Mary Tyler Moore

An iconic modern woman, actress Mary Tyler Moore made an enormous contribution to television history as both an actress and producer. Audiences first fell in love with Moore as a believable symbol of the smart, young, pants-wearing mom in The Dick Van Dyke Show before she came to signify a new breed of independent, liberated professional woman in the Emmy-winning sitcom, Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Moore began her career as a dancer, and soon was cast in numerous small television roles. Her talent and personality quickly brought more substantive roles as she was cast in one of the most highly regarded comedies in television history, The Dick Van Dyke Show. Portraying Laura Petrie, the charmingly loopy wife of star Dick Van Dyke, the show became famous for its very clever writing and terrific comic ensemble.

Following The Dick Van Dyke Show, Moore starred in several motion pictures including Thoroughly Modern Millie and Run a Crooked Mile, before a triumphant return to television when she starred in the wildly popular Mary Tyler Moore Show as the unforgettable Mary Richards, who moves to Minneapolis/St. Paul on the heels of a failed relationship. The show was a fixture of CBS’s unbeatable Saturday night line-up for years, and one of the earliest TV portrayals of a woman who was happy and successful on her own rather than simply being a man's wife.

Moore ended the show in 1977 while it was still on a high point, but she found it difficult to flee the beloved "Mary Richards" persona. With time, her body of dramatic acting came to be recognized on its own, with memorable work in Ordinary People as an aloof mother who lost her eldest son in a boating accident and resented her youngest son’s survival; in Finnegan Begin Again, as a middle-aged widow who finds love with a man whose wife is slowly slipping away, and in Stolen Babies, as an infamous baby smuggler, a movie for which she won her sixth Emmy award.

Outside of the limelight, Moore has faced many personal hardships including the premature deaths of her siblings from cancer and a drug overdose, and the suicide of her son Richie. Moore has long been diagnosed an insulin-dependent diabetic, and battled with alcoholism. In addition to being an active spokesperson for diabetes health and awareness, Moore is a vegetarian and a passionate proponent of animal rights.