The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Mary Tyler Moore

When her series ended she continued acting in various projects and films up until 2013 (via Entertainment Weekly). Throughout her career she won numerous awards, including several Emmys. While she enjoyed a remarkable time as an actress, Moore battled several off-screen personal tragedies.

A little while after graduating high school, Mary Tyler Moore wed her first husband, Richard Meeker, in 1955 (per Biography). A year later the couple welcomed Moore's only child, a boy, whom they named after her husband but was affectionately known as Richie.

But Moore wouldn't get to spend as much time with her son as she hoped. Sadly, on October 14, 1980, her son took his life at the age of 24. According to The Washington Post, Meeker Jr. was playing with a shotgun whilst talking to a roommate. During an attempt to load, the gun went off and Meeker died. In the aftermath of his death, it couldn't immediately be determined if his cause of death was by accident or by suicide, though roommates said it was an accident. Moore would maintain his death was an accident in her autobiography "Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes."

Moore was a busy actress for most of her son's childhood, but the pair had grown closer when he became an adult. At the time of his death, she had recently filmed a movie about a mother losing a son — hitting very close to home. Moore would express regret at not investing more into her relationship with her son, per a 1995 interview with CBS.

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