Whatever Happened To The Cast Of The Mary Tyler Moore Show?

Many shows from the 1970s have been forgotten over the years. It's not surprising — batches of new shows are released every year, and only some have the power to remain in viewers' hearts, even those that are exceptionally good. Other shows, however, might never be forgotten, including "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," the legendary sitcom that ran for seven seasons from 1970 to 1977. Part of the show's success was its great cast, a mix of genuine superstars and talented character actors, all of whom maintained successful careers in Hollywood after "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" ended.

The series followed the work and personal life of Mary Richards, led by the titular actor Mary Tyler Moore, one of the funniest and sharpest women to ever be involved in show business. As an independent working woman navigating life's challenges with the support of her friends, Moore's character contributed to a major cultural shift, showing women across the nation just how much they're capable of. Find out whatever happened to the iconic sitcom's cast after the Season 7 finale.

The stunning Mary Tyler Moore was an absolute icon. To many, she still is. The comedian was best known for two projects, the legendary variety series "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and her eponymous sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," on which she played Mary Richards. However, her talents went far beyond comedy. Moore could also sing and dance, and she was nominated for an Oscar for her work in the drama "Ordinary People." Given Moore's many talents, it's unsurprising that she kept working throughout her life, starring in movies and guest starring in other sitcoms after her own series ended. Notably, Moore appeared in some episodes of "That '70s Show" and "Hot in Cleveland" near the end of her career.

Moore died in 2017, and her last acting job came in 2013 when she appeared on her second episode of "Hot in Cleveland." One of her former co-stars, Betty White, was a star of the series, and she coordinated a "Mary Tyler Moore Show" reunion in honor of Valerie Harper (more on that later). Moore was facing some serious health issues at the time, but she still joined her castmates for one last on-screen reunion. "Mary was very sick. She was almost blind and couldn't find a way to walk in the scenes. She was always seated. She couldn't read her lines, so people had to read them to her so she could learn them. Mary put herself out like you wouldn't believe for Valerie," Harper's friend Sue Carmen told People of the entertainment maven.

Few people have worked, and few people will ever work, in show business as much as Ed Asner did. The actor played Lou Grant on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and Asner and Mary Tyler Moore shared such a close relationship that he shared a eulogy for her in 2017. As another talented star, Asner appeared in over 400 screen projects throughout his career, and that sitcom was just one of his notable credits. Asner didn't slow down a bit after the sitcom ended. He appeared in movies and TV series, doing a mix of live-action and voiceover work. And while he was prolific in his career in the 20th century, some of his biggest projects came about in the 2000s. In 2003, Asner acted alongside Will Ferrell, James Caan, and Bob Newhart in the modern Christmas classic "Elf," becoming one of the most beloved Santas in Christmas movie history (despite having played St. Nicholas prior). Then, in 2009, he broke the hearts of children and adults alike with his performance as Carl Fredricksen in the Pixar film "Up."

Much to the delight of Pixar fans, Asner had nothing but good things to say about his experience making "Up." In a 2009 interview with Movie Mom, Asner said, "It was a lovely experience for me. The directors, Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, are unbelievably talented. They created a menacing phalanx to have to survive under in the story and we had a marvelous time just making it — the genius is all theirs!" Asner died in 2021 and he worked until the very end of his life, even having some projects released posthumously.

Gavin MacLeod played Murray Slaughter on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and he was the only actor, aside from Mary Tyler Moore herself, to appear in every episode. And almost immediately after co-starring in Moore's eponymous sitcom, MacLeod found work on another long-running series, "The Love Boat." MacLeod played Captain Merrill Stubing on the show, which ran for three more seasons than "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." After "The Love Boat" ended, MacLeod kept acting, though his jobs became more sporadic as he aged. Among the most notable projects toward the end of MacLeod's career were "Murder, She Wrote," "Pinky and the Brain," "The King of Queens," and "That '70s Show." MacLeod even reprised his starring role for an episode of "Love Boat: The Next Wave."

MacLeod, who died in 2021, fully retired from acting in the mid-2010s, with his last on-screen appearance coming in 2014. Before that, he penned a memoir called "This Is Your Captain Speaking," the title a reference to his famous line from "The Love Boat." In promoting the book, MacLeod talked at length about his long career. "You get turned down more than you get accepted, so you get used to that negativity. It's just part of the life. A lot of hope goes into being an actor," MacLeod said in an interview with CNN. "If you have a dream, go for it. Don't let anybody step on your dream. You have one life; you want to make the most of it," MacLeod added.

Ted Knight played Ted Baxter on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," appearing in all but three episodes. Before joining the cast, he already boasted a full career in show business, with projects like "How to Marry a Millionaire," "Gunsmoke," and "M*A*S*H" among his credits. Still, his work in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is one of his career highlights, as is "Too Close for Comfort," the sitcom he starred in after "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" ended. Knight's work on "Too Close for Comfort" took him to the end of his life. He died from cancer complications in 1986, and the final season of the sitcom aired in 1987.

Among the accolades Knight received during his career were two Primetime Emmy Awards, both of which he won for his work in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Knight's character was beloved and, obviously, award-winning, but according to Jay Sandrich, a "Mary Tyler Moore Show" director, it took Knight some time to settle into situation comedy. "Ted was, for the first year at least, very uncomfortable," Sandrich told Television Academy. "He'd come up with jokes and they were always ... not very good," he said of Knight's sitcom start. "Somewhere about the middle of the second year, he started to be very confident, and ad libs were just wonderful. He grew into that part so much."

Valerie Harper, like her co-star Mary Tyler Moore, was a comedy icon. Harper starred in multiple sitcoms, and after appearing as Rhoda Morgenstern on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" for 93 episodes, she left to star in her own spin-off, "Rhoda," which earned her a fourth Primetime Emmy Award (the first three were for her work in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"). After "Rhoda" ended, Harper kept working, both in movies and television, and multiple times she had on-screen reunions with her "Mary Tyler Moore" co-stars. One such reunion, as previously noted, came in 2013 when Harper appeared alongside Mary Tyler Moore, Gloria Engel, Cloris Leachman, and Betty White in an episode of "Hot in Cleveland."

The episode was special for many reasons, one of which was that Harper had recently been diagnosed with brain cancer. The actor was only given months to live at the time. In an interview with People, Harper's friend Sue Cameron, who was at the episode's taping, recalled how emotional the ladies were to be together again. "Mary started crying, then Valerie started to cry. I started to cry. Everyone started to cry," said Cameron. "You could feel that they all knew this would be the last time they'd ever be together. It was probably one of the most extraordinary things I've ever seen in my life." Harper's prognosis turned out to be inaccurate — the actor lived for years, not months, after her diagnosis, and she continued working until the end of her life in 2019.

The stunning transformation of Betty White was so impressive that having a recurring role on a sitcom as iconic as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" isn't considered one of her career highlights. White joined the series later in its run, playing Sue Ann Nivens for 45 episodes. After that, her career only got better as she went on to star in "The Betty White Show"; many movies, including "Lake Placid" and "The Proposal"; and, of course, one of the best sitcoms of all time, "The Golden Girls." White heartbreakingly died in 2021, but she worked until about 2019, and she managed to fit in one more starring role in a great comedy — "Hot in Cleveland."

White played Elka in "Hot in Cleveland," starring alongside Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick for the series' entire run. White filmed the pilot for the series, but she wasn't sure whether she'd be able to join the cast if the show were picked up due to her demanding schedule. Of course, "Hot in Cleveland" did get picked up, and White enjoyed her time filming so much that she made her schedule work. The comedian was a treasured figure in the entertainment world, and she was happy to be working late in her life. "I happen to be blessed with loving what I do for a living. I love this business and I'm so fortunate to be able to still work in this business," White told Daily Actor in 2012.

Georgia Engel played Georgette on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and the connections she made there stayed with her for the rest of her life. After "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" ended, Engel worked again with many of her co-stars, including Betty White in "The Betty White Show," Gavin MacLeod in "The Love Boat," as well as some of her other former co-stars in "Hot in Cleveland" (yes, Engel was part of that famous on-screen reunion that include Mary Tyler Moore, Cloris Leachman, and Valerie Harper). While filming "Hot in Cleveland," on which Engel became a recurring character, White gushed about how much she loved Engel. "We fell in love with each other on 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show,'" White told TV Land in 2012. "You don't get a chance very often in your life to meet a friend like Georgia, let alone an actress that you're working with and to suddenly find pure gold," White said.

Engel had quite a few other credits in between "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Hot in Cleveland." Her other notable work includes roles in "Goodtime Girls," "Jennifer Slept Here," all three "Open Season" movies, "Everybody Loves Raymond," "The Office," and "Two and a Half Men," making her a sitcom aficionado when her career was all said and done. After "Hot in Cleveland," Engel starred in a few more projects before her death at age 70 in 2019.

Cloris Leachman was an icon of the screen. She had worked steadily for decades before joining the cast of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" as the recurring character Phyllis Lindstrom. She kept working after the show ended, with some of her career highlights coinciding during the series seven-year run. Notably, while "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" still aired, Leachman won an Oscar for her work in "The Last Picture Show," and she starred in the spin-off sitcom "Phyllis," which followed her "Mary Tyler Moore" character upon moving back to San Francisco. After "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" ended, Leachman worked as steadily as any actor, finding roles on just about every great sitcom imaginable, including "The Love Boat," "The Facts of Life," "The Ellen Show," "Two and a Half Men," "Malcolm in the Middle," and "The Office." And that's just a fraction of her resume.

Leachman was a busy actor, but much of her work came later in her life. Not long after winning her Oscar, the actor shared that she had focused on family early, leading her to focus on her career later. "The family is the center of my existence," she told People in 1974. "I put all my hopes and caringness and deepest feelings into it. That's why I feel no resentment at arriving so late as an actress. I chose to have children early, and I don't regret it," she said. Leachman's heartbreaking death occurred in 2021 due to complications of a stroke and the COVID-19 virus.

John Amos played Gordy Howard, the weatherman, on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" near the beginning of his career. Amos' career continued steadily both during and after the sitcom ended, leading him to parts in some huge movies and TV shows. While "Mary Tyler Moore" was still running, Amos was featured on "Good Times" and "Future Cop." After the series, he nabbed roles on "Murder, She Wrote," "The Cosby Show," "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "The West Wing," "30 Rock," and "The Righteous Gemstones." He also had a busy movie career, working in films like "Madea's Witness Protection" and "Uncut Gems." Amos' biggest movie in his career, however, was the Eddie Murphy comedy "Coming to America," and in 2021, Amos reprised his role for the film's long-awaited sequel, "Coming 2 America."

Amos loved filming "Coming to America." As he told Time in 2021, "Can you think of a better job than one where you know you're going to be laughing all day, and they're serving you food, and then you go back to laughing some more?" Amos had great things to say about Murphy, too. "Working with Eddie Murphy: I can't describe it to you. You're there. Nothing else exists. He is that character and he exudes that, and you in turn are obligated to give it back to him the same way," he said. The interview was one of Amos' last, as three years later, in 2024, the actor died.

Not many actors from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" are still living, and those who are didn't appear in many episodes. One cast member who's still alive is Joyce Bulifant, who portrayed Marie Slaughter in 11 episodes. The actor continued working after her time on the sitcom ended, finding roles in series like "Three's Company," "The Facts of Life," and "Just Shoot Me!" Bulifant didn't work as steadily as some of her "Mary Tyler Moore" co-stars, but she has appeared in screen projects every few years since the early '80s, working as recently as 2026 with "A Love Like This."

During her time off screen, Bulifant keeps busy with other creative projects, including writing her memoir, "My Four Hollywood Husbands," which was published in 2017. "It is a story of love, a long lost love with a happy ending. The background of the book is the golden age of Hollywood and involves all the fascinating actors I've met and worked with," Bulifant told Book Pleasures of her book. "I wanted to share my story with others who are co-dependant and in alcoholic marriages. It's my hope that my story will be helpful," she added.