Stage and Screen Legend Mary Tyler Moore Dies at 80

Beloved stage and screen icon Mary Tyler Moore has died at the age of 80. Her death was confirmed to the Associated Press by her publicist. Though Moore is most known for her Emmy and Golden Globe-winning performances on The Mary Tyler Moore Show—the first series to center around a single career woman—and The Dick Van Dyke Show, she was also an active member of the theater community throughout her career as an actress, producer and animal rights activist.

In 1980, Moore won a Special Tony Award for her performance in Brian Clark’s Whose Life Is It Anyway?, in which she took on the originally male role of Ken (renamed Claire). She co-hosted that year’s ceremony with Jason Robards.

Moore and Bernadette Peters co-founded Broadway Barks, an annual charity event that promotes the adoption of shelter animals in New York. The “adopt-a-thon” takes place every July in Shubert Alley, where Broadway favorites assemble to showcase dogs and cats up for adoption.

She was set to make her official Broadway debut in 1966 as the star of a musical adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, though the show closed in previews following out-of-town tryouts in Philadelphia and Boston. Though her stage musical career never took off, she immediately followed up the flop by appearing opposite Julie Andrews in the movie musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. 

Moore last appeared on Broadway as one-half of the title character in Sweet Sue (sharing the role with Lynn Redgrave) in 1987. That same year, she produced the Broadway premiere of Harvey Fierstein’s Safe Sex. Her additional producing credits through MTM Enterprises included Benefactors, Joe Egg, The Octette Bridge Club and Noises Off.

Following The Mary Tyler Moore Show, its spinoff Rhoda and The Mary Tyler Moore Hour (in which she again played a fictional Mary), Moore starred in the 1980 movie Ordinary People, about a mother coping with the loss of her oldest son. She earned an Oscar nomination for her performance. In 1993, she won an Emmy for the Lifetime movie Stolen Babies. Her more recent screen appearances include guest stints on Hot in Cleveland, Lipstick Jungle and That ‘70s Show.

Moore is survived by her husband, Dr. Robert Levine.