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'''Mary Tyler Moore''' (born December 29, 1936) is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television [[sitcom]]s. Moore is best known for ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'' (1970–77), in which she starred as [[Mary Richards]], a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in [[Minneapolis]], and for her earlier role as Laura Petrie ([[Dick Van Dyke]]'s wife) on ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'' (1961–66). She also appeared in a number of films, most notably 1980's ''[[Ordinary People]]'', in which she played a role that was the polar opposite of the television characters she had portrayed, and for which she was nominated for an [[Academy Award for Best Actress]]. Moore has also been active in charity work and various political causes, particularly around the issues of [[Animal rights]] and [[Diabetes mellitus type 1]].
'''Mary Tyler Moore''' (born December 29, 1936) is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television [[sitcom]]s. Moore is best known for ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'' (1970–77), in which she starred as [[Mary Richards]], a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in [[Minneapolis]], and for her earlier role as Laura Petrie ([[Dick Van Dyke]]'s wife) on ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'' (1961–66). She also appeared in a number of films, most notably 1980's ''[[Ordinary People]]'', in which she played a role that was the polar opposite of the television characters she had portrayed, and for which she was nominated for an [[Academy Award for Best Actress]]. Moore has also been active in charity work and various political causes, particularly around the issues of [[Animal rights]] and [[Diabetes mellitus type 1]]. Mary Tyler Moore has had health problems with diabetes, starting in the late 1960s{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} and alcoholism,{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} treated in the 1980s. In May, 2011, Moore underwent elective brain surgery to remove a benign [[meningioma]].<ref name=brain>{{cite web|url=http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PEOPLE_MARY_TYLER_MOORE?SITE=NCWIN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT|title=Mary Tyler Moore 'recovering nicely' from surgery|publisher=Associated Press|accessdate=2011-05-14}}</ref>



==Early life==
==Early life==

Revision as of 04:12, 24 May 2011

This article is about the actress. For the 1970s television series, see The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Mary Tyler Moore
At the Emmy Awards in August 1988
Born (1936-12-29) December 29, 1936 (age 87)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1958–present
Spouse(s)
Dick Meeker
​
(m. 1955⁠–⁠1961)​

​
(m. 1962⁠–⁠1981)​

Robert Levine
​
(m. 1983)​

Mary Tyler Moore (born December 29, 1936) is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–77), in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as Laura Petrie (Dick Van Dyke's wife) on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–66). She also appeared in a number of films, most notably 1980's Ordinary People, in which she played a role that was the polar opposite of the television characters she had portrayed, and for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Moore has also been active in charity work and various political causes, particularly around the issues of Animal rights and Diabetes mellitus type 1. Mary Tyler Moore has had health problems with diabetes, starting in the late 1960s[citation needed] and alcoholism,[citation needed] treated in the 1980s. In May, 2011, Moore underwent elective brain surgery to remove a benign meningioma.[1]


Early life

Moore was born in the Brooklyn Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, to George Tyler Moore, a clerk, and his wife Marjorie Hackett. She was the eldest of three children.[2] Her maternal grandparents were immigrants from England; her paternal great-grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Tilghman Moore, owned Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters Museum.[3] Moore's family moved to Los Angeles, California, when she was eight years old. She first attended Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic school in Brooklyn, followed by St. Ambrose School in Los Angeles and the Immaculate Heart High School in Los Feliz.[4][5]

Career

Television

At the age of 17, Moore aspired to be a dancer. She started her career as "Happy Hotpoint", a tiny elf dancing on Hotpoint appliances in TV commercials during the 1950s series Ozzie and Harriet.[6] She filmed 39 TV commercials in five days, ultimately earning about $6,000 from her first job.[7] Her time as "Happy Hotpoint" ended when it became difficult to conceal her pregnancy in the dancing elf costume.[6] Moore modeled anonymously 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 TV show, but was turned down. Much later, Thomas explained that "no daughter of mine could have that [little] nose." Her first regular television role was as a mysterious and glamorous telephone receptionist on Richard Diamond, Private Detective; to add to the mystique, only her voice was heard and her shapely legs appeared on camera.[8] About this time, she guest starred on John Cassavetes's NBC detective series Johnny Staccato. In 1960, she guest starred in two episodes, "The O'Mara's Ladies" and "All The O'Mara's Horses", of the William Bendix-Doug McClure NBC western series, Overland Trail. Several months later, she appeared in the first episode, entitled "One Blonde Too Many", of NBC one-season The Tab Hunter Show, a sitcom starring the former teen idol as a bachelor cartoonist. In 1961, Moore appeared in several big parts in movies and on television, including Bourbon Street Beat, 77 Sunset Strip, Surfside Six, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Steve Canyon, Hawaiian Eye, and Lock Up.[citation needed]

In 1961, Carl Reiner cast her in The Dick Van Dyke Show, an acclaimed weekly series based on Reiner's own life and career as a writer for Sid Caesar's television variety show, telling the cast from the outset that it would run no more than five years. The show was produced by Danny Thomas's company, and Thomas himself recommended her. He remembered Mary as "the girl with three names" whom he had turned down earlier.[9] Moore's energetic comic performances as Van Dyke's character's wife, begun at age 24 (hence she was 11 years Van Dyke's junior), made both the actress and her signature tight capri pants extremely popular, and she became internationally famous. When she won an Emmy[10] award for her portrayal of Laura Petrie, she said, "I know this will never happen again." Mary Tyler Moore recently stated on the Rachel Ray Show that she was actually 23 years old when she first starred on the Dick Van Dyke Show. She had told producers that she was 24 due to hearing that initially Dick Van Dyke had stated that she might be too young for the part.

In 1970, after having appeared earlier in a pivotal one-hour musical special called "Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman", Moore and husband Grant Tinker successfully pitched a sitcom centered on Moore to CBS. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a half-hour newsroom sitcom featuring Ed Asner as her gruff boss Lou Grant, a character that would later be spun off into an hour-long dramatic series. The premise of the single working woman's life, alternating during the program between work and home, became a television staple that would often be used in the future.[9][11] After six years of ratings in the top 20,[12] the show slipped to number #39 during its seventh season. Producers argued for its cancellation because of its falling ratings, afraid that the show's legacy might be damaged if it were renewed for another season. To the surprise of the entire cast including Mary Tyler Moore herself, it was announced that they would soon be filming their final episode. After the announcement, the series finished strongly and the final show was the most watched show during the week it aired. The 1977 season would go on to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, to add to the awards it had won in 1975 and 1976. The series had become a touchpoint of the Women's Movement because it was one of the first to show, in a serious way, an independent working woman.[citation needed]

After a brief respite, Moore threw herself into a completely different genre. She attempted two failed variety series in a row: Mary, which featured David Letterman, Michael Keaton, Swoosie Kurtz and Dick Shawn in the supporting cast and lasted three episodes, which was re-tooled as The Mary Tyler Moore Hour, a backstage show within a show, with Mary portraying a TV star putting on a variety show.[12] To arouse curiosity and nostalgic feelings, Dick Van Dyke appeared as her guest, but the program was canceled within three months. About this time, she also made a one-off musical/variety special for CBS, titled Mary's Incredible Dream,[13] which featured John Ritter, among others. It did poorly in the ratings and, according to Moore, was never repeated and will likely never be aired again because of legal problems surrounding the show.[citation needed]

In the 1985–86 season, she returned to CBS in a series titled Mary, which suffered from poor reviews, sagging ratings, and internal strife within the production crew. According to Moore, she asked CBS to pull the show, as she was unhappy with the direction of the program and the producers.[14] She also starred in the short-lived "warmedy", Annie McGuire, in 1988.[15] In the mid-1990s, she had a cameo and a guest starring role as herself on two episodes of Ellen. She subsequently also guest starred on Ellen DeGeneres's next TV show, The Ellen Show, in 2001. In 2004, Moore reunited with her Dick Van Dyke Show castmates for a reunion "episode" called The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited.[16] In August 2005, Moore guest-starred as Christine St. George, a high-strung host of a fictional TV show on three episodes of 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.[citation needed] Moore is set to guest-star in the season 2 premiere of Hot in Cleveland.[17] This will mark the first time since 1977 that actress Betty White and Moore have worked together since The Mary Tyler Moore Show.[18]

Theatre

Moore appeared in several Broadway plays. She starred in Whose Life Is It Anyway with James Naughton, which opened on Broadway at the Royale Theatre on February 24, 1980 and ran for 96 performances, and in Sweet Sue, which opened at the Music Box Theatre (transferred to the Royale Theatre) on Jan. 8, 1988 and ran for 164 performances. She was the star of a new musical version of Breakfast at Tiffany's in December 1966, but the show, titled Holly Golightly, was a notorious flop that closed out-of-town before reaching Broadway. In reviews of performances in Philadelphia and Boston, critics "murdered" the play in which Moore claimed to be singing with bronchial pneumonia.[19] During the 1980s, Moore and her production company produced five plays: Noises Off, The Octette Bridge Club, Joe Egg, Benefactors, and Safe Sex.[citation needed] She appeared in previews of the Neil Simon play Rose's Dilemma at the off-Broadway Manhattan Theatre Club in December 2003 but quit the production after receiving a critical letter from Simon instructing her to "learn your lines or get out of my play".[20] Moore had been using an earpiece on stage to feed her lines to the repeatedly rewritten play.[21]

Movies

Moore made her film debut in 1961's X-15. She subsequently appeared in a string of 1960s films (after signing an exclusive contract with Universal Pictures), including 1967's Thoroughly Modern Millie with Julie Andrews and 1968's What's So Bad About Feeling Good? with George Peppard and Don't Just Stand There!. In 1969, she starred opposite Elvis Presley as a nun in Change of Habit. Moore's future television castmate Ed Asner also appeared in that film (as a cop). After that film's disappointing reviews and reception at the box office, Mary returned to television, and did not appear in another theatrical film for the next eleven years. Moore was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for 1980's Ordinary People. Other feature film credits include Six Weeks, Just Between Friends, Flirting with Disaster, Keys to Tulsa, Labor Pains and Cheats.[citation needed] Moore has appeared in a number of telefilms, such as Like Mother, Like Son, Run a Crooked Mile, Heartsounds, The Gin Game (based on the Broadway play; it reunited her with Dick Van Dyke again), Mary and Rhoda, Lincoln (as Mary Todd Lincoln), Finnegan Begin Again, The Best Year, Miss Lettie and Me, Stolen Babies and Payback.[citation needed]

Author

Moore has written two memoirs. The first, After All, released in 1995, in which she acknowledged that she is an alcoholic (ISBN 10: 0440223032).[22] The next, Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes, was released on April 1, 2009, and focuses on living with type 1 diabetes (St. Martin's Press, ISBN 10: 0312376316).[23]

Personal life

Family

In 1955, aged 18, she married Richard Carlton Meeker[24] whom Mary described as "the boy next door," and within six weeks was pregnant with her only child, Richard Jr. (born July 3, 1956). Coincidentally, he was known as "Richie," which was also the name of her TV son on The Dick Van Dyke Show.[25] Meeker and Moore divorced in 1961.[26] Moore married Grant Tinker, an NBC executive, in 1962, and in 1970 they formed the television production company MTM Enterprises,[27] which created and produced the company's first television series, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Moore and Tinker divorced in 1981.[28] She married Dr. Robert Levine[29] on November 23, 1983 at the Pierre Hotel in New York City.[30] They met when her mother was treated by him in New York on a weekend housecall after returning from a visit to the Pope at the Vatican.[31] In 1980, at the age of 24[29] Mary's son Richie died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, accidentally shooting himself in the head while handling a sawn-off shotgun. The gun was later taken off the market because of its "hair trigger."[32] Just prior to his death, Moore had secured a job for him in the CBS mailroom.

Charity work

Mary Tyler Moore presents the JDRF's Hero's Award to U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, for his role in securing federal funding for type 1 diabetes research, 2003

In addition to her acting work, Moore is the International Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International.[33] In this role, she has used her fame to help raise funds and raise awareness of diabetes mellitus type 1, which she has, almost losing her vision and at least one limb to the disease.

In 2007, in honor of Moore's dedication to the Foundation, JDRF created the "Forever Moore" research initiative which will support JDRF's Academic Research and Development and JDRF's Clinical Development Program. The program works on translating basic research advances into new treatments and technologies for those living with type 1 diabetes.[34]

She also adopted a Golden Retriever puppy from Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue in Hudson, Massachusetts.[35] She is an animal rights activist and promoted her cause on the Ellen DeGeneres sitcom Ellen.[36] She has worked for animal rights for many years.[37] She has worked with Farm Sanctuary to raise awareness about the cruelty of factory farming and to promote the compassionate treatment of farm animals.[38]

She is also a co-founder of Broadway Barks, an annual animal adopt-a-thon held in New York City. Moore and friend Bernadette Peters work to make New York City a no-kill city and to promote adopting animals from shelters.[39]

In honor of her father, George Tyler Moore, who was a life-long American Civil War enthusiast, in 1995 Moore donated funds to acquire an historic structure in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, for Shepherd College (now Shepherd University) to be used as a center for Civil War studies. The center, named the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War is housed in the historic Conrad Shindler house (ca. 1795), which is named in honor of her great-great-great-grandfather, who owned the structure from 1815–52.[40] Moore also contributed to the renovation of the house used as headquarters during 1861–1862 by Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Use of the house had been offered to Jackson by its owner, Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Tilghman Moore, commander of the 4th Virginia Infantry and a great-grandfather of Mary Tyler Moore.[3][41]

Moore supports embryonic stem cell research. When President George W. Bush announced that he would veto the Senate's bill supporting the research, she said, "This is an intelligent human being with a heart, and I don't see how much longer he can deny those aspects of himself."[42]

Honors

File:MplsMTMstatue.jpg
MTM statue

In 1984, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.[43] 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 Macy's) department store, near the corner of 7th Street and Nicollet Mall. It depicts the iconic moment in the show's opening credits where Mary throws her tam o'shanter in the air, in a freeze-frame at the end of the montage.[44]

MTM Enterprises

Main article: MTM Enterprises

Moore also founded MTM Enterprises, Inc. in 1969. This company produced The Mary Tyler Moore Show and several other television shows and films. It also included a record label, MTM Records.[45] MTM Enterprises later produced popular American sitcoms and drama television series such as Rhoda and Phyllis (both spin-offs from The Mary Tyler Moore Show), The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues, and Newhart. It was later sold to Television South, an ITV Franchise holder during the 1980s.

Filmography

Template:Multicol

Television

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1958 Once Upon a Horse... Dance Hall Girl uncredited
1961 X-15 Pamela Stewart
1967 Thoroughly Modern Millie Miss Dorothy Brown
1968 What's So Bad About Feeling Good? Liz
1968 Don't Just Stand There! Martine Randall
1969 Change of Habit Sister Michelle Gallagher Elvis Presley's last nonconcert movie
1980 Ordinary People Beth Jarrett Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1982 Six Weeks Charlotte Dreyfus
1986 Just Between Friends Holly Davis
1996 Flirting with Disaster Pearl Coplin Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress
1996 The Blue Arrow Granny Rose voice
1997 Keys to Tulsa Cynthia Boudreau
1998 Reno Finds Her Mom Herself
2000 Labor Pains Esther Raymond
2002 Cheats Mrs. Stark
2009 Against The Current Mom

References

  1. ^ "Mary Tyler Moore 'recovering nicely' from surgery". Associated Press. Retrieved 2011-05-14.
  2. ^ Somini Sengupta (14 April 1996). "Brooklyn's Girl Next Door?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-03-19.
  3. ^ a b "Ancestry of Mary Tyler Moore". Genealogy.com. 2001-09-27. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  4. ^ "Shapely Legs An Asset". Brooklyneagle.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  5. ^ "Biography, move to California and High School". Tcm.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  6. ^ a b After All (1995 autobiography of Mary Tyler Moore). Putnam, ISBN 0-399-14091-3, p. 61-65
  7. ^ Weiner, Ed (1992). The TV Guide TV Book: 40 Years of the All-Time Greatest Television Facts, Fads, Hits, and History. New York: Harper Collins. p. 100. ISBN 0-06-096914-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ "Mary Tyler Moore's Big Break". Tvguide.com. 2004-05-06. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  9. ^ a b Profile The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved April 3, 2009.
  10. ^ After All, p. 114
  11. ^ "Mary Tyler Moore Biography". Biography.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  12. ^ a b "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" museum.tv. Retrieved April 3, 2009.
  13. ^ After All, p. 190-192
  14. ^ After All, p. 266-267
  15. ^ After All, p. 271-272
  16. ^ Reviewed by Ken Tucker (2004-05-14). "Review:The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited". Ew.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  17. ^ "Mary Tyler Moore to Guest-Star on Hot in Cleveland Season Premiere". TVGuide.com. Retrieved November 2, 2010.
  18. ^ "Mary Tyler Moore to guest star on 'Hot in Cleveland'" from Cleveland.com (November 1, 2010)
  19. ^ "Boston and Philadelphia Critics Broke Mary Tyler Moore's Heart". News.google.com. 1966-12-04. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  20. ^ Gerard, Jeremy (2003-12-22). "Comedy of Manners". Nymag.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  21. ^ "Dust Settled, Neil Simon's Rose's Dilemma Opens Dec. 18 Off-Broadway". Playbill.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  22. ^ After All, p. 278-289
  23. ^ Sessums, Kevin."Mary Tyler Moore's Lifetime of Challenges", parade.com, March 22, 2009
  24. ^ After All, p. 55-65
  25. ^ After All, p. 65
  26. ^ After All, p. 59-95
  27. ^ After All, p. 141-144
  28. ^ "TINKER, GRANT - The Museum of Broadcast Communications". Museum.tv. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  29. ^ a b Beck, Marilyn; Jenel, Stacy (2008-09-08). "Mary Tyler Moore Opens Up on Grief, Alcohol". The National Ledger. Retrieved 2010-05-10.
  30. ^ The New York Times, "Mary Tyler Moore Is Wed", November 24, 1983, p. C 12
  31. ^ Moore, Mary Tyler. Growing Up Again (2009), St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-37631-6, pp. 47–49
  32. ^ After All, p. 237-240
  33. ^ "Board of Directors, JDRF". Jdrf.org. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  34. ^ "Forevermoore". Jdrf.org. 2003-10-28. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  35. ^ Rochelle Lesser, School Psychologist. "News item". Landofpuregold.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  36. ^ www.peta.org (2003-06-20). "Return to Deep Blue Sea Will Be Heaven for Lolly". Peta.org. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  37. ^ Mary Tyler Moore (2001-05-07). (Interview). Interviewed by Larry King http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0507/01/lkl.01.html. Retrieved 2008-03-19. {{cite interview}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |callsign= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help)
  38. ^ "Mary Tyler Moore Using Her Voice and Her Smile to "Turn The World On" to All Animals". The Pet Press. 2002-9. Retrieved 2011-3-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  39. ^ "Bernadette Peters and Mary Tyler Moore's Broadway Barks 10 Sets Summer Date". Playbill.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  40. ^ "The George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War". Shepherd.edu. 1993-11-16. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  41. ^ [photographs posted at Stonewall_Jackson's_Headquarters_Museum, Winchester, VA; statements of museum tour guide | visit date=2009-06-19]
  42. ^ "Senate Passes Embryonic Stem Cell Bill". NewsMax.com. Associated Press. 19 July 2006. Retrieved 2008-03-19.
  43. ^ Past recipients Crystal Award WIF web site
  44. ^ ""TV LAND HONORS MARY TYLER MOORE", prnewswire.com". Prnewswire.com. 2002-03-19. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  45. ^ Kingsbury, Paul (2004). The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Sourcebooks, Inc. p. 359. ISBN 0195176081, 9780195176087. Retrieved 2009-07-31. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)

External links

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