Claim: Mary Tyler Moore played a character on a sitcom.

Mary Tyler Moore -LRB- December 29 , 1936 -- January 25 , 2017 -RRB- was an American actress , known for her roles in the television sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show -LRB- 1970 -- 1977 -RRB- , in which she starred as Mary Richards , a single woman working as a local news producer in Minneapolis , and The Dick Van Dyke Show -LRB- 1961 -- 1966 -RRB- , in which she played Laura Petrie , a former dancer turned Westchester homemaker , wife and mother . Her film work includes 1967 's Thoroughly Modern Millie and 1980 's Ordinary People , in which she played a role that was very different from the television characters she had portrayed , and for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress .   Due to her roles on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show , in which her characters often broke from stereotypical images of women and pushed gender norms , Moore became a cultural icon and served as an inspiration for many younger actresses , professional women , and feminists . She was later active in charity work and various political causes , particularly the issues of animal rights and diabetes . She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes early in the run of The Mary Tyler Moore Show . She also suffered from alcoholism , which she wrote about in her first of two memoirs . In May 2011 , Moore underwent elective brain surgery to remove a benign meningioma . She died from cardiopulmonary arrest due to pneumonia at the age of 80 on January 25 , 2017 .