Leading lady, icon, and actress, Mary Tyler Moore has passed away at the age of 80.
“Today, beloved icon, Mary Tyler Moore, passed away at the age of 80 in the company of friends and her loving husband of over 33 years, Dr. S. Robert Levine. A groundbreaking actress, producer, and passionate advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Mary will be remembered as a fearless visionary who turned the world on with her smile,” her rep Mara Buxbaum told The Huffington Post in a statement.
Despite being best remember for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, her resume reads like a comedy jukebox. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, she eventually migrated to Los Angeles, CA with her family. Moore had aspirations of being a dancer in the early days. That desire would lend a hand in her first TV job as a tiny elf dancing in commercials for Hotpoint appliances during the series Ozzie and Harriet. From here she moved on to her first full time TV role on Richard Diamond, Private Detective.
Her big break came when the legend Carl Reiner cast her in The Dick Van Dyke Show. She eventually won an Emmy award for her role as Laura Petrie alongside making her character’s signature tight capri pants extremely popular. Then, in 1970, she landed her very own sitcom on CBS, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The half-hour sitcom series took place in a newsroom and showcased not only the talents of Moore, but those of Ed Asner, Cloris Leachman, Gavin MacLeod, and Ted Knight. It received high praise from critics, including Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series three years in a row (1975–77), and continued to be honored long after the final episode aired. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked The Mary Tyler Moore Show No. 6 in its list of the 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time.
Various projects would follow, but nothing that would reach the heights of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She did however appear in several Broadway plays as well as films. Moore did pen two memoirs that included After All in 1995 and Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes in 2009. She was very active when it came to charity work, specifically with diabetes research.
She will be missed, but her spirit and role in the history of entertainment will never be forgotten.
