Legendary actress Mary Tyler Moore, who delighted a generation of Americans with her energetic comic performances, died Wednesday after suffering years of ill health, according to US media reports. She was 80.

Moore's eponymous sitcom ran for seven seasons in the 1970s and was named by Time Magazine as one of 17 shows that "changed television."

She had been battling diabetes for years and underwent brain surgery in 2011. She was suffering from "a number of health problems" and died in hospital in Connecticut, celebrity news website TMZ and the Los Angeles Times reported.