I always felt sorry for her - yeah, I know she has had a great life in many ways - but I bet her son’s suicide in 1980 haunts her to this day.
That fact of her son’s suicide may be the reason why I haven’t seen Mary T. Moore really smile in decades. She had a naturally big and beautiful smile. That inner mirth has not been seen by me since the Carter Administration.
I recall Mary being onstage about 10 years ago standing next to the older Dick Van Dyck. Dick was his usual jovial hyperactive self, while Mary was stiff, expressionless and perfunctory. A striking contrast.
Add to that, her severe diabetes, I’m surprised she has lasted even this long. So different than the actress who played ‘Rhoda’. That actress held a big press conference last spring, saying she was dying of cancer. That cancer has now gone into remission.
Some folks are content to experience their lives more privately than others. Two different, very talented women.
Always think about her in Ordinary People. IIRC, her son committed suicide shortly after she finished that movie. It also, although it was arguably her best acting job, mostly killed her career. She played such a dark character in that movie that it shattered the Laura Petrie/Mary Richards persona.
Always thought it was ironic that she always played the perfect wife/girlfriend, but was married three times.
Loved her work.
Really? I never knew she lost a son. I’ve long been familiar with Mary Tyler Moore but didn’t know that. I am not a fan of her namesake show, but I loved her in that movie “Ordinary Family.” That film showed her in an entirely new light. Sadly, it dealt with one dead son, grief, another suicidal son, and a disintegrating family. That must’ve been monumentally hard for her!
Given the film was made in 1980, the fact she lost her son that same year makes that film all the more remarkable. Anyone familiar with that film knows the raw emotional acting and her seemingly incomprehensible distance from her actor son were a hallmark of it. Now it takes on a whole new meaning. I’ll bet there wasn’t much “fake” acting in that.