadline

5 Responses

  1. I don’t think any of those shows (apart from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which is also available in its entirety on DVD locally) are currently airing in reruns or via streaming, so this news, sadly, doesn’t surprise me, and given the age of these shows, she would probably only receive a pittance in residuals considering how long ago these agreements would have been drafted.

    Plus, she was booted out of her own sitcom back in the day, not unlike Roseanne had been more recently, which may have also affected her cut.

    1. i forgot all about that, but it wasn’t like the Roseanne situation, she was fired for acting like a twit. From Wikipedia ‘Following a salary dispute with NBC and production company Lorimar in 1987, Harper was fired from the series at the end of its second season Harper sued NBC and Lorimar for breach of contract. Her claims against NBC were dismissed, but the jury found that Lorimar had wrongfully fired her and awarded her $1.4 million plus 12.5 percent of the show’s profits’…. i guess they only meant profit to that date, not residuals.

  2. that is very sad, not only her health but that she has to turn to crowd funding given how popular she was in that era. So no residuals coming in from syndication of those shows then?

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