Moore was born in theBrooklyn Heights neighborhood in New York City, in 1936 to Marjorie (née Hackett) and George Tyler Moore. Her father was a clerk. The family was ofIrish Catholic descent.[13][14][15] They lived inFlatbush for a time and later moved toFlushing, Queens.
Moore was the oldest of three children, with a younger brother John and a younger sister Elizabeth. Moore's paternal great-grandfather, Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Tilghman Moore, owned the house that is now theStonewall Jackson's Headquarters Museum inWinchester, Virginia.[16]
When Moore was eight years old, the family relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1945, at the recommendation of her uncle, an employee ofMCA.[17] She was raisedCatholic[18] and attended St. Rose of Lima Parochial School in Brooklyn until the third grade. In Los Angeles, Moore attended Saint Ambrose School andImmaculate Heart High School in theLos Feliz neighborhood.[19][20]
Moore's sister Elizabeth died at age 21 "from a combination of... painkillers and alcohol." Her brother died at the age of 47 fromkidney cancer.[21]
Moore's television career began in 1955 with a job as "Happy Hotpoint", a tiny elf dancing onHotpoint home appliances in TV commercials that ran during breaks onThe Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.[22] After appearing in 39 Hotpoint commercials in five days, she received approximately $6,000 (equivalent to $57,000 in 2024).[23][24] She became pregnant while still working as "Happy", and Hotpoint ended her work when it became too difficult to conceal her pregnancy with the elf costume.[22]
Moore was an uncredited[25] photographic model for record album covers,[26][27] many for theTops Records label,[28] and auditioned for the role of the elder daughter ofDanny Thomas for hislong-running TV show, but was turned down.[29][30] Much later, Thomas explained that "she missed it by a nose... no daughter of mine could ever have a nose that small".[30]
Moore's first regular television role was as 'Sam' a mysterious and glamorous telephone switchboard operator/receptionist in the seriesRichard Diamond, Private Detective withDavid Janssen. Sam's sultry voice was heard talking to Richard Diamond from her switchboard; however, only her legs and occasionally her hands appeared on camera—never her face, adding to the character's mystique.[31] After creating a minor sensation by appearing as Sam in 12 episodes ofRichard Diamond as an uncredited player, Moore asked for a raise—and was promptly fired by the show's producers and replaced by Roxane Brooks in the role. However, Moore was able to parlay the publicity from 'revealing' Sam's identity to the press into several flattering articles and profiles, giving her career a boost.
In 1961,Carl Reiner cast Moore inThe Dick Van Dyke Show, a weekly series based on Reiner's own life and career as a writer forSid Caesar's television variety showYour Show of Shows, telling the cast from the outset that it would run for no more than five years. The show was produced byDanny Thomas's company, and Thomas himself recommended her. He remembered Moore as "the girl with three names" whom he had turned down earlier.[32]
Moore's energetic comic performances as Van Dyke's character's wife, begun at age 24 (eleven years Van Dyke's junior), made both the actress and her signature fittedcapri pants popular, and she became internationally known. When she won her firstEmmy Award for her portrayal of Laura Petrie,[33] she said, "I know this will never happen again."[34] As Laura Petrie, Moore often wore styles that recalled the fashion ofJackie Kennedy, such as capri pants, echoing an ideal of the Kennedy administration'sCamelot.[35]
In 1970, after performing in the one-hour musical specialDick Van Dyke and the Other Woman, Moore and husbandGrant Tinker successfully pitched a sitcom that centered on Moore toCBS.The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a half-hour newsroom sitcom featuringEd Asner as her gruff bossLou Grant.The Mary Tyler Moore Show bridged aspects of theWomen's Movement with mainstream culture by portraying an independent woman whose life focused on her professional career rather than marriage and family.[36][1]
The show marked the first big hit for film and television producerJames L. Brooks, who would also do more work for Moore and Tinker's production company.[37] Moore's show proved so popular that three regular characters,Valerie Harper asRhoda Morgenstern,Cloris Leachman asPhyllis Lindstrom, andEd Asner asLou Grant spun off into their own three separate series playing the same characters, albeit withLou Grant being an hour-long drama instead of a half-hour sitcom.
The premise of the single working woman's life, alternating during the program between work and home, became a television staple.[32][38]
After six years of ratings in the top 20,[39] the show slipped to number 39 in season seven.[40] Producers decided that the show should end, afraid that the show's legacy might be damaged if it were renewed for another season.[40] Despite the decline in ratings, the 1977 season won its third straightEmmy Award for Outstanding Comedy.[41] Over seven seasons, the program won 29 Emmys and Moore won three awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy.[42] The record was unbroken until 2002, when theNBC sitcomFrasier won its 30th Emmy.[42]
On January 22, 1976, while season six ofThe Mary Tyler Moore Show was in progress, Moore appeared inMary's Incredible Dream, an experimental musical/variety special for CBS,[43] and which also featuredBen Vereen. She described it as "a totally different concept from anything ever attempted on television... We go from song to dance to song and back again, telling a story of the eternal cycle of man. If viewers don't want to follow the story, they can just enjoy the music and dancing."[44] In 1978, she starred in a second CBS special,How to Survive the '70s and Maybe Even Bump Into Happiness, where she received significant support from a strong lineup of guest stars:Bill Bixby,John Ritter,Harvey Korman and Dick Van Dyke. In the 1978–79 season, Moore also starred in two unsuccessful CBS variety series. The first,Mary, featuredDavid Letterman,Michael Keaton,Swoosie Kurtz andDick Shawn in the supporting cast. After CBS canceled that series, it brought Moore back in March 1979 in a new, retooled show,The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. Described as a "sit-var" (part situation comedy/part variety series), it had Moore portraying a TV star putting on a variety show.[39] The program lasted just 11 episodes.[45]
In the 1985–86 season, Moore returned to CBS in a sitcom titledMary, which suffered from poor reviews, sagging ratings, and strife within the production crew. Moore said she asked network to pull the show because she was unhappy with the direction and production.[46] Moore also starred in the short-livedAnnie McGuire in 1988.[47] In 1995, after another lengthy break from TV series work, Moore was cast as tough, unsympathetic newspaper owner Louise "the Dragon" Felcott on the CBS dramaNew York News, the third series in which her character was involved in the news media.[48] Moore was disappointed with the writing of her character and was negotiating with producers to get out of her contract for the series when it was canceled.[49]
In 2006, Moore guest-starred as Christine St. George, the high-strung host of a fictional TV show, in three episodes of theFox sitcomThat '70s Show.[51] Moore's scenes were shot on the same sound stage whereThe Mary Tyler Moore Show was filmed in the 1970s.[51] She made a guest appearance on the season two premiere ofHot in Cleveland, which starred her former co-starBetty White.[52] It marked the first time that White and Moore had worked together sinceThe Mary Tyler Moore Show ended in 1977.[53] In the fall of 2013, Moore reprised her role onHot in Cleveland in a season four episode that reunited Moore and White with formerMary Tyler Moore Show cast membersCloris Leachman,Valerie Harper andGeorgia Engel. The reunion coincided with Harper's public announcement that she had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and was given only a few months to live.[54]
Moore appeared in severalBroadway plays. She was the star of a new musical version ofBreakfast at Tiffany's in December 1966, but the show, titledHolly Golightly, was a flop that closed in previews before opening on Broadway. In reviews of performances in Philadelphia and Boston, critics "murdered" the play in which Moore claimed to be singing with bronchial pneumonia.[55]
She starred in a gender-reversed revival ofWhose Life Is It Anyway? withJames Naughton, which opened on Broadway at theRoyale Theatre on February 24, 1980, and ran for 96 performances, and inSweet Sue, which opened at theMusic Box Theatre on January 8, 1987, later transferred to the Royale Theatre, and ran for 164 performances.
Moore appeared in previews of theNeil Simon playRose's Dilemma at the off-BroadwayManhattan 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".[57] Moore had been using an earpiece on stage to feed her lines to the repeatedly rewritten play.[58]
Moore wrote two memoirs. In the first,After All, published in 1995, she acknowledged being a recovering alcoholic,[69] while inGrowing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes (2009), she focuses on living withtype 1 diabetes.[70]
At age 18 in 1955, Moore married her next-door neighbor, 28-year-old cranberry juice salesman Richard Meeker,[75] and within six weeks she was pregnant with her only child, Richard Carleton Meeker Jr., born on July 3, 1956.[76] Meeker and Moore divorced in 1962.[77] Later that year, Moore marriedGrant Tinker, aCBS executive and later chairman of NBC, and in 1969 they formed the television production companyMTM Enterprises,[78] which created and produced the company's first television series,The Mary Tyler Moore Show. After a 1973 breakup and patch-up, Moore and Tinker announced a permanent separation in 1979[79] and divorced two years later.[80][81] In the early 1980s, Moore datedSteve Martin[82] andWarren Beatty.[83] Another relationship, withMichael Lindsay-Hogg,[84] ended when she wanted to be exclusive and he did not.[85]
On October 14, 1980, Moore's son Richard died of an accidental gunshot to the head while handling a small.410 shotgun. He was 24 years old.[86][87] The same model was later taken off the market because of its "hair trigger".[88] Three and a half weeks earlier,Ordinary People had been released where she played a mother who was grieving over the accidental death of her son.
A 47-year-old Moore married 29-year-old cardiologist Robert Levine on November 23, 1983, at thePierre Hotel in New York City.[89][90] They met in 1982 when he treated Moore's mother in New York City on a weekend house call, after Moore and her mother returned from a visit to the Vatican where they had a personal audience withPope John Paul II.[91] Moore and Levine remained married for 34 years until her death in 2017.[92]
Moore was analcoholic much of her life but quit drinking in 1984 when she admitted herself into theBetty Ford Center.[93][94][87] One year after getting sober, she quit her three-pack-a-day cigarette habit.[95]
Moore was diagnosed withtype 1 diabetes in 1969.[96] In 2011, she had surgery to remove ameningioma, a benign brain tumor.[97] In 2014, friends reported that Moore had heart and kidney problems and was nearly blind from complications related to diabetes.[98]
In addition to her acting work, Moore was the International Chairperson ofJDRF (the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).[102] In this role, she used her celebrity status to help raise funds and awareness ofdiabetes mellitus type 1.
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.[103]
Moore advocated for animal rights for years and supported charities like theASPCA andFarm Sanctuary.[104] She helped raise awareness aboutfactory farming methods and promoted more compassionate treatment of farm animals.[105]
Moore appeared as herself in 1996 on an episode of theEllen DeGeneres sitcomEllen. The storyline of the episode includes Moore honoring Ellen for trying to save a 65-year-old lobster from being eaten at a seafood restaurant.[106] She was also a co-founder ofBroadway Barks, an annual animal adopt-a-thon held in New York City. Moore and friendBernadette Peters worked to make it ano-kill city and to encourage adopting animals from shelters.[107]
During the 1960s and 1970s, Moore had a reputation as aliberal or moderate, although she endorsed PresidentRichard Nixon for re-election in1972.[109] She endorsed PresidentJimmy Carter for re-election in a1980 campaign television ad.[110] In 2011, her friend and former co-starEd Asner said during an interview onThe O'Reilly Factor that Moore "has become much moreconservative of late";Bill O'Reilly, host of that program, stated that Moore had been a viewer of his show and that her political views had leaned conservative in recent years.[111] In aParade magazine article from March 22, 2009, Moore identified herself as a libertarian centrist who watchedFox News. She stated: "when one looks at what's happened to television, there are so few shows that interest me. I do watch a lot of Fox News. I likeCharles Krauthammer and Bill O'Reilly... IfMcCain had asked me to campaign for him, I would have."[112]
In an interview for the 2013PBS seriesPioneers of Television, Moore said that she was recruited to join the feminist movement of the 1970s byGloria Steinem, but did not agree with Steinem's views. Moore said she believed that women have an important role in raising children and that she did not believe in Steinem's view that all women owe it to themselves to have a career.[113]
Moore received a total of six Emmy Awards, including two for her portrayal of Laura Petrie onThe Dick Van Dyke Show and three for portraying Mary Richards onThe Mary Tyler Moore Show. In 1993 she won an Emmy for her portrayal of Georgia Tann in theLifetime made-for-TV filmStolen Babies.[117]
On May 8, 2002, Moore was present when cable networkTV Land and the City of Minneapolis dedicated a statue in downtownMinneapolis of Mary Richards, her character inThe Mary Tyler Moore Show. The statue, by artistGwendolyn Gillen, was chosen from designs submitted by 21 sculptors.[124] The bronze sculpture was located in front of theDayton's department store, laterMacy's, near the corner of 7th Street South andNicollet Mall. It depicts the iconic moment in the show's opening credits where Moore tosses hertam o' shanter in the air, in a freeze-frame at the end of the montage.[125][126] While Dayton's is clearly seen in the opening sequence, the store in the background of the hat toss is actuallyDonaldson's, which was, like Dayton's, a locally based department store with a long history at 7th and Nicollet. In late 2015, the statue was relocated to the city's visitor center during renovations, and was reinstalled in its original location in 2017.[127]
Moore was awarded the 2011Screen Actors Guild's lifetime achievement award.[128][129] In New York City in 2012, Moore andBernadette Peters were honored by theRide of Fame and a double-decker bus was dedicated to them and their charity work on behalf of "Broadway Barks", which the duo co-founded.[130][131]
^Edelman, R.; Kupferberg, A. (2002).Matthau: A Life. G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Taylor Trade Publishing. p. 95.ISBN9780878332748.
Harvey Fierstein / Marco Paguia, David Oquendo, Renesito Avich, Gustavo Schartz, Javier Días, Román Diaz, Mauricio Herrera, Jesus Ricardo, Eddie Venegas, Hery Paz, and Leonardo Reyna / Jamie Harrison, Chris Fisher, Gary Beestone, and Edward Pierce (2025)
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