Valerie Harper, one of US television's biggest stars in the 1970s for "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and its spin-off "Rhoda," died Friday after a long battle with lung and brain cancer. She was 80. Harper won four Emmys and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Rhoda Morgenstern, Moore's brash, wisecracking and neurotic neighbor, eventually earning her own sitcom.

A 1974 episode of "Rhoda" in which her character got married was watched by more than 50 million Americans, which The New York Times described as a cultural phenomenon in which "we got together as a nation, in anticipation and retrospection, to watch a marriage." Born in New York state, Harper began her career as a ballet dancer at Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019