“Mary Tyler Moore was a trailblazer.
And above all, funny,” CBS remembered inLove Is All Around.
As a precocious girl who got her startacting inlive commercials in the 1950s, Moore was a born entertainer.
“I love to work.
I love my work, and I can’t imagine life without it,“she once said.
And, of course, brilliantly-crafted comedic timing.
But she didn’t become the woman we know, without struggling with who she was.
it’s possible for you to’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.”
“My problems with my parents were basically communications problems,“Moore recalled in an interview withRolling Stone.
I believe they did the best they could at the time in raising me.
“Moore would later struggle with alcoholism, herself.
She knew she wanted to be a performer by the time she was three.
But her English-major parents also instilled within Moore an appreciation of language.
By 1995, she had come to terms with feeling that she had never attained that goal.
Due to popular ratings, she asked for a raise just $10 more, per show.
It was here, that Moore would hone her comedy chops.
She said, “[It was] like being in college for comedy.
It was just the most creative kind of volcanically creativeatmosphere.”
She would go on towin a Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedyin 1987.
They loved one another, they respected one another, and they got into all kinds of trouble.”
In a country about to undergo tumultuous change, they were seeing themselves.”
They got hitched, and went on to launch their own production company, MTM Enterprises.
But that’s the kind of marriage we have.
It’s been that way from the beginning.”
“We began to spend less time with each other.
That taking-for-granted attitude … began to happen to us.
We didn’t recognize it.
We had many long conversations about it, not knowing how to put it back together again.
They separated for six weeks, later returning to their union.
“It was a really good period … to be able to walk away and come back together.”
A punch in 1 diabetes diagnosis.
But while she may have been privately striving against odds, she never lost her steely determination to achieve.
The Elvis movie really sank her movie career, and sank his movie career.”
She claimed Elvis later said he had slept with all of his leading ladies except one.
“I know who theoneis,” she said with a wink.
“Testing went very poorly with audiences, initially.
They didn’t get it.
Why didn’t she have a husband, why wasn’t she looking for a man?
It was definitely ground-breaking.”
Piece of mind probably comes with aging, maturing, love.”
Her boss answers, “Oh sure!
It has nothing to do with your work.
I have a natural love of other people’s senses of humor.
She also copped to being upbeat, but experiencing more difficult emotions as well.
You’re kind of keeping them at arm’s length.
You’re never allowing them to see you blow up and really get furious.
To see you at what you think is your worst.”
She also admitted that while she adores many people, she had no intimate friends.
I would go to a shrink instead."
She confessed toRolling Stonethat her “clean-cut image” also stunted her professionally.
It’s wonderful … but as an actress, it’s a real killer.
Still, I think it can be done."
And about five minutes later, I’d be in there making it.
“She entered Betty Ford in 1984and remained sober for the rest of her life.
And was shortly thereafter to realize that I was playing myself.”
She continued, “I can’t imagine a pain more all-encompassing than losing a child.
I didn’t invest enough [in Richie], as I look back.”
I’m the last one.
And that’s sad,“she said, citing her reasoning behind writing her 1995 memoirAfter All.
Levine was also instrumental in supporting Moore in not only overcoming her alcoholism, but managing her diabetes.
Also according toPeople, he was by her side when she died.
Then, the business-minded go-getter side of the actress.
I like to be challenged.
Comparing herself to her character Mary Richards,she said, “I’m not so different from her.
We’re earnest, we mean well, and we have a good sense of humor.
But, I’m a little more insecure and fearful.
A little paranoid sometimes.
“InRolling Stone, Moore admitted, “You know what I’m working on?
Learning to like myself.”
2017: She leaves us smiling
She was charmingly perfect in her flaws.
“She was the women’s movement for me.
She left a profound legacy.
Instead of marriage and family, Moore championed friendship and perseverance.”
AsThe Mary Tyler Moore Show’sMary Richards once said, “I feel I represent women everywhere.
