David Edelstein: Mary Tyler Moore's career after TV a "cautionary tale"
She’s best remembered for her iconic TV roles, but Mary Tyler Moore also found success -- and some setbacks -- on Broadway and in the movies.
When Moore jumped from the small to the big screen, she stepped into new roles -- and a new image far from the “sweetheart” Mary, revealing something her fans had never seen before.
- The story behind “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”’s iconic theme song
- Mary Tyler Moore: In her own words
- How “The Dick Van Dyke Show” broke new ground
“In Flirting with Disaster, she plays a crazy mom … and she’s wonderful,” exclaimed David Edelstein, a movie critic for “CBS Sunday Morning” and New York Magazine.
“In terms of movies, how will Mary Tyler Moore be remembered?” CBS News correspondent Peter Vant Sant asked Edelstein.
“As a cautionary tale,” he remarked.
Cautionary, Edelstein says, because Mary Tyler Moore struggled on the big screen.
“She just wasn’t comfortable with that kind of acting,” he explained. “The Elvis movie ‘Change of Habit’ really sank her movie career. … Elvis, you know, in the ghetto with a nun played by Mary Tyler Moore was just too much.”
One notable exception was Moore’s Oscar-nominated role in the critically acclaimed 1980 movie, “Ordinary People,” where she left her cheerful Laura Petrie character lying on the kitchen floor.
“By not doing what she usually did, she was able to give an extraordinary performance,” said Edelstein.
It’s a performance she talked about with Charlie Rose in 1995:
MARY TYLER MOORE: I came through that thinking that I was playing my father … and was shortly thereafter to realize that I was playing myself.
CHARLIE ROSE: Which part?
MARY TYLER MOORE: Expectations, perfectionism, loath to communicate any failings.
“In ‘Ordinary People,’ you know, she dug pretty deep in herself, I think, for that character. But she should have won an Oscar for it,” said actor Dick Van Dyke.
Throughout her long acting career, Moore produced and starred in plays, including “Sweet Sue.” She won a Tony award for a role as a quadriplegic in the play, “Whose Life Is It Anyway?”
In 2012, Moore was honored for her remarkable body of work.
“She did win The Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, which includes big screen and small screen right?” Van Sant asked Edelstein.
“The screen actor’s guild was not for the big screen, trust me,” Edelstein replied. “It was for Laura Petrie and it was for Mary Richards. …Anyone who, in this lifetime, gives us a character like Laura Petrie and Mary Richards, can really die happy, you know?”