Mary Tyler Moore news buzz

Name: Mary Tyler Moore

Born: December 29, 1936 (age 75)

Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

Occupation: Actress

Years active: 1958–present

Spouse: Dick Meeker (m. 1955–1961) 

Grant Tinker (m. 1962–1981) 

Robert Levine (m. 1983)

Mary Tyler Moore was born in the Brooklyn Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, of Irish and English descent, to George Tyler Moore, a clerk, and his wife Marjorie Hackett. Her father was Roman Catholic and her mother a Catholic convert. Mary was the eldest of three siblings.[4] Her maternal grandparents were immigrants from England. Her paternal great-grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Tilghman Moore, owned the house which is now Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters Museum.[5] Moore's family moved to Los Angeles when she was eight years old. She attended Saint Rose of Lima, a Catholic school in Brooklyn, followed by St. Ambrose School (Los Angeles) and the Immaculate Heart High School.

At the age of 17, Moore aspired to be a dancer. She started her career as "Happy Hotpoint", a tiny elf dancing on Hotpoint appliances in TV commercials during the 1950s series Ozzie and Harriet.[8] She appeared in 39 TV commercials in five days, ultimately earning about $6,000 from her first job.[9] Her time as "Happy Hotpoint" ended when it became difficult to conceal her pregnancy in the dancing elf costume.[8] Moore modeled anonymously on the covers of a number of record albums and auditioned for the role of the older daughter of Danny Thomas for his long-running TV show, but was turned down. Much later, Thomas explained that "no daughter of mine could have that [little] nose."

Moore's first regular television role was as a mysterious and glamorous telephone receptionist on Richard Diamond, Private Detective. To add to the mystique, only her voice was heard and her shapely legs appeared on camera.[10] About this time, she guest-starred on John Cassavetes's NBC detective series Johnny Staccato. In 1960, she guest starred in two episodes, "The O'Mara's Ladies" and "All The O'Mara's Horses", of the William Bendix-Doug McClure NBC western series, Overland Trail. Several months later, she appeared in the first episode, entitled "One Blonde Too Many", of NBC's one-season The Tab Hunter Show, a sitcom starring the former teen idol as a bachelor cartoonist.