In the 1970s, nobody was a bigger TV star than Mary Tyler Moore. But right
at the height of her success, everything came crashing down.
Born in Brooklyn, New York on December 29, 1936, Mary Tyler Moore got her start
in commercials before rising to stardom in 1961 as one of the leads in the hit sitcom
"The Dick Van Dyke Show." But she's best remembered for her groundbreaking 1970's
series "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," which helped redefine the role of women in America.
In 1977, the last episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" aired, closing off a
run that earned the show 29 Emmys, including three for Moore for Best Lead Actress in a
Sitcom. But just as she was about to begin the next chapter of her professional life,
in 1978 she suffered a terrible blow in her personal life when her younger sister
Elizabeth died at the age of 21 of an apparent overdose from ingesting pills and alcohol.
Rumors spread that her sister's death was suicide — a conclusion that was ultimately
reached by the coroner as well. But Moore always maintained that it was an accidental overdose.
Sadly, the loss of her sister was just the first in a series of terrible personal
tragedies. Just two years later, Moore's son, Richard Meeker Jr.,
also died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was just 24 years old.
Mary Tyler Moore married her first husband, Richard Meeker, shortly after graduating high
school in 1955. A year later, just as her acting career was taking off, the couple welcomed Moore's
only child — a boy who was named after her husband but was affectionately known as Richie.
Unfortunately, Moore wouldn't get to spend as much time with her son as she had hoped.
According to The Washington Post, Meeker Jr. was playing with a shotgun on October 24, 1980,
while talking to a roommate. During an attempt to load the gun, it went off and Meeker died.
In the aftermath of his passing, rumors swirled that Meeker Jr's death had been
a suicide. The rumors were fueled in part by an untimely coincidence:
Moore's new movie "Ordinary People," which was about a mother dealing with
grief after her son's death, had opened just three weeks earlier.
Her son's roommates, however, said that Meeker's death had been an accident. Moore wrote in her
autobiography "After All" confirming that her son's death had been accidental. She
also explained in her book that the shotgun he had been holding was later recalled due to
a faulty hair trigger. Moore told CBS in 1995 that she regretted not investing more into her
relationship with her son, as her acting career kept them apart for long periods of his life.
With the deaths of her sister and son, Moore had to deal with significant
emotional distress. Not only that, but she was also struggling through marriage
issues. Before her son died, Moore and her second husband, Grant Tinker,
grew apart and were separated. They would divorce a year after Meeker Jr.'s death.
Moore turned to alcohol. During her youth, she had grown up in a household with a mother who
suffered from alcoholism, and throughout her second marriage to Tinker, she also struggled
with alcohol. Not only was she consuming it on a daily basis, but according to Closer Weekly,
she was also doing the risky combination of taking it with her prescription medication.
In 1984, she sought treatment at the Betty Ford Center,
explaining a year later in an interview with Eileen Prose,
"To me, it was a problem in that I found I could
not stop the degree that I felt was damaging my body."
After the death of her sister, Mary Tyler Moore only had one sibling left — her brother,
John. But in the early '90s, not only was she facing the loss of her only brother,
but she was also tasked with an attempt to help him take his own life.
According to The Los Angeles Times, John Moore experienced alcohol addiction just
like his sister. He died of kidney cancer in 1992 at the age of 47. But prior to his death,
he suffered significantly from his terminal illness and wanted to end his life. Moore
revealed in her memoir "After All" that her brother enlisted her help. He had failed in
a previous suicide attempt via overdose. Moore said that she assisted her brother in a second
attempt by crushing up painkiller medication and mixing it into ice cream that she fed him. The
assisted suicide attempt failed as well, but John ultimately died from cancer three months later.
Moore later spoke to Access Hollywood about the tragedies in her life, saying,
"Death is something that you never get past, you never learn to live with it."
In addition to all the loss, grief, divorces, and addiction Mary Tyler Moore faced throughout
her life, she also dealt with her own personal health issues. She learned that she was diabetic
at the age of 33, not long after marrying her second husband. The chronic illness
meant that she had to dedicate several moments of her day to self-administer her
insulin injections at the same time she was dealing with her growing alcoholism. Still,
she would live with the chronic illness for most of her life, and she even became a
chairwoman for a juvenile diabetes organization in 1984. But as she aged, her health worsened.
The decline began in 2011 when she underwent surgery to remove a benign tumor on the lining
of her brain. The following year, Moore was dealing with other organ conditions,
including heart and kidney issues, which forced the star to cut back on her daily
activities. In 2013, she made a guest appearance on "Hot in Cleveland" for a
"Mary Tyler Moore Show" reunion episode and seemed to struggle with her vision. A year
later it was revealed that she was in the early stages of blindness as a result of her diabetes.
Moore's final days of life came in early 2017 when
she was admitted to a Connecticut hospital. She ultimately passed away on January 25,
2017, and was survived by her last husband, Dr. Robert Levine.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues,
help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).