Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 - December 14, 1993) was a United States motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as Nora Charles in "The Thin Man" series of mapcap detective films and for her typecasting as a pert, perfect wife. Loy was known for her charm, grace and elegance.

Born Myrna Adele Williams in Raidersburg (near Helena, Montana), the daughter of a rancher, David Franklin Williams, and his wife, Della Mae. Her unusual first name came from a train station whose name her father admired. She moved to Los Angeles, California when she was twelve, after her father's death. At the age of fifteen she began appearing in local stage productions. Natacha Rambova, the wife of Rudolph Valentino, arranged a screen test for her which she failed, but she persevered, and in 1925 appeared in the movie What Price Beauty. Her silent film roles were mainly those of vampish exotic women and for a few years she struggled to overcome this stereotype with many producers and directors believing that while she was perfect as these femme fatales, she was capable of little more. During her nine year struggle to establish herself, she appeared in nearly 80 films.

Her breakthrough occurred in 1934 with two very successful films. The first was Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable and William Powell. Her performance in The Thin Man later the same year as William Powell's sophisticated, witty wife Nora made her a star. She and Powell proved to be a popular couple and appeared in 14 films together, the most prolific onscreen pairing in Hollywood history.

In 1936, she was voted "Queen of Hollywood" (in a contest which also voted Clark Gable "King") and was considered to epitomise the height of glamour and sophistication. During this period she was one of Hollywood's busiest and highest paid actresses. With the outbreak of World War II she all but abandoned her acting career to focus on the war effort and worked closely with the Red Cross. She was fiercely outspoken against Adolf Hitler and her name appeared on his "blacklist". She helped run a Naval Auxilary Canteen and toured frequently to raise funds.

She returned to films with The Best Years Of Our Lives in 1946 and played the wife of returning serviceman Fredric March. In later years Loy would recall this film as her proudest acting achievement. It also allowed Loy to make a film that demonstrated her social conscience. During her career she had championed the rights of black actors and characters to be depicted with dignity on film. In later life she assumed a more influential role as Co-Chairman of the "Advisory Council of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing". From 1949 until 1954 she also worked for UNESCO; she also was an active member of the United States Republican Party. Her film career continued sporadically (in 1960 she appeared in Midnight Lace and From the Terrace, and was not in another until '69 in The April Fools) and she also returned to the stage making her Broadway debut in a 1973 revival of The Women. Her autobiography Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming was published in 1987.

She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center in 1986. Although she was never nominated for an Academy Award for any single performance, she received an Academy Honorary Award in 1991 "for her career achievement".

Loy was married four times. Her first husband was producer Arthur Hornblow Jr (1936-42); John Hertz Jr. of the rent-a-car family (1942-44); producer Gene Markey (1946-50), and UNESCO delegate Howland H. Sergeant (1951-1960). She had no children. "Some perfect wife I am", she said, referring to her typecasting. "I've been married four times, divorced four times, have no children, and can't boil an egg".

After surviving breast cancer and a double mastectomy, Myrna Loy died during cancer surgery in New York City and was cremated; her ashes are buried at Forestvale Cemetery, in Helena, Montana.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6685 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

• What Price Beauty? (1925)
• The Wanderer (1925)
• Pretty Ladies (1925)
• Sporting Life (1925)
• Ben-Hur (1925)
• The Caveman (1926)
• The Love Toy (1926)
• Why Girls Go Back Home (1926)
• The Gilded Highway (1926)
• Exquisite Sinner (1926)
• So This Is Paris (1926)
• Don Juan (1926)
• Across the Pacific (1926)
• The Third Degree (1926)
• Finger Prints (1927)
• When a Man Loves (1927)
• Bitter Apples (1927)
• The Climbers (1927)
• Simple Sis (1927)
• The Heart of Maryland (1927)
• A Sailor's Sweetheart (1927)
• The Jazz Singer (1927)
• The Girl from Chicago (1927)
• If I Were Single (1927)
• Ham and Eggs at the Front (1927)
• Beware of Married Men (1928)
• A Girl in Every Port (1928)
• Turn Back the Hours (1928)
• The Crimson City (1928)
• Pay as You Enter (1928)
• State Street Sadie (1928)
• The Midnight Taxi (1928)
• Fancy Baggage (1929)
• Hardboiled Rose (1929)
• The Desert Song (1929)
• The Black Watch (1929)
• The Squall (1929)
• Noah's Ark (1929)
• The Great Divide (1929)
• Evidence (1929)
• The Show of Shows (1929)
• Cameo Kirby (1930)
• Isle of Escape (1930)
• Under a Texas Moon (1930)
• Cock o' the Walk (1930)
• Bride of the Regiment (1930)
• The Last of the Duanes (1930)
• The Jazz Cinderella (1930)
• The Bad Man (1930)
• Renegades (1930)
• Rogue of the Rio Grande (1930)
• The Truth About Youth (1930)
• The Devil to Pay! (1930)
• The Naughty Flirt (1931)
• Body and Soul (1931)
• A Connecticut Yankee (1931)
• Hush Money (1931)
• Transatlantic (1931)
• Rebound (1931)
• Skyline (1931)
• Consolation Marriage (1931)
• Arrowsmith (1931)
• Emma (1932)
• Vanity Fair (1932)
• The Wet Parade (1932)
• The Woman in Room 13 (1932)
• New Morals for Old (1932)
• Love Me Tonight (1932)
• Thirteen Women (1932)
• The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
• The Animal Kingdom (1932)
• Topaze (1933)
• Scarlet River (1933) (cameo)
• The Barbarian (1933)
• The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933)
• When Ladies Meet (1933)
• Penthouse (1933)
• Night Flight (1933)
• Men in White (1934)
• Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
• The Thin Man (1934)
• Stamboul Quest (1934)
• Evelyn Prentice (1934)
• Broadway Bill (1934)
• Wings in the Dark (1935)
• Whipsaw (1935)
• Wife vs. Secretary (1936)
• Petticoat Fever (1936)
• The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
• To Mary - with Love (1936)
• Libeled Lady (1936)
• After the Thin Man (1936)
• Parnell (1937)
• Double Wedding (1937)
• Test Pilot (1938)
• Man-Proof (1938)
• Too Hot to Handle (1938)
• Verdensberomtheder i Kobenhavn (1939) (documentary)
• Lucky Night (1939)
• The Rains Came (1939)
• Another Thin Man (1939)
• Northward, Ho! (1940) (short subject)
• I Love You Again (1940)
• Third Finger, Left Hand (1940)
• Love Crazy (1941)
• Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
• Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)
• The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
• So Goes My Love (1946)
• The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
• The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
• Song of the Thin Man (1947)
• The Senator Was Indiscreet (1947)
• Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
• The Red Pony (1949)
• That Dangerous Age (1949)
• Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
• Belles on Their Toes (1952)
• The Ambassador's Daughter (1956)
• Lonelyhearts (1958)
• From the Terrace (1960)
• Midnight Lace (1960)
• The April Fools (1969)
• Airport 1975 (1974)
• The Elevator (1974) (TV)
• It Happened at Lakewood Manor (1977) (TV)
• The End (1978)
• Just Tell Me What You Want (1980)
• Summer Solstice (1981) (TV)

External links

• Template:Imdb name
• "The Myrna Loy Centre", Helena, Montana, official site (http://www.myrnaloycenter.com/)
• Myrna Loy tribute site (http://members.aol.com/alisaahunt/myrna/myrna.htm)de:Myrna Loy

it:Myrna Loy