Television actress Mary Tyler Moore is dead at the age of 80.
What do we know about her passing?
According to reports, she had been hospitalized in Greenwich, Connecticut. The actress’ publicist, Mara Buxbaum, confirmed her passing in a released statement. At the time of her passing, Moore had been on a respirator for about a week within the hospital. The cause of death is currently unknown. Her official date of death is January 25, 2017.
Moore was said to have been surrounded by family and friends at the time of her passing. She is survived by her third husband, Dr.
S. Robert Levine, who reports indicate was at her side at the time of her passing. Moore's only child, Richard Meeker Jr., with whom she had with her ex-husband Richard Carleton Meeker, died in 1980 at the age of 24 due to an accidental gun mishap.
Moore was a star on both sides of the camera
For many, the actress' big break in the entertainment industry was the role of Laurie Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," where her character was the wife of Van Dyke's character of Rob Petrie. The series ran from 1961 to 1966.
However, Moore was best known for her own show, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," which was one of the first American television sitcoms to focus on a single, working woman. Lasting in its original run from 1970 to 1977, Moore played the character of Mary Richards, who worked as an associate producer for a Minneapolis television station.
With the series garnering 29 Emmys in total, Moore herself won seven Emmy awards over the course of her career in show business, which includes five for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy series.
In addition to her work on camera, she also established her namesake company, MTM Enterprises with her husband at the time, Grant Tinkler producing the series.
In addition to the show and its various spin-offs, the company produced shows and television movies well into the 1990's.
She also found work in feature films, such as 1967’s “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” opposite Julie Andrews. She was also nominated for an Oscar in 1981 for "Ordinary People." In addition to her work within the entertainment industry, she was also a spokesperson for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
