US actress Mary Tyler Moore dies aged 80

Moore was with friends and family when she died on Wednesday

US Emmy award-winning actress Mary Tyler Moore has died aged 80, her publicist says. She was best known for her television roles in the 1960s sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show and the eponymous The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970s. 

She was also nominated for a best actress Oscar in 1980 for the film Ordinary People. 

Mara Buxbaum said in a statement she died in the company of friends and her husband, Dr S. Robert Levine.

She had suffered from diabetes since her 30s and underwent brain surgery in 2011.

'Changed television'

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Moore moved to Los Angeles when she was eight years old and started her career in show business as a dancer aged 17. 

Her first appearance was in a Hotpoint advert in the 1950s, dressed as an elf. 

But her parts grew in size during that decade, before she landed the role of wife Laura Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show in 1961. 

Later, she starred as TV producer Mary Richards in her self-titled sitcom. Running for seven seasons from 1970 to 1977, it was named by Time Magazine as one of 17 shows that "changed television". 

Moore played Van Dyke's wife in their sitcom for five years

Moore emerged onscreen at a time when women in leading roles were traditional housewife characters.

But with her modern trousers and Jackie Kennedy-style hair, and playing a single woman, living on her own and chasing a career, she challenged that stereotype in front of millions of viewers. 

Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker created and produced the show and a number of spin-offs, as well as other hits programmes, including Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere and Remington Steele.

TV host Oprah Winfrey described Moore as one of her early inspirations, saying she watched her show every week as a child.

"I wanted to be Mary," she said. "I wanted to live where Mary lived."

Tributes have begun pouring in for the American actress who turned 80 in December

Actor Stephen Fry, who was rehearsing on the Hollywood stage made famous by Moore's show, tweeted: 

"A minute's silence as we remembered one of the true greats of TV comedy." 

Film director Kevin Smith praised her campaign work, tweeting: "TV [and] film star, tireless defender of animals, and scourge of diabetes. Truly she turned the world on with her smile."

And Matt Sharp, founding member of rock band Weezer, who mentioned the actress in their hit song Buddy Holly, tweeted: "Never met her, but Mary Tyler Moore sent each one of us… a signed pic at Buddy Holly's peak. It was as sweet, as it was surreal." 

BBC