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Beloved television icon Mary Tyler Moore dead at 80

THE beloved sitcom star and six-time Emmy winner who “changed the world for all women” has passed away at the age of 80.

Nick BondNick Bond
@bondnickbond
2 min read
January 26, 2017 - 8:17AM

BELOVED television icon Mary Tyler Moore has died aged 80 after facing health battles in recent years.

The actress starred in two of the best-loved TV shows of all time, The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

The six-time Emmy Award winner was earlier reported to be in a grave condition at a Connecticut hospital Tuesday as loved ones have rushed to her side.

The actress had been battling diabetes for years and family members had feared she would not make it, TMZ reported overnight. Her representative Mara Buxbaum confirmed news of her death to The Hollywood Reporter.

A 1964 Emmy win alongside Dick Van Dyke. AP Photo, File
A 1964 Emmy win alongside Dick Van Dyke. AP Photo, File

“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,” Buxbaum said in a statement.

“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.”

Moore first shot to fame as perky suburban housewife Laura in The Dick Van Dyke Show, which ran for five seasons from 1961, but it was her role in her own eponymous sitcom during the 1970s for which she’s best remembered.

Playing a single, female news producer in a TV newsroom, Tyler Moore became a feminist icon: The show was the first to feature a never-married, independent career woman as its central character.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show was the first major sitcom to portray a single, independent working woman as a lead.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show was the first major sitcom to portray a single, independent working woman as a lead.

She also successfully transitioned to film, receiving a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work in the 1980 drama Ordinary People, in which she played a grieving mother unable to cope with the death of her son. That same year, Tyler Moore’s only child, son Richard, died of an accidental gunshot wound to the head while handling a shotgun.

On The Mary Tyler Moore Show, she was an inspiration to young girls everywhere - including Oprah.
On The Mary Tyler Moore Show, she was an inspiration to young girls everywhere - including Oprah.

But it was her iconic 1970s role as a TV news producer that influenced a generation of viewers. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was truly groundbreaking, introducing issues such as equal pay for women, pre-marital sex, and homosexuality into a standard sitcom format.

It was also, at its heart, extremely funny. Just watch this scene, ‘Chuckles the clown’s funeral’, in which Tyler Moore’s character struggles to contain her laughter at the very serious funeral of a very funny man:

Tyler Moore’s influence on a generation of young women cannot be overstated. Twenty years after the final episode of the groundbreaking sitcom aired, Tyler Moore was able to elicit this reaction from Queen of TV herself Oprah Winfrey when she surprised her on air:

Tyler Moore’s health problems were well-documented: she battled alcoholism and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes early in the run of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, becoming a tireless diabetes advocate. In 2011, she underwent elective brain surgery to remove a benign meningioma and in recent years retreated from the spotlight as her condition reportedly deteriorated.

In 2014 friends reported that she has heart and kidney problems and was almost blind. Speaking to Larry King in 2015, her former co-star Dick Van Dyke said “[Diabetes] has taken a toll on her; she’s not well at all.”

Tyler Moore is survived by her third husband, Robert Levine, who she wed in 1983. Her Hollywood friends - and those who were influenced by her - today pay tribute to the TV icon:

Life of Mary Tyler Moore: In pictures
(Original Caption) Still from The Mary Tyler Moore Show showing Moore standing, smiling, inside of the WJM newsroom. Moore is shown from the waist-up, holding a cup of coffee.
VIEW GALLERY

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Originally published as Beloved television icon Mary Tyler Moore dead at 80

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Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/beloved-television-icon-mary-tyler-moore-dead-at-80/news-story/7c581c69187bc18afce857469d1c11ed