Last Updated Jan 25, 2017 3:43 PM EST
Mary Tyler Moore, an American actress and TV icon, has died, her publicist confirmed to CBS News. She was 80.
“Today,
beloved icon Mary Tyler Moore passed away at the age of 80 in the
company of friends and her loving husband of over 33 years, Dr. S.
Robert Levine,” Moore’s longtime publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said in a
statement. A groundbreaking actress, producer, and passionate advocate
for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Mary will be remembered
as a fearless visionary who turned the world on with her smile.”
Moore was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 29, 1936. In the 1950s, she began her career in live commercials as Happy Hotpoint.
Her
big break came when Carl Reiner and Danny Thomas cast Moore in her
star-making role as Laurie Petrie, the hip and fun wife of Dick Van
Dyke’s Rob Petrie on “The Dick Van Dyke” show, which ran on CBS from
1961 to 1966.
But Moore was probably best known for her title
role on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” the first American sitcom about a
single, working woman. Also a CBS mainstay, it ran from 1970 to 1977.
She
won seven Emmys over the course of her career, including five for
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, a record she shared with
Candace Bergen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the most wins in that
category.
Moore also found great success in fllm, starring in
1967’s “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and opposite Elvis Presley in 1969’s
“Change of Habit” before the launch of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
Moore was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for
her role as a frosty suburban mom in the 1980 film “Ordinary People,” a
role that came shortly after her own son, Richie, accidentally shot
himself at the age of 24.
Over the course of her career, she also
won a Tony, three Golden Globes and a SAG lifetime achievement award,
and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was the recipient of a Peabody.
Moore
used her celebrity status to raise awareness
about a cause dear to her, juvenile diabetes, and was a tireless
advocate as the international chairperson for the Juvenile Diabetes
Research Foundation, a position she held for over 30 years.
“Mary Tyler Moore was a once-in-a-generation
talent,”
CBS chairman Leslie Moonves said in a statement. “She will be long
remembered as a gifted actress, television pioneer and a role model to
so many. CBS has lost one of the very best to ever grace our airwaves
and our industry has lost a true legend and friend.”
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