Per ctress/producer Mary Tyler Moore has died at the age of 80. The legendary television actress, best known for staring in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show“, passed away earlier today in Connecticut after a recent stretch of diabetes-related health problems. She is survived by her husband, Robert Levine.
Beginning in the business in the late 1950s, Moore rose to prominence when she was cast by Carl Reiner as ‘Laura Petrie’, the energetic wife of Dick Van Dyke’s character ‘Rob Petrie’ on “The Dick Van Dyke Show“. The series was a hit, running from 1961 to 1966. Her next bout with TV stardom came with in the aforementioned “The Mary Tyler Moore Show“, which ran for seven seasons from 1970 to 1977, where she played lead ‘Mary Richards’. Further shows, such as “The Mary Tyler Moore Hour” and “Mary” followed. She received a total of six Emmy Awards throughout her television career, sharing the record for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series wins with Candice Bergen and Julie Louis-Dreyfus.
On the film side of things, Moore made appearances in a wide variety of pictures over the decades, from her feature debut in Richard Donner’s X-15 (1961) to her Academy Award-nominated role in Robert Redford’s Ordinary People (1980) to her turn in David O. Russell’s Flirting with Disaster (1996). She also held two Tony awards for her work on Broadway.
I myself was not overly familiar with a great majority of her work. Over the years I’ve only caught the odd episode of her classic shows here and there, as well as only a few of her film appearances. Still, she was an incredibly important icon to the generations before me, especially that of my parents, and had remained a legendary titan of the television industry throughout her long career. We’ve been hit with a lot of loss when it comes to our cultural icons over the past year or so, far more than usual. My heart goes out to her friends, family, and fans in the wake of her passing.
