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↑ Film Passengers Profit? Sony’s sci-fi saga is coming up short p. 16 Books Obama’s Memoir Will the ex-president score a $20 million advance? p. 18 Cheryl Boone Isaacs (left) & Dawn Hudson The Academy leaders can breathe a sigh of relief as a diverse group of Oscar nominees (including seven people of color in the acting categories) puts an end (for now) to #OscarsSoWhite. Sacha Baron Cohen The Borat star’s highly anticipated Amazon series Highston is scrapped abruptly more than a year after it was ordered. M. Night Shyamalan The director’s $10 millionbudgeted Split opens to a huge $40 million weekend in another bid (after 2015’s The Visit) to return to his early career box-office highs. Stacey Dash The Clueless actress and controversial commentator is let go by Fox News…
Mary Tyler Moore, who died Jan. 25 of complications from pneumonia at age 80, got her big career break in 1961, when she was cast as Dick Van Dyke’s wife, Laura, on The Dick Van Dyke Show. She went on to win seven Emmys and redefine the image of women on television in Mary Tyler Moore. Here, Van Dyke remembers his friend of six decades. She was 23 years old, gorgeous, of course, and had a kind of mid- Atlantic accent. She sounded a little bit like Katharine Hepburn. My first question was, “Can this girl do comedy?” After that I said, “She’s a little young for me.” I got to be on hand and watch her grow into the talent she became. She was just the best. I don’t…
1945 Moves from Boston to Los Angeles at age 8 and scores her first role at 17 as Happy Hotpoint, the Hotpoint Appliance elf, in commercials. 1961-66 Carl Reiner casts Moore in The Dick Van Dyke Show as suburban stay-at-home mom Laura Petrie, for which she won her first of seven Emmys. 1969 Moore and husband Grant Tinker found MTM Enterprises, which would produce The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati and St. Elsewhere. 1970-77 Plays iconic Mary Richards — a hard-luck loser in love who works at a local TV station — on CBS’ Mary Tyler Moore. 1977 Mary Tyler Moore wins its third consecutive Emmy for outstanding comedy series before signing off. 1980 Scores an Oscar nomination for her performance as an icy mother in Robert Redford’s best…
Mary Tyler Moore was an empowering, iconic, fearless woman and actor. When I first met her for the role of the mother in Flirting With Disaster, it was December 1994 at the bar of the Essex Hotel on Central Park South. She was one of the first cultural icons I met and here she was, about to cross over from that person I knew on a TV show to an actual person in front of me. I thought there was no chance of this all-American woman playing an ethnic, hottempered, hot-blooded, talkative New York mother. When she showed up, she was the character. Her hair was red, not brown, and cropped short. She wore a tight hunter-green dress. She was fearless and fierce and played the role right there before…
She was a prodigious worker. She never stopped concentrating on the goal at hand, which was making a good scene, a good moment. And she was always generous with everyone around her. She was not a camera hog. All the episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore show were winners, but one of my favorites was “Lou Dates Mary.” I always thought my character, Lou, would finally make Mary his heartthrob. And the producers finally gave us our chance. In the episode, Lou and Mary go on a date and they kiss, but they end up laughing. Close, but no cigar. The characters remain good friends. It was nicely engineered. She was tremendously talented and funny and beautiful. She has no rivals, as far as I’m concerned. She knew how to…
She came to us [on The Dick Van Dyke Show] as a complete novice, but she learned so quickly, and she became one of the best. She used to tell me that she was learning a lot from Morey [Amsterdam] and me about comedy and timing and everything. We would tease her. I remember when she came into rehearsal and said, “I’m gonna have a show of my own one day, and it’s gonna be called Mary Tyler Moore, and I’m gonna have a kitty cat,” and we all laughed and said, “Let’s hope that this show is a success first.” The last time I saw her, I think, was when we did a 2004 reunion, but I kept in touch with her — we talked every once in a…
