Mary Tyler Moore — Adversities And Sorrows Behind Curtain Of Fame

Dec 06, 2020 by apost team

A pure American gem, Mary Tyler Moore first shot to fame as Laurie Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show. Some might be surprised to learn that the late actor had gone through much hardship behind the scenes as a comedic legend. We're taking a look back at Moore's remarkable career and life, as well as all the struggles she dealt with away from the public eye. 

Born December 29, 1936, Mary Tyler Moore spent her early childhood in Brooklyn, New York, with her parents, George Tyler Moore, a clerk, and Marjorie Hackett, a housewife, and her two younger siblings, John and Elizabeth. At just eight years old, Moore left her native New York at the recommendation of her uncle, who worked at MCA Inc. at the time. Even as a young child, Moore knew she wanted to be a star. 

 "I knew at a very early age what I wanted to do. Some people refer to it as indulging in my instincts and artistic bent. I call it just showing off, which was what I did from about three years of age on," she told Television Academy.

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In 1953, Moore landed her first job in Hollywood – in the mailroom, that is – to support herself as she auditioned for both acting and modeling parts. Two years later, she made her acting debut on the small screen as the dancing "Happy Hotpoint" elf for Hotpoint home appliances ads, which would air during the 50s sitcom, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In that same year, Moore married her "boy-next-door" sweetheart, Richard Carleton Meeker.

"I did expect that this would somehow lead to movies and that I'd be able to do all those wonderful musicals that I'd grown up with," Moore shared. "But I got pregnant."

Now pregnant, it became difficult for Moore to fit in her elf costume, and at the end of her third trimester was forced to end her gig as Happy Hotpoint. She gave birth to her first son, Richard "Richie" Carleton Meeker, in 1956. 

After giving birth, Moore began landing more small TV roles, which she credited to her "beautiful dancer legs," until she was cast as Laurie Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s. The show would prove to be a huge success and shot Moore to fame, even earning her Emmys for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series and one Golden Globe win for Best TV Star - Female. In 1970, she got her very own show: The Mary Tyler Moore Show. While the comedy ended up becoming a huge success, Moore and her producers were terrified the pilot would flop. 

"We did a run-through of the script on a Wednesday night for an audience, and we were counting on the reaction to tell us what we had. And they didn't like it. They didn't laugh at anything," Moore recalled.

After a few script changes, the comedy ended up becoming a big hit, and airing for seven seasons, The Mary Tyler Moore Show became a household classic in American television history. Although her dreams had finally started to come true, Moore admitted the fame and pressure would "scare her." 

In the meantime, Moore married her second husband, Grant Tinker. "We fell in love and committed ourselves to each other." Moore wrote in her memoir, After All, according to People.

While things were looking up for Moore career-wise, tragedies at home meant her life had taken a dark turn. Behind the scenes, the actor struggled with alcohol addiction, just as her mother and sister had. Her deteriorating marriage only worsened her alcohol abuse. "What I didn't see then was how empty the relationship would become," she wrote. 

She divorced Grant in 1980 and moved back to New York with her son when she wrote her addiction took a turn for the worse.

That's when she decided it was time for a change and checked herself into the Betty Ford Center addiction treatment to get herself clean. While she managed to pull herself out of the addiction, she discovered her alcohol consumption had already taken a toll on her health as she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. And then, just months after her divorce, her son Richie died in an accident involving a firearm at age 24. 

In her memoir, Moore reflected on her relationship with her late son while he was still alive, admitting regret for sometimes being too busy for him. "I was responsible for a lot of alienation. There is no question about it. By the time Richie was 5, I had already let him down. When he needed me the most, I was busier and even more self-concerned than I had been when he was an impressionable infant," she wrote. 

In her later life, the actor would star in Broadway shows, sitcoms, and films. Still, she began focusing on activist work as well, becoming an advocate for diabetes awareness, vegetarianism, and animal rights. She married her third husband, Robert Levine, in 1983, with whom she stayed until her death. Moore passed away in 2017, aged 80, following a cardiopulmonary arrest and a bout with pneumonia. 

Did you know of Mary Tyler Moore's struggles behind the scenes? Let us know in the comments, and make sure you pass this along to your friends and family.