Happy 78th Birthday to the Iconic Mary Tyler Moore!
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Seth Poppel/Yearbook Library
Mary Tyler Moore, Freshman Year (1952)
Even as a freshman at Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, Mary Tyler Moore was turning the world on with her smile.
Happy Hotpoint (1953)
When she was 17, Mary started as “Happy Hotpoint” a dancing elf in commercials that aired during Ozzie and Harriet. Every day really is a holiday with Hotpoint!
CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
Laura Petrie, <em>The Dick Van Dyke Show</em> (1961-1966)
Of course, Mary’s real big break came when she was 23 and was cast as Laura Petrie, on The Dick Van Dyke Show. She may have been a little young for Van Dyke (when the show started, he was 34), but it was clear that she was a comic genius, and she has two Emmys to prove it.
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Miss Dorothy Brown, <em>Thoroughly Modern Millie</em> (1967)
After Dick Van Dyke, Mary’s first major film role was in the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. She showed off her dancing chops as Happy Hotpoint, and now she got a chance to show she could sing alongside greats like Julie Andrews and Carol Channing.
Sister Michelle, <em>Change of Habit</em> (1969)
In Change of Habit, Mary played a nun who falls in love with Elvis while trying to clean up the ghetto. This is the actual plot. Can you believe it wasn’t a hit? But since the movie failed, Mary made a very smart decision to return to television.
MTM Enterprises (1969)
The MGM lion roared, but at the start of every MTM Enterprises production, Mimsie the cat purred. Mary was also a smart and successful producer of shows like The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues, and St. Elsewhere.
CBS Photo Archive
Mary Richards, <em>The Mary Tyler Moore Show</em> (1970-1977)
Mary Richards had spunk. But unlike Lou Grant, we love spunk, and we love The Mary Tyler Moore Show. You just have to watch this clip to understand why.
Beth Jarrett, <em>Ordinary People</em> (1980)
Through the 1960s and 70s, Mary sang, danced, and showed that she was a gifted comic actor. But in 1980 she starred in Ordinary People as Timothy Hutton’s emotionally repressed mother and showed she had dramatic chops too. She scored a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination for it.
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Pearl Coplin, <em>Flirting with Disaster</em> (1996)
Mary proved she was still a hot ticket at age 60 (1) when she flashed her breasts in Flirting with Disaster. Even 15 years later, we still can’t get the image out of minds!
<em>Mary and Rhoda</em> (2000)
In 2000, Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern finally reunited for one last adventure. So the movie was kind of dumb, but who cares? It was fun to see the best friends in the history of television back together again!
Click through this amazing Where Are They Now gallery of the cast of Jerry Maguire!
<em>Growing Up Again</em> (2009)
In 2009, Mary released a memoir called, Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes. She has amazing stories and also spoke very frankly about living with diabetes for 40 years. Mary’s a fighter too!
<em>Hot in Cleveland</em> (2011)
It took them long enough, but Mary finally reunited with her Mary Tyler Moore Show co-star Betty White with a cameo on Betty’s show Hot in Cleveland earlier this year. Of course, she played Betty’s cellmate in prison!
