From childhood on, Moore wanted to be a dancer and in one of her first gigs, she was--'Happy Hotpoint', a dancing elf in an appliance commercial. She landed the role of Sam the switchboard operator in "Richard Diamond, Private Eye" (1959) where she was heard but not seen, except for her remarkable legs. Feeling unchallenged, Moore quit. Guest appearances on series followed before she was cast in one of TV's now classic sitcoms, "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961-66). Reportedly, she was cast when producer Danny Thomas recalled her from an earlier audition to play his daughter on his series.

Moore's portrayal of the quintessential suburban housewife and mother, Laura Petrie, brought her to stardom. Only 23 at the time, she brought believability and maturity to the role. And Moore was the perfect foil for Van Dyke, matching him as a comedic equal. The chemistry between the two was palpable and they believably portrayed a married couple. When Van Dyke decided to quit the show after five years, Moore felt poised to capitalize on her newfound fame. Determined to return to dance, her first love, Moore was cast opposite Richard Chamberlain in the ill-fated stage musical adaptation of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1966).

Moore had made an inauspicious feature debut in the forgettable drama "X-15" (1961) in which she was the wife of an astronaut. There was much anticipation about her 1967 musical vehicle, the lavish Ross Hunter-produced 1920s musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in which she was cast opposite Julie Andrews, Carol Channing and Beatrice Lillie. Portraying a rather prototypical innocent who falls into the hands of white-slavers, Moore was essentially wasted, upstaged by her co-stars.

With her film and stage careers stalled, Moore returned to TV, co-starring with Dick Van Dyke in a variety special for CBS in 1969. Buoyed by the success of that special, CBS offered Moore a sitcom to which she agreed on the condition that she and her then husband Grant Tinker would maintain overall responsibility for the series. The couple formed MTM Productions and set about assembling the writers, producers, directors and cast of what became one of the most popular sitcoms of the 70s and a certified TV classic, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". Drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, including "The Dick Van Dyke Show", the new series depicted the leading character's home and work life. But what set it apart was its groundbreaking premise: portraying the life of an unmarried, thirtyish female--Mary Richards. On other comedies, the woman was a widow ("Julia") or had a steady boyfriend ("That Girl"); Moore's show was the first to depict a single-by-choice woman (with the implication that she was sexually active as well!). Blessed with a supporting cast that portrayed seemingly typical characters (the daffy landlady, the gruff boss, the best friend) who later revealed hidden depths and distinct personalities, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" reinvented the situation comedy and made it character driven. Several spin-offs of varying success ("Rhoda", "Phyllis", "Lou Grant") were produced by MTM Productions.

Like Dick Van Dyke before her, Moore chose to end the series while it was still fresh and highly rated. After abortive attempts at variety shows (a decidedly moribund genre), Moore demonstrated just how versatile an actress she was. Beginning with the 1978 TV-movie "First You Cry" in which she movingly portrayed reporter Betty Rollin's battle with breast cancer, she embarked on a phase as 'serious actress'. In an unprecedented move, she successfully replaced actor Tom Conti in a slightly revised version of the hit Broadway play "Whose Life Is It, Anyway?" (1979). Playing a quadriplegic sculptor fighting to determine her own destiny, Moore began to chip away at her Mary Richards persona. Further proving her range was her devastating portrayal of a mother coping with the death of one son and the suicide attempt of the other in Robert Redford's "Ordinary People" (1980). Redford has said he wanted to show the world the "dark side of Mary Tyler Moore" and he more than succeeded. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, but her success in this film was marred by the tragic death of her only son. Subsequent film appearances failed to capitalize on her abilities.

Moore had better luck returning to the small screen opposite James Garner in "Heartsounds" (ABC, 1984) as a woman coping with her husband's heart disease. Two attempts to recapture her sitcom glory on CBS ("Mary" 1985-86 and "Annie McGuire" 1988) were unsuccessful. Viewers seemed unwilling to accept her in a comedy as anything other than a facet of Laura Petrie and Mary Richards. Yet she continued to impress in dramatic roles. Her portrayal of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln opposite Sam Waterston in "Gore Vidal's Lincoln" (NBC, 1988) again offered a glimpse of her astonishing range and dramatic ability, particularly in her depiction of Mrs. Lincoln's insanity. Moore was also chilling as a spinster who traffics in illegal adoptions in the fact-based cable movie "Stolen Babies" (Lifetime, 1993), a role which earned the actress an Emmy as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special.

Further distancing herself from her goody-two shoes image, Moore returned to series TV in 1995 in a supporting role as a hard-driving newspaper editor in the unsuccessful CBS drama "New York News". She also spoofed her image by using foul language in her appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman" (who appeared in the ensemble of one of Moore's ill-fated 70s variety series). Continuing to stretch as an actress, Moore co-starred as Ben Stiller's neurotic adoptive mother in David O Russell's "Flirting With Disaster". She raised eyebrows for one scene in which she raises her blouse and advises her daughter-in-law on finding the appropriate bra. As a result of that film, she was cast in a recurring role as co-star Tea Leoni's mother on Leoni's NBC sitcom "The Naked Truth."

Moore next appeared in the CBS telepic "Payback" (1997) playing a working mother who witnesses a brutal incident of police violence and becomes a target of the rogue cop's revenge after she reports the crime to an internal affairs investigator. That same year she also appeared in the feature films "Keys to Tulsa" and as herself in the comedy documentary "Reno Fnds Her Mom," then after a lengthy break she co-starred with Kyra Sedgwick and Rob Morrow in the straight-to-video comedy "Labor Pains" (2000).As both producer and actress, Moore took on two high-profile 2000 television movies, with divergent results: ABC's "Mary and Rhoda"reunited Moore with Valerie Harper as they reprised their classic character Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern, now a widow and a divorcee, respectively, with college age daughters who rekindle their friendship in New York--planned as the kickoff of a potential series follow-up, the film bypassed comedy in favor of maudlin sentiment and failed to capture the spark of the original charaters; far better was CBS's true crime bio "Like Mother, Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes," in which she played Sante Chambers Kimes, a con artist, thief and murderer convicted of murdering a woman in a scheme to steal her $7 million Manhattan home, and who pushed her son in participating in her crimes. The latter performance earned Moore a fresh round of admiring critical accolades. After an appearance in the high school scam comedy "Cheats" (2002), Moore returned to TV for the telepic "Miss Lettie and Me" (TNT, 2002) to play a cantankerous eldery Southern woman who finds herself softening her ways when her charming tomboy niece Travis is sent to live with her at her backwater home, reuniting with an old flame and reconnecting with long-buried feelings. The role was yet another triumph for the actress. Then she starred as another matriarch in "Blessings" (CBS, 2003), based on the Anna Quindlan novel about an abandoned baby found by a handyman on a aged woman's estate.

In 2004 Moore enjoyed success with a pair of projects that reunited her with Dick Van Dyke and recaptured their old ch