Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Mary Tyler Moore 1936-2017

Actor/dancer/producer/author Mary Tyler Moore has died at the age of 80, from cardiopulmonary arrest at a hospital in Connecticut.  She had recently had heart and kidney problems.  She had been dealing with type-1 diabetes since age 33.

Mary Tyler Moore was born in Brooklyn, New York to George Tyler Moore and the former Marjorie Hackett.  When she was eight, her family moved to Los Angeles.  Originally a dancer, her first television role was the elf "Happy Hotpoint" in Hotpoint appliance ads.  In her first regular role, as a telephone receptionist on Richard Diamond, Private Detective, only her legs were seen on camera.  After several guest appearances and movie roles, Moore was cast as Laura Petrie, the wife of the title character of The Dick Van Dyke Show.  The show ran from 1961 to 1966.  She starred in her own eponymous sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1970 to 1977.  For her TV roles, she won multiple Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe Awards.  With her husband Grant Tinker, she founded MTM Enterprises, whose logo featured a meowing cat, spoofing the roaring MGM lion.  Moore wrote two memoirs, and was an activist for animals rights and for research pertaining to type-1 diabetes.

Moore was married three times, first to Richard Meeker (1955-1961), then to Grant Tinker (1962-1981), and finally to Dr. Robert Levine (1983-her death), by whom she is survived.  Her only child was Richard Meeker Jr., who died of an accidental gunshot in 1980.

Read more at CNN, The New York Times, People, TMZ and Us Weekly.

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