Muck like 2016 closed with 2 legends leaving the world, 2017 picks up where last year left off as another legend leaves us. Mary Tyler Moore, the legendary actress who was international chairwoman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF) and whose self-titled show won 29 Emmy Awards, has died. According to her publicist, Mara Bixbaum, Moore died surrounded by her friends and her husband of 33 years, Dr. S. Robert Levine. Throughout the day Wednesday, Moore had been listed in grave condition at a Connecticut hospital. She was pronounced dead just before 3 in the afternoon.
A career to remember
Moore's illustrious career began at the age of 17 when she began to pursue dance. She got her first role in the "Happy Hotpoint" commercial series, where she played a dancing elf for Hotpoint appliances. Her first major role came opposite another legend -- Dick Van Dyke -- in "The Dick Van Dyke Show." When she won her first Emmy Award, Moore thought something like that would never happen again.
She spoke too soon because she scored another Emmy a few years later for her own self-titled show. "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" became so popular that it spawned multiple spin-offs. After her show ended in 1977, Moore founded MTM Enterprises, which spawned shows like dramas "Hill Street Blues" and "St.
Elsewhere," sitcoms "WKRP In Cincinnati," "The Bob Newhart Show," and the Family Channel (now Freeform) game show "Shopping Spree." "St. Elsewhere" was the most successful out of the MTM Enterprises shows, garnering 106 award nominations, including 62 Primetime Emmy Award Nominations, winning 13 of them. The show also won a Peabody Award, a People's Choice Award, and 5 Golden Globe Award nominations.
Activism
After being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of 33, Moore became international chairwoman of the JDRF, an organization that raises funds to aid in the research to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes. In addition to her diabetes activism, she, like former "Price Is Right" host Bob Barker and "Golden Girls" star Betty White, is a noted animal rights advocate.
Mary Tyler Moore was 80-years-old.
