Gwen Gillen (1940-2017) Creator of the TV Land Mary Tyler Moore Statue

[Zoneboy]

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Her challenge was to capture a television icon who could "turn the world on with her smile."

And Gwendolyn Gillen turned that challenge into her most famous -- and likely most beloved -- creation.

The Wisconsin artist died Jan. 27, just two days after the death of Mary Tyler Moore, who Gillen cast in bronze tossing her hat on the street in Minneapolis' Nicollet Mall, capturing the famous final scene of the opening sequence to Moore's landmark show.

Gillen has lived at Madison Heights Senior Community in Madison since 2013. She was 76.

Her daughter Alessandra Gillen said her mother was most proud of that statue, which has become a tourist site in Minneapolis. After Moore's death Jan. 25 more than 150 people tossed their hats near the site in homage to the show. The statue has been on view inside the Minneapolis Visitor Information Center while Nicollet Mall is under construction. It's expected to return to the street later this year.

Gillen was chosen from 21 applicants to cast the bronze sculpture, which was commissioned by cable network TV Land. In a 2001 interview with Journal Sentinel art critic James Auer about the project, Gillen said one reason she applied to do the work was that she was a fan of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." She liked the show's humor.

"It's so enjoyable, really," she said then, "to be portraying a woman. Sculptors are very seldom called upon to depict a woman of prominence. This is all very refreshing."

Gillen said one of the toughest parts of the sculpture was capturing the toss.

"I actually practiced throwing the hat to find out when it left the hand," Gillen said in 2001. "It comes out between 75 and 80 degrees on the slant. So I'm showing it at just between 78 and 80 degrees, with the hat just touching the fingers of her extended right hand, and the thumb open.

"I'm not trying to do anything tricky or silly -- suspending wires or attaching it to a building or pole. I thought this would be a good way to achieve the effect."

While the Minneapolis sculpture is her signature piece, other work by Gillen is closer to home. Her sculpture of Gertie the Duck and her ducklings are scattered along the Wisconsin Avenue bridge. For the Wisconsin Veterans of the Korean War Memorial in Plover, she sculpted five figures -- a nurse, Army and Marine infantrymen, an Air Force pilot and a sailor. Her tile mosaic of a cow eating a cream puff welcomes visitors to the State Fair Park. She created the bust of Michelle Witmer, the first woman in the history of the National Guard to be killed in combat and the first Wisconsin National Guard member to be killed in combat since World War II.

"The thrust of my work has always been to portray life as it is lived, with neither excessive sentimentality nor hollow heroism," she wrote in her artist statement. "I delight in the portrayal of humans in their infinite possibilities."

Gillen came to sculpting from the theater where she had acted and designed sets. She grew up in Quincy, Mass. and spent a year studying acting at American Academy of Dramatic Arts where she lost her Massachusetts accent. One evening at a party in New York City, she met Ronald W. Gillen from Brooklyn. The pair wed in Spokane, Wash. on May 20, 1961. The couple followed Ronald's assignments in the air force around the world, living in Japan and Guam, among other places. They moved to Milwaukee so Ronald could enroll in classes at Milwaukee School of Engineering. They raised their two children in Hustisford.

Alessandra Gillen remembers her mother creating small study sculptures in her studio in the basement of their Hustisford home. As she worked, Gillen always listened to classical music. She was an anglophile who loved watching British movies and television. Every couple of years, she'd visit friends Jenni and Anthony Hopkins in London. Gillen's bust of Anthony Hopkins is on display at a theater in London.

"She had a good sense of humor and she loved people," Alessandra Gillen said.


Gillen celebrated her 76th birthday Jan. 6 with Alessandra with coffee and chocolate chip cookies. She is also survived by her older sister Carol Chapman. She is preceded in death by her husband Ronald W. Gillen, son Christopher Gillen and brother Carl Donald Scrivener. The family will celebrate Gillen's life with a service in Massachusetts this spring.