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Mary Tyler Moore (born December 29, 1936) is an American actress and comedian, perhaps best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30ish single woman who worked as a news producer at WJM-TV in Minneapolis, and for her role as Laura Petrie, stunning young wife of television comedy writer Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Moore played leading roles in two of the most fondly remembered classic comedy series, making a tremendous impact on television over two decades.

The oldest of three siblings, Moore was born in Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York to George Tyler Moore and Marjorie Hackett. She moved to California when she was eight years old. She attended Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic school in Brooklyn, and Notre Dame convent school in Hollywood. At the age of 17, she started off with a role as "Happy Hotpoint" on television commercials broadcast during Ozzie and Harriet. During these commercials she would dance around on the Hotpoint appliances (a General Electric subsidiary). Prior to her breakthrough role as Rob's (Dick Van Dyke) lovely wife Laura in The Dick Van Dyke Show, she had appeared in several bit parts in movies and on TV shows including Bourbon Street Beat, 77 Sunset Strip, Surfside Six, Dead or Alive, Steve Canyon, and Hawaiian Eye. She'd also anonymously modeled on the covers of a number of record albums, and auditioned for the role of the older daughter of Danny Thomas for his long-running hit TV show, but was turned down. Much later, Thomas explained that "no daughter of mine could have that (little) nose."

In 1955 she married Dick Meeker, whom she described as "the boy next door," and was pregnant with her only son Richie within six weeks. Meeker and Moore divorced in 1961.

In 1980, Richie accidentally shot and killed himself when the hair trigger on his gun went off - the gun was eventually removed from the market for that reason. International headlines announced that Meeker killed himself when playing a game of Russian Roulette in front of two female friends, but authorities ruled his death an accident. A few years earlier, Moore's sister had committed suicide. Her last remaining sibling died of cancer (Moore claimed that she had helped him end his life with an overdose of painkillers), and her mother, who suffered from alcoholism is also deceased, leaving only her father, George Moore, who lives in California.

Television

Moore's first regular television role was on the show Richard Diamond, Private Detective; however, in that show, only her legs were ever shown. Her first important television role in which she gained wide recognition was as Laura Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show. When she won an Emmy award for her portrayal of Laura, she said, through her tears, quite incorrectly, "I know this will never happen again!"

Moore married Grant Tinker in 1962, and in 1970 they formed the television production company MTM Enterprises, which created and produced the company's first television series, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. MTM Enterprises would later produce popular American sitcoms and drama television series such as Rhoda, The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, and Hill Street Blues. Moore and Tinker divorced in 1981, and she married Dr. Robert Levine in 1983.

Moore has admitted having a drinking problem from the time she starred in The Dick Van Dyke Show, until after marrying Levine. Her alcoholism peaked in the 1980s, and Moore eventually entered the Betty Ford Clinic for treatment in 1984. She has been sober since then. Her onetime co-star, Dick Van Dyke, also battled alcoholism for many years.

In August 2005, it was announced that Moore would guest-star as a local newswoman on three episodes of the Fox sitcom That '70s Show. Moore's scenes were shot on the same soundstage where The Mary Tyler Moore Show was filmed in the 1970s. Two of the episodes have premiered recently, and the third aired on February 9th, 2006.

TV Work

Film

Since her debut in 1961's "X-15", Moore has starred in several films, including Ordinary People for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. It was a role that completely shifted Moore out of the lovable characters she's often been associated with, bringing a cold steeliness to a mother who refuses to be there for her traumatized son. More recently she portrayed Sante Kimes in the made-for-TV movie The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes (2001) and reunited with her Dick Van Dyke Show castmates for a reunion "episode."

Filmography

Charity work

In addition to her acting work, Moore is the International Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. In this role, she has used her fame to help raise funds and raise awareness of diabetes mellitus type 1, from which she suffers severely, almost losing her vision and at least one limb to the disease, but fortunately she was saved from blindness and amputation, with the help of her doctor husband who takes good care of her and helps her control her diabetes.

Moore is a vegetarian and has worked for animal rights for many years. On the subject of fur, she has said, "Behind every beautiful fur, there is a story. It is a bloody, barbaric story."

She is also a co-founder of Broadway Barks, an annual adopt-a-thon in NYC. Both Moore, and friend Bernadette Peters, work tirelessly to make New York City a no-kill city and to promote adopting animals from shelters.

Currently

She maintains an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in a building where great controversy was sparked when the red-tailed hawk nest built by Pale Male was removed in December 2004, an action to which she objected.

Honors

In early May 2002, Moore was present as cable TV network TV Land dedicated a statue in downtown Minneapolis to the television character she made famous on Mary Tyler Moore. The statue is in front of the Dayton's (now Marshall Field's) department store, near the corner of 7th Street and Nicollet Mall. It depicts the well-known moment in the show's opening credits where Mary joyfully throws her tam o'shanter cap up in the air, in a freeze-frame at the end of the montage.

Fans have noted that the statue takes a couple of liberties with that opening scene, for both practical and artistic reasons. One is that where Mary actually tossed the cap was in the crosswalk in the middle of the street, clearly not the best location for a statue. The other is that the actual release point of the cap was around her waist, whereas the statue has her hand high overhead, barely touching the cap, as if she were catching it instead of tossing it.

Mary Tyler Moore is referenced in the hit song Buddy Holly by Weezer on their self-titled debut album. Her name pops up in the chorus in the lines, “I look just like Buddy Holly/And you're Mary Tyler Moore." Moore sent the members of Weezer personalized autographed photos in return.

External links

American film actors | American character actors | American television actors | Best Actress Academy Award nominees | Emmy Award winners | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Worst Actress Razzie nominees | That '70s Show actors | Outdoor sculptures in the United States | Irish-Americans | People from Brooklyn | American vegetarians | American diabetics | People treated for alcoholism | 1936 births | Living people

Mary Tyler Moore | Mary Tyler Moore | Mary Tyler Moore | Mary Tyler Moore | Mary Tyler Moore

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Mary Tyler Moore".

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