MARY TYLER MOORE HER UNTOLD STORY

THE BELOVED TV ICON OVERCAME UNTHINKABLE TRAGEDY ON HER WAY TO LASTING HAPPINESS

- LOUISE A. BARILE

Robert Redford recalls observing Mary Tyler Moore alone on a Malibu beach on a cold, windy winter morning. “I saw this lonely figure all wrapped up and walking slowly,” he said. “The figure looked sad.”

For a time, Mary seemed to have it all.  For seven seasons, she “turned the world on with her smile” as Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Despite her success, the unguarded moment on the beach gave Redford a hint of the darkness that haunted the actress. “The sadness hit me and stuck with me when I began casting [Ordinary People],” he said.

Plucky career woman Mary Richards has inspired millions, but Mary’s real-life story is even more worthy of admiration. A new documentary, Being Mary Tyler Moore, which debuts May 26 on HBO Max, shares the actress’ remarkable life with interviews, clips and never-before-seen home movies. “I was blown away that Mary was willing to be as vulnerable as she was about the trauma, the tragedies, the pain and the sorrows she experienced,” James Adolphus, the documentary’s director, tells Closer. “With this film, I think the audience is getting as close to the real Mary Tyler Moore as anyone can get without befriending her in real life.”

In her 1995 memoir,