Mary Tyler Moore, TV and Comedy Icon, Dies at 80
Mary Tyler Moore, star of The Dick Van Dyke Show and her own television sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died after being in “grave condition” at a Connecticut hospital. The actress 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 representative Mara Buxbaum told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. The actress had suffered from diabetes for a long time, and also recently had brain surgery to remove a tumor in 2012. TMZ learned about Moore’s condition this morning, and also reported that her family members had been coming to the hospital to say goodbye. A source for the publication said that Moore was on a respirator for at least a week.
Moore starred alongside Van Dyke as a suburban stay-at-home mom, and then switched gears for her own show to play a single woman who gets a job as a broadcaster and goes on tons of lackluster but hilarious dates. Her independent single female character Mary Richards made Moore an icon for the feminist movement in the 1970s. She won six Emmy Awards and was nominated for an Oscar in 1980 for her role as an icy, estranged mother in Robert Redford’s Ordinary People.
Moore was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1986. She is survived by her husband Dr. S. Robert Levine.