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Myrna Loy

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Myrna Loy
BornAugust 2 1905
Radersburg, Montana
DiedDecember 14 1993
New York City
OccupationActress
Spouse(s)Arthur Hornblow, Jr
John Hertz, Jr
Gene Markey
Howland H. Sergeant

Myrna Loy (August 2 1905 – December 14 1993) was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as Nora Charles, wife of detective Nick Charles (William Powell), in The Thin Man series of madcap detective films. Loy was often typecast as a pert, perfect wife, and was known for her charm, grace and elegance.

Early life

She was born Myrna Adele Williams in Radersburg (near Helena, Montana), the daughter of a rancher, David Franklin Williams, whose roots were in Glamorgan, Wales, and his wife, Adella. Loy's first name came from a train station whose name her father liked.

Myrna Williams made her stage debut at age 12 in Helena's Marlow Theater, in a dance she choreographed based on "The Blue Bird" from the Rose Dream Operetta. She moved to Los Angeles, California when she was 12, after her father's death, and attended the Westlake School for Girls. At 15, she began appearing in local stage productions. She went to Venice High School, in Venice, California, and in 1921, when she was 16, she posed for Harry Winebrenner's semi-nude statue, titled Spiritual, which remained in front of Venice High School throughout the 20th Century and can be seen in the opening scenes of the film Grease (1978). The statue was vandalized in recent years, but a restoration is planned.

Career rise

Natacha Rambova, the second wife of Rudolph Valentino, arranged a screen test for her which she failed, but she persevered, and in 1925, appeared in the Rambova-penned movie What Price Beauty? opposite Rambova and Nita Naldi. Her silent film roles were mainly those of vampish exotic women. For a few years, she struggled to overcome this stereotype with many producers and directors believing that while she was perfect as femme fatales, she was capable of little more. During her nine-year struggle to establish herself, she appeared in nearly 80 films.

Myrna Loy in the 1920s

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

In 1938, she was voted "Queen of Hollywood" (in a contest which also voted Clark Gable "King") and was considered to epitomise glamour and sophistication. During this period, she was one of Hollywood's busiest and highest paid actresses.

World War II

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 so fiercely outspoken against Adolf Hitler, her name appeared on his "blacklist". She helped run a Naval Auxiliary Canteen and toured frequently to raise funds.

Later career

She returned to films with The Best Years Of Our Lives in 1946, playing the wife of returning serviceman Fredric March. In later years, Loy considered this film her proudest acting achievement. It also allowed Loy to make a film that demonstrated her social conscience. Throughout 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 worked for UNESCO; she also was an active member of the Democratic Party.

Her film career continued sporadically. In 1960, she appeared in Midnight Lace and From the Terrace, but was not in another until 1969 in The April Fools. She also returned to the stage, making her Broadway debut in a short-lived 1973 revival of Clare Booth Luce's The Women. Her autobiography Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming was published in 1987.

In 1965 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. She also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center in 1988. Although Loy was never nominated for an Academy Award for any single performance, she received an Academy Honorary Award in 1991, "for her career achievement". She accepted via camera from her New York home, making only a short acceptance speech of, "You've made me very happy. Thank you very much." It was her last public appearance in any medium.

After battling breast cancer and enduring two mastectomies, she died during surgery, the exact nature of which was never specified in the reports of her death in New York City at the age of 88. Her remains were cremated and the ashes interred at Forestvale Cemetery, in Helena, Montana.

On August 2, 2005, the centenary of Loy's birth, Warner Home Video released the six films from The Thin Man series, on DVD as a boxed set.

Personal life

Loy was married four times, to:

  • Arthur Hornblow, Jr. (1936-1942), producer
  • John Hertz Jr. of the rent-a-car family (1942-1944)
  • Gene Markey (1946-1950), producer
  • Howland H. Sergeant (1951-1960), UNESCO delegate

Loy had no children of her own, though it is documented that she was very close to the children of her first husband, Arthur Hornblow. "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."

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)
  • It Happened at Lakewood Manor (1977)
  • The End (1978)
  • Just Tell Me What You Want (1980)

Television work

  • Meet Me in St. Louis (1959)
  • Death Takes a Holiday (1971)
  • Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate (1971)
  • Columbo: Étude in Black (1972)
  • The Couple Takes a Wife (1972)
  • Indict and Convict (1974)
  • The Elevator (1974)
  • Summer Solstice (1981)

Note: Loy also appeared in various episodes over the years of Family Affair, The Virginian, and Love, Sydney.

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