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| Birth Name(s) : Myrna Adele Williams |
Date of Birth: August 2, 1905 |
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N/A
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| Profession:
Actor |
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Full Myrna Loy Biography
Born in Helena, Mont. Myrna was educated in Los Angeles and Westlakd School for Girls. She had some stage experience in stage prologues at Grauman's Theatre in Hollywood. She was discovered by Mrs. Rudolph Valentino and given a part in pictures. Her first film was "What Price Beauty" (1925).
At the end of the silent era, Myrna Loy started her career as an exotic, Theda Bara-like femme fatale. Fortunately, she was rescued by the advent of the sound picture, where she was recast in the role of the witty, urbane, professional woman. She is best remembered for her role of Nora Charles opposite William Powell in six "Thin Man" movies (Thin Man, The (1934)). |
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Additional Myrna Loy Biography
Myrna Loy (August 2, 1903 – December 14, 1993) was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as Mrs. Nora Charles, wife of detective Nick Charles (William Powell), in The Thin Man series. In 1938, she was voted the "Queen of Hollywood," in a contest which also voted Clark Gable the "King".
In 1921, she posed for Harry Winebrenner's 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.
Her breakthrough occurred with the advent of talkies, in fact she actually appeared in the very first talking picture, 1927's The Jazz Singer, albeit as an uncredited chrous girl. In 1929, she improvised a "foreign" accent, sang and danced in Warner Brothers' first musical, The Desert Song (1929). Loy later commented on the film's success and noted, "it kind of solidified my exotic non-American image". She was quickly cast in a number of early lavish Technicolor musicals including The Show of Shows (1929), The Bride of the Regiment (1930) and Under A Texas Moon (1930). Loy became associated with musicals and when they went out of favor with the public, late in 1930, her career went into a slump.
After appearing with Ramón Novarro in The Barbarian (1933), Loy rejected the lead female role in It Happened One Night (1934) and later commented – if she had accepted it, she would have been unavailable to play the part that established her as a major actress, Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934) The director W. S. Van Dyke chose Loy for the part after he realized that she possessed a wit and sense of humour that had not been shown in her films until then. At a Hollywood party he pushed her into a swimming pool to test her reaction, and felt that her aplomb in handling the situation, was exactly what he envisioned for Nora. Louis B. Mayer at first refused to allow Loy to play the part, saying that she was a dramatic actress only, but Van Dyke insisted. Mayer relented, on the condition that filming be completed within three weeks, as Loy was committed to start filming Stamboul Quest (1934). The Thin Man became one of the year's biggest hits, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Loy received excellent reviews and was acclaimed for her comedic skills. She and her costar William Powell proved to be a popular screen couple and appeared in 14 films together, the most prolific pairing in Hollywood history. Loy later referred to The Thin Man as the film "that finally made me... after more than 80 films". Nora and Nick Charles(William Powell and Loy in the 1936 film After the Thin Man)
Her success in Manhattan Melodrama and The Thin Man marked a turning point in her career and she was cast in more important pictures, and was given the opportunity to develop her comedic skills in films such as Wife vs. Secretary (1936) with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow and Petticoat Fever (1936) with Robert Montgomery. She made four films in close succession with William Powell: Libeled Lady (1936), which also starred Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow, The Great Ziegfeld (1936), in which she played Billie Burke opposite Powell's Florenz Ziegfeld, the second "Thin Man" film, After the Thin Man, and the romantic comedy Double Wedding (1937). She also made three more films with Clark Gable. Parnell was an historical drama and one of the most poorly received films of either Loy's or Gable's career, but their other pairings in Test Pilot and Too Hot to Handle (both 1938) were successes.
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 that her name appeared on his blacklist. She helped run a Naval Auxiliary Canteen and toured frequently to raise funds.Loy in The Best Years of Our Lives
Loy was paired with Cary Grant in David O. Selznick's comedy film The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947). The film co-starred a teenage Shirley Temple. Following its success she appeared again with Grant in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), and with Clifton Webb in Cheaper by the Dozen (1950).
Her film career continued sporadically afterwards. 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 Boothe Luce's The Women.
On December 14, 1993, 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. She was cremated and the ashes interred at Forestvale Cemetery, in Helena, Montana.
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.
In her childhood home of Helena, Montana, the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing and Media Arts opened in 1991 and sponsors live performances and films for under-served audiences. |
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Myrna Loy Quote(s)
| Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming. |
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