Mary Tyler Moore was an American actress best remembered for her roles in two highly successful television comedies in the 1960s and ’70s—The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Below are 10 things women should know about Mary Tyler Moore:
1. Mary Tyler Moore was born on December 29, 1936 in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City, to Marjorie (née Hackett) and George Tyler Moore. He was a clerk.
2. She was an American actress, producer, and social advocate. She was widely known for her prominent television sitcom roles in The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977).
3. Moore’s television career began with a job as “Happy Hotpoint”, a tiny elf dancing on Hotpoint appliances in TV commercials during the 1950s series Ozzie and Harriet.
4. Her first regular television role was as a mysterious and glamorous telephone receptionist in Richard Diamond, Private Detective. It is erroneously reported that in the show her voice was heard but only her legs appeared on camera, adding to the character’s mystique.
5. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a half-hour newsroom sitcom featuring Ed Asner as her gruff boss Lou Grant. The Mary Tyler Moore Show became a touch point of the Women’s Movement for its portrayal of an independent working woman, which challenged the traditional woman’s role in marriage and family.
6. In addition to her acting work, Moore was the International Chairperson of JDRF (the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). In this role, she used her celebrity status to help raise funds and awareness of diabetes mellitus type 1.
7. Moore wrote two memoirs. In the first, After All, published in 1995, she acknowledged being a recovering alcoholic, while in Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes (2009), she focuses on living with type 1 diabetes.
8. In addition to numerous nominations, The Mary Tyler Moore Show won 29 Emmy Awards.
9. Moore died at the age of 80 on January 25, 2017, at Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut, from cardiopulmonary arrest complicated by pneumonia after having been placed on a ventilator the previous week. She was interred in Oak Lawn Cemetery in Fairfield, Connecticut, during a private ceremony.
10. Mary Tyler Moore had a net worth of $60 million at the time of her death on January 25th, 2017.
For her memorable work in two hit series, Moore was inducted into the Television Arts & Sciences’ Hall of Fame in 1986, along with other TV pioneers like Jackie Gleason, Walt Disney and Steve Allen.