Mary Tyler Moore Passes Away

Mary Tyler Moore, legendary TV actress and Broadway star has died at the age of 80. Mary had been battling diabetes for years, but succumbed earlier today.

Mary was born in Brooklyn in 1936, moving with her family to Los Angles at the age of eight. After graduating from high school, she took the job as ‘Happy Hotpoint’ the merry elf for Hotpoint Appliances. The commercial ran in the wildly popular ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ television series, giving her immediate star recognition.

Mary joined the 60s sitcom, “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” playing Laura Petrie opposite Dick Van Dyke. Her biggest break came in the role of a female TV reporter on the TV series “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” The role was groundbreaking for its time in 1970, as Mary played a strong and independent woman, changing the stereotype of the ‘stay at home mom’ forever.

Her greatest film accomplishment is often thought to have been her role in the movie ‘Ordinary People’ in 1980.

Personally, Mary was a staunch spokesperson for sobriety, having battled alcoholism for most of her adult life. Richard Carleton Meeker, her only child, tragically died of accidental gunshot when he was 24.

Goodbye Mary Tyler Moore – you were one in a million.

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Photo credit: Everett Collection / Shutterstock, Inc.