Screen Actors Guild to honour Mary Tyler Moore

Looks like she made it after all…

US actress Mary Tyler Moore will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the Screen Actors Guild in January.

Moore, 74, will be presented with the award at the SAGs in recognition of her work, much of which has been confined to the small screen.

A Seven-time Emmy Awards winner, Moore first found fame at age 23 when she was cast as Laura Petrie, the wife of comedian Dick Van Dyke in his 1960s sitcom, The Dick Van Dyke Show.

She went on to develop and star in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, playing independent, single, career woman Mary Richards in a workplace comedy set at a local TV news station. It was a role and a show that would personify the rise of the women’s movement in the 1970s.

Moore was also Oscar nominated for her performance in the 1980 movie Ordinary People. She also appeared in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Change of Habit, What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?, plus telemovies ), Mary and Rhoda, Finnegan Begin Again.

“Mary Tyler Moore won our hearts as Laura Petrie and Mary Richards; our respect as her production company became synonymous with quality television; our awe as she tackled difficult subject matter in film and on Broadway; and our admiration as she turned her public recognition into a catalyst to draw attention to critical and deeply personal health and social issues,” said Screen Actors Guild national president Ken Howard.

Moore was diagnosed with diabetes at age 33 and has been International Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. In May, she underwent elective surgery to remove a benign tumour in the lining tissue of her brain. She recently appeared on Hot in Cleveland alongside former castmate Betty White.

Moore said of the honour: “I was surprised. At first I didn’t understand what they were saying to me and I thought I was getting the Miss Congeniality Award.

“And I think I still have much more lifetime to come,” she said. “So I’m not going to say that this is the top of it. Though it’s very nice.”

Source: ABC, Hollywood Reporter