TV1 Blog

While we won't find out the winners of the 18th Annual SAG Awards until next Monday, we actually already know one person who will be walking away with a statuette on the night.

Television icon Mary Tyler Moore will be presented with the Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award.  The Award is given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession” and has been awarded to such acting greats as Angela Lansbury, Julie Andrews, Clint Eastwood, Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford and Mary's co-stars, Betty White and Ed Asner.

Mary Tyler Moore set the standard for female leads on television.

She was Dick Van Dyke’s smart and spunky wife Laura Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show, creating a new kind of television wife and mother.

She later starred in her own eponymous comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  Mary’s portrayal of Mary Richards broke new ground by being the first central character who was a never-married, independent career woman.  Her show is rightly considered to be one of the best television programs ever winning 29 Emmys over a 7 year run, including 3 for Outstanding Comedy series and 4 for Mary herself.

On top of that, and unbeknownst to most people, she helped produce some of the most lauded television programs of all time including The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues  and St. Elsewhere.  She’s also been a tireless advocate for people living with Type 1 diabetes.

It will be great to see her honoured next Monday for such a wonderful body of work.  And to get you in the mood check out a couple of classic clips from Mary’s career below.

(Image via Couchtime.)