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 with her smile.
The sources connected to the family said that she died on Wednesday after being hospitalised in Connecticut. It has been further reported that Mary had been on a respirator for more than a week.
Mary, who battled with diabetes and underwent brain surgery in 2011, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1936 and grew up in Los Angeles, and rose to international fame starring on the 1960s sitcom “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” She later starred on the beloved 1970s sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which is one of the first shows to feature a never-married, working woman as its central character. Moore played single, 30-year-old TV news producer Mary Richards.
“I think Mary Tyler Moore has probably had more influence on my career than any other single person or force,” Oprah Winfrey said in a recent PBS documentary celebrating the actress.
“First and foremost Mary was a businesswoman and she ran her series beautifully,” friend and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” director Alan Rafkin recalled in his autobiography. “She was the boss, and although you weren’t always wedded to doing things exactly her way, you never forgot for a second that she was in charge.”
Marry dazzled her way to 7 successful seasons on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” from 1970 to 1977. She earned an Oscar nomination for the best actress after crushing it in the 1980 flick “Ordinary People.”
May she rest in peace!
