Valerie Harper has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, People reports. Recognized for playing Rhoda Morgestern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, Harper, 73, learned on Jan. 15 that she had leptomeningeal carcinomatosis.

Harper had been experiencing numbness when she was originally hospitalized. “The side of my face started to feel kind of numb,” she told The New Yorker back in January while promoting her memoir, I, Rhoda. “I was slurring my speech.”

Harper has been told by doctors she may only have three months to live, but she has refrained from being negative.

"I don't think of dying," Harper told People. "I think of being here now."

Harper survived a lung cancer diagnosis in 2009, and went on to be nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress for Looped. During her career she received four Emmy Awards (three for The Mary Tyler Moore Show and one for Rhoda) and one Golden Globe (Rhoda). She also made guest appearances on Melrose Place, That ‘70s Show, ‘Til Death, Desperate Housewives and The Simpsons.

—Hal Sundt

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