Mary Tyler Moore was born in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn on December 29, 1936, to Irish-Catholic parents. She described her childhood as growing up in “A Brooklyn neighborhood with quiet, tree front yards. Some people had Fords or Hudsons, but everyone took the elevated train … when they traveled to Manhattan to catch live shows or the latest movie and stage show at Radio City Music Hall.�

Mary’s family was neither rich nor poor. As a child, Moore attended St. Rose de Lima Parochial School. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 10 years old.

Mary’s shapely legs were the only part of her anatomy shown on the “Richard Diamond� TV series, (1959) which starred David Jansen. She went on to co-star on the “Dick Van Dyke Show� (1961-’66). Mary achieved even greater acclaim for the Emmy Award-winning “Mary Tyler Moore Show� (1970-’77). Mary Tyler Moore’s TV persona, Mary Richards, was the ideal of a modern, independent midwestern career woman. This show spawned two spin-offs: “Rhoda� and “Phyllis.� Her production company, Mary Tyler Moore (MTM), has produced many popular TV sitcoms, such as “WKRP in Cincinnati,� “Hill Street Blues� and “St. Elsewhere.�

Moore’s small-screen popularity was used to launch a multi-media career on Broadway with Breakfast at Tiffanys (1966). She won a Tony for Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1980).

To launch her career Moore trained as a dancer and became the Happy Hotpoint Pixie in a series of TV commercials in 1955. Small acting roles followed, and she made her film debut in 1961. Among her films are Thoroughly Modern Millie (’67), Change of Habit (’69), Just Between Friends (’86), The Last Best Year (’90) and Flirting with Disaster (’96). She was nominated for an Oscar for Ordinary People (’80). Besides winning Emmys for TV’s “Mary Tyler Moore Show� in 1973, ’74, and ’76, she won one for “First, You Cry� (1978), a biographical drama in which Moore plays breast cancer victim Betty Rollin.

Moore’s personal life has not always been a bed of roses. To start with she is a diabetic. She married two months following her graduation from Immaculate Heart High School and later gave birth to a son, Richard Meeker Jr. Her first marriage foundered, and Richard — her only child — accidentally shot himself to death in October 1980 at the age of 24. In 1978, her sister, Elizabeth Ann, died of a drug overdose at the age of 21. She found more happiness with her marriage to Grant Tinker, an NBC executive with whom she established her production company MTM. In 1983, Moore remarried again, to Dr. Robert Levine in New York.

At the 1996 Welcome Back to Brooklyn celebration, Mary Tyler Moore became a member of Brooklyn’s Royal Family when she was crowned Queen. She has had her place of honor on Brooklyn’s Celebrity Path at Brooklyn Botanic Garden since 1987.

— Vernon Parker

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