Mary Tyler Moore, the pioneering, effervescent star of megahit TV sitcoms throughout the ’60s and ‘70s, died Wednesday in a Connecticut hospital.
Moore was 80, and had been fighting a series of health issues, including diabetes. She died surrounded by her husband and friends, her publicist, Mara Buxbaum, told Page Six.
“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,” her rep 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 had been in grave condition at a Connecticut hospital for weeks leading up to her death. In 2014, it was reported that she was nearly blind due to complications from diabetes.
The Brooklyn and Queens native first came to fame as New Rochelle homemaker Laura Petrie, the wife of Dick Van Dyke in “The Dick Van Dyke Show” on CBS in the 1960s.
But her greatest acclaim came on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” which lasted for seven seasons and produced 168 episodes, also on CBS, in the 1970s.
Moore played Mary Richards, a single career woman — considered a groundbreaking role at the time — working in a Minneapolis TV newsroom.
The show was a hit at a critical time when TV was facing a crossroads.
“College people were pooh-poohing television at that time, saying it was silly, but we got letters from kids,” her “MTM” co-star Gavin MacLeod told Gannett newspapers in a 2015 interview.
“Children watched it. Young women were staying home on Saturday night in their dorms to watch ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show.’ She made quite an impact.”
Moore won seven Emmys in her long career — four for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and two for “Dick Van Dyke.” She was nominated for a 1981 Oscar for her work in “Ordinary People.”
The acting great was born on Dec. 29, 1936, in Brooklyn to utility company clerk George Moore and Marjorie Moore, formerly Hackett.
She was married three times — to childhood sweetheart Richard Meeker, NBC chief Grant Tinker and most recently to cardiologist Dr. Robert Levine.
Moore and Levine got hitched back in 1983.