Actress Mary Tyler Moore dead at 80

Actress Mary Tyler Moore has died, The Associated Press reported, citing her publicist. She was 80 years old.

>> Read more trending stories

According to a report from TMZ, the actress was in "grim" condition in the hospital.

Mary Tyler Moore was born December 29, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York the oldest of three children, she and her family moved from New York to Los Angeles when she was 8 years old.

In Los Angeles, Moore's entertainment career began with spots as a dancer in various commercials throughout the 50s, and had her first television role in 1959 in "Richard Diamond, Private Detective," playing Sam, a secretary whose face was never seen but legs were.

By the 1960s, Moore landed a role on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," playing  Laura Petrie and winning two Emmys for her work.

By 1970, she landed her own show, playing career woman Mary Richards on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." The show won 29 Emmy Awards and three Golden Globes. The show was produced by her own production company, MTM Enterprises, which she started with second husband Grant Tinker. The show ended in 1977.

Moore moved into Broadway into the 1980s, winning the Special Tony Award for "Whose Life Is It Anyway?"

Moore was married three times, first to Ricard Meeker in 1955, with whom she had a son named Ricard in 1956. Moore married Tinker in 1962, a year after divorcing Meeker. They divorced in 1981. Her only child, Ricard died from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1980.

A year after marrying Robert Levine, Moore checked into the Betty Ford Clinic for treatment alcoholism, disease which her mother also struggled with.

In 2011, the actress underwent surgery to remove a tumor from her brain.

Diagnosed with diabetes in her thirties, she became international advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. 

About the Author