Moore's place in history was cemented with her beloved, groundbreaking series, The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Born in Flatbush in 1936, Moore started her showbiz career in commercials and landed her big break as the character "Happy Hotpoint" in GE ads, dancing on top of the appliances. During the '60s, Moore charmed America on The Dick Van Dyke Show, a role that won her the first of nine Emmys of her career. In 1970, Moore began The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a role that made her one of the most famous women in America. Since the show's demise in 1977, Moore has dabbled in TV shows, TV movies, theater, and films, with varying degrees of success, a high point being her Academy Award nomination for Ordinary People.

Over the past decade, Moore has made appearances on a handful of sitcoms like Frasier and That '70s Show, and she's had a few disastrous roles on Broadway: Her 1996 musical Holly Golightly was a complete flop, and in 2003 she stormed off the set of Neil Simon's Rose's Dilemma after Simon criticized the notoriously difficult actress for using a headset in lieu of learning her lines.

While Moore has had her share of career success, her personal life has been downright brutal: her sister died of a drug overdose, her terminally ill brother died when Moore assisted him in ending his life with painkillers, and her only son died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound which was later ruled an accident. [Image via Getty]