“Parks and Recreation” Star Jim O’Heir Recalls ‘Horribly Humiliating’ Encounter with Celebrity Crush Mary Tyler Moore

Meredith WilshereSat, October 17, 2026 at 2:59 PM UTC

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Jim O’Heir in 2026; Mary Tyler Moore in 2012Credit: Paul Archuleta/Getty; Jesse Grant/WireImage -

Jim O’Heir traveled from Chicago to New York in 1989 when Mary Tyler Moore hosted Saturday Night Live

The actor froze when he finally met Moore at an afterparty and could only nod when she offered a photo

O’Heir still keeps their photo on his desk while friends continue teasing him about the encounter

Before Jim O’Heir starred on the small screen as the lovable Jerry Gergich in Parks and Recreation, he was a fan of sitcoms himself — and took a particular liking to icon Mary Tyler Moore.

O’Heir, 64, tells ReMIND that his crush on the actress was well known among his friends, one of whom was a writer for Saturday Night Live. So when Moore hosted the sketch show in 1989, O’Heir was invited to tag along.

“Through some miracle, I actually got to meet her,” O’Heir shared. “My friend called and said, ‘Just so you know, Mary Tyler Moore is hosting.’ Everybody knew I was in love with her.”

Mary Tyler Moore during her ‘SNL’ monologue on March 25, 1989Credit: Raymond Bonar/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

While O’Heir, who was acting in Chicago at the time, had a way in, he needed to figure out how to get to New York City to see her.

“I was acting in Chicago at the time but wasn’t making any money, so my buddies and I scraped together everything we could,” he recalled. “I think five of us stayed in one hotel room. We lied about how many people were staying there!”

“Elvis Costello was the musical guest, which my friends were obsessed with. They didn’t care about Mary Tyler Moore, and I didn’t care about Elvis Costello. I was there for Mary,” O’Heir added.

O’Heir attended rehearsals leading up to the show, but didn’t have the courage to approach Moore. They didn’t cross paths again until the afterparty, and knowing it was now or never, O’Heir approached the Dick Van Dyke Show star, who died in 2017 from a cardiopulmonary arrest.

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“Finally, she was leaving, and I knew this was my last chance. I stepped in front of her, and my brain just stopped working. I stood there staring at her,” he explained. “She looked at me, smiled, and said, ‘Would you like a picture?’ All I could do was nod.”

The pair took a photo together, which he noted is “sitting on my desk to this day.”

Jim O’Heir in 2024Credit: Cindy Ord/Getty

“Then she said, ‘Well, it was so nice to meet you.’ As she started walking away, I finally blurted out, ‘I’m in awe of you!’ She turned around and said, ‘I’m in awe of you, too,’” he recalled.

O’Heir said the moment “was incredibly sweet but horribly humiliating.”

His friends, who saw the whole thing unfold, still tease him about it decades later.

“To this day, I’ll occasionally hear one of them say, ‘I’m in awe of you!’” he shared.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”