Mary Tyler Moore

Mary Tyler Moore was an American actress, producer, and social advocate born on December 29, 1936, in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of New York City. The first child of Marjorie and George Tyler Moore, a clerk, she grew up alongside a younger brother, John, and a younger sister, Elizabeth. Her family was of Irish Catholic descent, and Moore was raised in the Catholic faith, attending St. Rose of Lima Parochial School in Brooklyn before the family relocated to Los Angeles in 1945. There she continued her education at Saint Ambrose School and Immaculate Heart High School in Los Feliz. Her paternal great-grandfather was Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Tilghman Moore, whose former home in Winchester, Virginia, now operates as the Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters Museum. Moore was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 33 and became a significant contributor to diabetes awareness and research throughout her life. She was also an advocate for animal rights and vegetarianism.

Moore's professional career began in 1955 when she was hired as "Happy Hotpoint," a tiny elf appearing in television commercials for Hotpoint home appliances that aired during breaks on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. After completing 39 commercials in five days, she earned approximately $6,000. Her first regular television role came on the series Richard Diamond, Private Detective, where she played a telephone switchboard operator known as Sam; only her legs and occasionally her hands appeared on camera. She went on to guest-star in multiple series in the early 1960s, including Johnny Staccato, The Tab Hunter Show, Bourbon Street Beat, 77 Sunset Strip, and Wanted: Dead or Alive, among others.

In 1961, Carl Reiner cast Moore in The Dick Van Dyke Show, a weekly sitcom in which she played Laura Petrie, the wife of Van Dyke's character. Her comic performances in the role made her internationally known and earned her an Emmy Award. The show ran until 1966. Moore subsequently teamed with her husband Grant Tinker to pitch a new sitcom to CBS, which premiered in 1970 as The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The half-hour newsroom comedy featured Ed Asner as her character's boss and ran for seven seasons, spending six of them in the top 20 in the ratings. The program won 29 Emmy Awards, with Moore receiving three awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy. The show generated three spinoff series featuring regular characters played by Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, and Ed Asner. Moore also appeared in the CBS experimental musical variety special Mary's Incredible Dream in January 1976, which featured Ben Vereen, and starred in the 1978 CBS special How to Survive the '70s and Maybe Even Bump Into Happiness, supported by guest stars including Bill Bixby, John Ritter, Harvey Korman, and Dick Van Dyke.

Beyond television, Moore earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance in the drama film Ordinary People. She also appeared in the musical film Thoroughly Modern Millie and the dark comedy Flirting with Disaster, and received praise for her work in the television film Heartsounds. Across her career she accumulated seven Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Tony Awards.

Moore's Broadway career spanned from 1980 to 2013. She received a Tony Award Special Award in 1980 and a Tony Award for Best Reproduction of a Play or Musical in 1985. Her Broadway credits include Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Sweet Sue, and Breakfast at Tiffany's. She also appeared in Bernadette Peters: A Special Concert for Broadway Barks Because Broadway Cares. Moore died on January 25, 2017.