Whatever happened to Richard Meeker, MTM's first husband? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Yong Fang · 11-05-2013, 07:46 AM

Whatever happened to Richard Meeker, who was MTM's first husband and the father of her only child? The only thing I could find out was that he was a salesman of some kind. Probably someone who was too poor and not ambitious enough for MTM.

Is he still alive? Any pictures of the man? I would be interested what he did with his life and to see the wife he married as a teen to be so famous and successful. Since they shared a child together, they must have had some kind of relationship.

He just seems like a mystery person.

Coffeecup · 11-28-2013, 11:10 PM

I did see a book at the library that Mary wrote. The years being a diabetic she write about. I should read it for it might mention Richard. I always wonder what happened to Valeries first husband Richard Schall. He had a few parts on Mary's show but after the 1980s never saw much of him.

jehobden · 02-04-2014, 08:30 PM

From what I found on a Google search of his name, Richard Meeker remarried a woman named Jeanette and had his & Mary's son, Richard, Jr., living with him & his 2nd wife in Fresno while his son was a teenager. Richard Meeker was living in Sacramento at the time of his son's death in 1980.

Richard Schaal had his last acting credit, according to IMDB, in 1990, but he will be appearing in a documentary called Sills, which is scheduled to come out sometime this year. His ex-wife, as well as Ed Asner, are also listed as appearing in Sills.

LittleRickyII · 02-04-2014, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yong Fang

Whatever happened to Richard Meeker, who was MTM's first husband and the father of her only child? The only thing I could find out was that he was a salesman of some kind. Probably someone who was too poor and not ambitious enough for MTM.

Is he still alive? Any pictures of the man? I would be interested what he did with his life and to see the wife he married as a teen to be so famous and successful. Since they shared a child together, they must have had some kind of relationship.

He just seems like a mystery person.

I remember reading or seeing an interview with him many years ago. He indicated that he was a bit blindsided when Mary left him. It was after she started getting successful. He felt she didn't want to be with him anymore because he wasn't important enough or good enough for her. She had become a celebrity and was socializing with famous people. He didn't fit into her new life so she left him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jehobden

From what I found on a Google search of his name, Richard Meeker remarried a woman named Jeanette and had his & Mary's son, Richard, Jr., living with him & his 2nd wife in Fresno while his son was a teenager. Richard Meeker was living in Sacramento at the time of his son's death in 1980.

That's true. Here's an article from 1986 that addresses that. http://articles.philly.com/1986-01-0...richard-meeker

LittleRickyII · 02-05-2014, 03:27 PM

Check out this link: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sac...&pid=165940871

http://www.tributes.com/show/Richard-Meeker-96143063

Could this Richard Meeker from Sacramento be the same one that was married to Mary Tyler Moore? If so, he has recently passed away. He was born in 1927, so he would have been 9 and 1/2 years older than Mary. I didn't think he was that much older when they married. But this Richard Meeker, according to the obituary, was preceded in death by his son. And he and his wife had been married 45 years, which means they would have married about 1968, six years after his marriage to Mary ended. Also, the man in the picture bears some resemblance to Mary's son, both pictured below. So it's possible this is Mary's first husband. Thoughts?

jehobden · 02-05-2014, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LittleRickyII

Check out this link: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sac...&pid=165940871

http://www.tributes.com/show/Richard-Meeker-96143063

Could this Richard Meeker from Sacramento be the same one that was married to Mary Tyler Moore? If so, he has recently passed away. He was born in 1927, so he would have been 9 and 1/2 years older than Mary. I didn't think he was that much older when they married. But this Richard Meeker, according to the obituary, was preceded in death by his son. And he and his wife had been married 45 years, which means they would have married about 1968, six years after his marriage to Mary ended. Also, the man in the picture bears some resemblance to Mary's son, both pictured below. So it's possible this is Mary's first husband. Thoughts?

I'm pretty sure it was the same man. I checked a link to the California Marriage Index, and it showed that "Richard C Meeker" (age 41) married "Jeanette E Stein" (age 36) on 15 Jun 1968 in Monterey and "Richard C Meeker" (age 28) married "Mary T Moore" (age 18) on 25 Aug 1955 in Los Angeles. There is also a record for "Richard Carleton Meeker" born 7 Mar 1927 in the California Birth Index and a Social Security Death Index for the same man, born the same date and died 8 Jul 2013. This pretty well proves to me that this is the same man who passed away last year, since the age matches up, as well as the statement that his son had predeceased him. Also the linked article mentions him & his wife as "Richard and Jeanette Meeker".

LittleRickyII · 02-05-2014, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jehobden

I'm pretty sure it was the same man. I checked a link to the California Marriage Index, and it showed that "Richard C Meeker" (age 41) married "Jeanette E Stein" (age 36) on 15 Jun 1968 in Monterey and "Richard C Meeker" (age 28) married "Mary T Moore" (age 18) on 25 Aug 1955 in Los Angeles. There is also a record for "Richard Carleton Meeker" born 7 Mar 1927 in the California Birth Index and a Social Security Death Index for the same man, born the same date and died 8 Jul 2013. This pretty well proves to me that this is the same man who passed away last year, since the age matches up, as well as the statement that his son had predeceased him. Also the linked article mentions him & his wife as "Richard and Jeanette Meeker".

Thanks for confirming that! I didn't realize something such as the California Marriage Index was available, or the Birth and SS Index for that matter. That pretty much confirms everything. I had figured it must be him, I was just questioning the age difference because I never knew he was that much older that MTM. I had always assumed they were two teenagers who got married. It's sad to know he's passed away, although he had a long life, and he passed away peacefully.

Yong Fang · 02-13-2014, 08:18 AM

Mary Tyler Moore has really come across in many ways as a narcissist of some note. She marries her first husband to get away from her bad home life and he was probably successful at his career. Then she dumps him because her career was more important to her and he was not "good enough" for her. That's just wrong.

Probably her son took a back seat to her career which allowed him a lot of freedom to do what he wanted to (sort of like that affluenza kid). Even then, the son chose to live with his father instead of her, although she was a millionaire and he wasn't.

MTM was also an alcoholic and probably a drug user, got divorced from her second husband that she probably married, again to forward her career goals. MTM is probably a bit like the shrew mother in Ordinary People. Money, fame, connections and her own self was more valuable than her son. Of course, I do not know the whole story, but MTM wasn't what she was like on television.

I will say for Mr. Meeker, he had sex with a teenage Mary Tyler Moore

. Something that millions of men would have loved to do.

Dianne3 · 02-15-2014, 05:00 PM

MTM was very young when she first married.
So, it's not at all a surprise she divorced.
You grow a lot between your late teens and mid 20's.

As for marrying to get away from a bad home life, well things were done differently in the 1950's.

Yong Fang · 03-13-2014, 08:58 AM

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...116954&df=all&

This is his obituary from www.findagrave.com. No mention of MTM or her son. Usually the site will list the child of the deceased listed, but no mention.

This man was not poor at all, just a regular guy who fought in Korea, got into management, was an outdoorsman and liked to travel the World. Too "regular guy" for MTM.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...218376&df=all&

Grave of George Tyler Moore, MTM's father (1913-2006)

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...=10025&df=all&

Marjorie Hackett Moore, MTM's mother (with picture)

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...774084&df=all&

Colonel Lewis Tilghman Moore
MTM's great grandfather who was a Confederate general in the Civil War from Virginia. (This is from MTM's wiki page.)

I love this website.

McGillicuddy · 03-14-2014, 04:54 PM

Was Mary married 4 times?

Samme · 03-15-2014, 06:17 PM

Mary has been married three times. I thought Richard Meeker showed a lot of class in that he never discussed Mary or their marriage for the press and they must have been after him for quotes about her. She did dump him, sorta put him down, and was never too honest over why she did it. But she can't really be blamed for dumping him. Women in those days did get married just to get out of their parent's home, so it probably wasn't love for her. And it seems she did love Grant Tinker, and he also fit better into her new life. It's like a guy becoming famous, and then taking advantage when all these new good looking women become available. Johnny Carson did that too. Ed Asner dumped his wife of many years, lost weight, and starting chasing 'em a couple years after The MTM Show was a hit and he was suddenly in demand. Can't blame them, but can't compliment them either.

ajgenard · 03-19-2014, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samme

Mary has been married three times. I thought Richard Meeker showed a lot of class in that he never discussed Mary or their marriage for the press and they must have been after him for quotes about her. She did dump him, sorta put him down, and was never too honest over why she did it. But she can't really be blamed for dumping him. Women in those days did get married just to get out of their parent's home, so it probably wasn't love for her. And it seems she did love Grant Tinker, and he also fit better into her new life. It's like a guy becoming famous, and then taking advantage when all these new good looking women become available. Johnny Carson did that too. Ed Asner dumped his wife of many years, lost weight, and starting chasing 'em a couple years after The MTM Show was a hit and he was suddenly in demand. Can't blame them, but can't compliment them either.

I learned long ago to separate celebrities' personal lives from their work. If I hear anecdotes, read biographical material, or on the rare occasion get to meet one - if I do any of that and come off with a positive vibe about one of them then it's a huge bonus. But these people are entertainers, not saints, and you'd almost expect them having the same kinds of personal shortcomings the rest of the world does. Marrying young then divorcing or chasing women when you find success are pretty average on the scale of bad behavior: there's a good chance I'd end up doing the same damn thing in their shoes. So for minor offenses like this (which may or may not have worked out the way we imagine) I just won't speak ill of them. Karma, man.

Now when certain celebs seemingly go above and beyond in being either a genuinely terrific person or a terribly misguided soul, those rare cases where it consumes so much of the air around them, then I tend to regard them with an asterisk and pass judgement. But MTM or Ed Asner...please, I've probably done things just as inconsiderate and I consider myself a fairly upstanding human being.

PracTz · 03-21-2014, 01:44 PM

As I much as I've always enjoyed Mary's performances and have liked her as a person, I can't say that I think Mary was the best wife possible to her 1st husband nor the best mother to Ritchie. It seems both of them craved a wife and mother like Laura Petrie but instead got Happy Hotpoint- a sprite who flitted around from job to job with barely a backwards glance toward them.
Still, even BEFORE Ritchie's gruesomely tragic death, I think Mary already regretted the irreplaceable early years she had neglected Ritchie [and I seriously doubt she would have lobbied to play the lead in "Ordinary People" which was also made before that tragedy had she not acknowledged regrets].. As the years have flown by since with her own health worsening, one can't help but think she's had a LOT of time to reflect on 'what might have been' with both Ritchie and perhaps even Richard, Sr.

11-05-2013, 07:46 AM	#1
Yong Fang Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 04, 2009 Location: Memphis Tennessee Posts: 3,073	Whatever happened to Richard Meeker, MTM's first husband? Whatever happened to Richard Meeker, who was MTM's first husband and the father of her only child? The only thing I could find out was that he was a salesman of some kind. Probably someone who was too poor and not ambitious enough for MTM. Is he still alive? Any pictures of the man? I would be interested what he did with his life and to see the wife he married as a teen to be so famous and successful. Since they shared a child together, they must have had some kind of relationship. He just seems like a mystery person.

02-05-2014, 03:27 PM	#5
LittleRickyII Member Senior Member Join Date: Feb 22, 2009 Location: California Posts: 2,246	Check out this link: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sac...&pid=165940871 http://www.tributes.com/show/Richard-Meeker-96143063 Could this Richard Meeker from Sacramento be the same one that was married to Mary Tyler Moore? If so, he has recently passed away. He was born in 1927, so he would have been 9 and 1/2 years older than Mary. I didn't think he was that much older when they married. But this Richard Meeker, according to the obituary, was preceded in death by his son. And he and his wife had been married 45 years, which means they would have married about 1968, six years after his marriage to Mary ended. Also, the man in the picture bears some resemblance to Mary's son, both pictured below. So it's possible this is Mary's first husband. Thoughts? Attached Images
	Last edited by LittleRickyII; 02-05-2014 at 04:46 PM.

11-28-2013, 11:10 PM	#2
Coffeecup coffeecup. Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Jan 17, 2003 Location: snoozeville Posts: 3,183	I did see a book at the library that Mary wrote. The years being a diabetic she write about. I should read it for it might mention Richard. I always wonder what happened to Valeries first husband Richard Schall. He had a few parts on Mary's show but after the 1980s never saw much of him.

02-04-2014, 08:30 PM	#3
jehobden Member Senior Member Join Date: Jan 06, 2002 Location: DFW Area, TX Posts: 2,004	From what I found on a Google search of his name, Richard Meeker remarried a woman named Jeanette and had his & Mary's son, Richard, Jr., living with him & his 2nd wife in Fresno while his son was a teenager. Richard Meeker was living in Sacramento at the time of his son's death in 1980. Richard Schaal had his last acting credit, according to IMDB, in 1990, but he will be appearing in a documentary called Sills, which is scheduled to come out sometime this year. His ex-wife, as well as Ed Asner, are also listed as appearing in Sills.

02-13-2014, 08:18 AM	#8
Yong Fang Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 04, 2009 Location: Memphis Tennessee Posts: 3,073	Mary Tyler Moore has really come across in many ways as a narcissist of some note. She marries her first husband to get away from her bad home life and he was probably successful at his career. Then she dumps him because her career was more important to her and he was not "good enough" for her. That's just wrong. Probably her son took a back seat to her career which allowed him a lot of freedom to do what he wanted to (sort of like that affluenza kid). Even then, the son chose to live with his father instead of her, although she was a millionaire and he wasn't. MTM was also an alcoholic and probably a drug user, got divorced from her second husband that she probably married, again to forward her career goals. MTM is probably a bit like the shrew mother in Ordinary People. Money, fame, connections and her own self was more valuable than her son. Of course, I do not know the whole story, but MTM wasn't what she was like on television. I will say for Mr. Meeker, he had sex with a teenage Mary Tyler Moore . Something that millions of men would have loved to do.

02-15-2014, 05:00 PM	#9
Dianne3 Member Senior Member Join Date: Aug 07, 2002 Posts: 1,057	MTM was very young when she first married. So, it's not at all a surprise she divorced. You grow a lot between your late teens and mid 20's. As for marrying to get away from a bad home life, well things were done differently in the 1950's.

03-13-2014, 08:58 AM	#10
Yong Fang Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 04, 2009 Location: Memphis Tennessee Posts: 3,073	http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...116954&df=all& This is his obituary from www.findagrave.com. No mention of MTM or her son. Usually the site will list the child of the deceased listed, but no mention. This man was not poor at all, just a regular guy who fought in Korea, got into management, was an outdoorsman and liked to travel the World. Too "regular guy" for MTM. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...218376&df=all& Grave of George Tyler Moore, MTM's father (1913-2006) http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...=10025&df=all& Marjorie Hackett Moore, MTM's mother (with picture) http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...774084&df=all& Colonel Lewis Tilghman Moore MTM's great grandfather who was a Confederate general in the Civil War from Virginia. (This is from MTM's wiki page.) I love this website.

03-14-2014, 04:54 PM	#11
McGillicuddy Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Sep 28, 2002 Posts: 5,179	Was Mary married 4 times?

03-15-2014, 06:17 PM	#12
Samme Member Forum Regular Join Date: Dec 01, 2001 Posts: 679	Mary has been married three times. I thought Richard Meeker showed a lot of class in that he never discussed Mary or their marriage for the press and they must have been after him for quotes about her. She did dump him, sorta put him down, and was never too honest over why she did it. But she can't really be blamed for dumping him. Women in those days did get married just to get out of their parent's home, so it probably wasn't love for her. And it seems she did love Grant Tinker, and he also fit better into her new life. It's like a guy becoming famous, and then taking advantage when all these new good looking women become available. Johnny Carson did that too. Ed Asner dumped his wife of many years, lost weight, and starting chasing 'em a couple years after The MTM Show was a hit and he was suddenly in demand. Can't blame them, but can't compliment them either.

03-21-2014, 01:44 PM	#14
PracTz Member Senior Member Join Date: Jul 14, 2002 Location: United States of America [Happily Living in the 20th Century] Posts: 2,711	As I much as I've always enjoyed Mary's performances and have liked her as a person, I can't say that I think Mary was the best wife possible to her 1st husband nor the best mother to Ritchie. It seems both of them craved a wife and mother like Laura Petrie but instead got Happy Hotpoint- a sprite who flitted around from job to job with barely a backwards glance toward them. Still, even BEFORE Ritchie's gruesomely tragic death, I think Mary already regretted the irreplaceable early years she had neglected Ritchie [and I seriously doubt she would have lobbied to play the lead in "Ordinary People" which was also made before that tragedy had she not acknowledged regrets].. As the years have flown by since with her own health worsening, one can't help but think she's had a LOT of time to reflect on 'what might have been' with both Ritchie and perhaps even Richard, Sr.