you got spunk. well. i hate spunk. reporter: the show had enough spunk to last seven seasons. mary also went after serious roles. do you chase these roles? yes. she was nominated for academy award for ordinary people. in her not so ordinary life, married three times, lived through diabetes and benign brain tumor, lost her only son when he accidentally shot himself. she was a vegetarian and years an alcoholic. i made up my mind to stop. reporter: checked into the betty ford clinic. watch her expressioexpression. what other people think of me is none of my business. reporter: recall mary cracking up at the funeral of chuckles the clown.
spunk to last seven seasons. mary went after serious roles. do you chase these roles? yes. reporter: she was nominated for an academy award for ordinary people. in her life, married three times, lived through diabetes and benign brain tumor. lost her only son when he accidentally shot himself. she was a vegetarian and for years an alcoholialcoholic. she checked in the betty ford clinic. watch her as larry king described her. what other people think of me is none of my business. reporter: if you think of her with sadness, recall mary cracking up at the funeral of chuckles the clown. remember how that ended? go ahead, my dear, laugh for chuckles.
difficult to shed mary from her image, earning an emmy for whose life is it any way. in 1980 moore gave an oscar performance dealing with tragedy. the same year when her only son richie died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. moore and tinker ended her next marriage and with her next husband she came clean about her alcoholism and checked herself into the betty ford clinic. she became international chairman of the juvenile diabetes research foundation and
good morning, cardinal. congratulations. thanks peter. always to be a joy with you. what a wonderful award and wonderful thing that you actually visit that men s shelter and the people there that you had ministered to last night. what was that like for you? well, st. christopher inn is in new york. i try to get around and they invited me up there. i am convinced that they do miraculous work. what you ve got up there is 180 men who have nowhere else to go and they are addicted to drugs and alcohol big time. most of them have been through other programs. some of them have even to places as prestigious as the betty ford clinic. this place has an unparalleled rate of success, i m convinced it s because of the emphasis they place on the soul on the spiritual, and the faith.
presidents that you have covered. well can almost begin with gerald and betty ford. they had a relationship glad you didn t say george and martha washington, thank you. you picked it up with martin van buren, i think, right after jackson. but they weren t overty affectionate together. but that was she was well liked, very well liked. she was well liked. and then she got into trouble and then she made something out of that, and we have the betty ford clinic. so she emerged as a kind of hero. and then jimmy carter and rosalynn carter. they were, and they had a good marriage. i think people like to see that. but you didn t see a lot of them together, or they didn t do the kind of thing that we saw on barbara walters. i don t remember them doing a bunch of that. but nancy and ronald reagan. i know you re getting old. take it from me, they weren t that overt. it was more of a quieter thing. but then nancy and reagan came