Myrna Loy

Early life

Loy was born in Helena, Montana, the daughter of Adelle Mae (née Johnson) and rancher David Franklin Williams, and raised in Radersburg. She had a younger brother, David Williams (died 1982). Loy's paternal grandparents were Welsh, and her maternal grandparents were Scottish and Swedish. Her first name was derived from a whistle stop near Broken Bow, Nebraska, whose name her father liked. Her father was also a banker and real estate developer and the youngest man ever elected to the Montana state legislature. Her mother studied music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.

During the winter of 1912, Loy's mother nearly died from pneumonia, and her father sent his wife and daughter to La Jolla, California. Loy's mother saw great potential in Southern California, and during one of her husband's visits, she encouraged him to purchase real estate there. Among the properties he bought was land he later sold at a considerable profit to Charlie Chaplin so the filmmaker could construct his studio there. Although her mother tried to persuade her husband to move to California permanently, he preferred ranch life and the three eventually returned to Montana. Soon afterward, Loy's mother needed a hysterectomy and insisted Los Angeles was a safer place to have it done, so she, Loy, and Loy's brother David moved to Ocean Park, where Loy began to take dancing lessons. After the family returned to Montana, Loy continued her dancing lessons, and at the age of 12, Myrna Williams made her stage debut performing a dance she had choreographed based on "The Blue Bird" from the Rose Dream operetta at Helena's Marlow Theater.

After the November 1918 death of Loy's father from the 1918 flu pandemic, Loy's mother permanently relocated the family to California, where they settled in Culver City. Loy attended the exclusive Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles while continuing to study dance in downtown L.A.. When her teachers objected to her extracurricular participation in theatrical arts, her mother enrolled her in Venice High School, and at 15, she began appearing in local stage productions.

In 1921, Loy posed for Venice High School sculpture teacher Harry Fielding Winebrenner for the central figure "Inspiration" in his allegorical sculpture group Fountain of Education. Completed in 1922, the sculpture group was erected in front of the campus outdoor pool in May 1923 where it stood for decades. Loy's slender figure with her uplifted face and one arm extending skyward presented a "vision of purity, grace, youthful vigor, and aspiration" that was singled out in a Los Angeles Times story that included a photo of the "Inspiration" figure along with the model's name—the first time her name appeared in a newspaper. A few months later, Loy's "Inspiration" figure was temporarily removed from the sculpture group and transported aboard the battleship Nevada for a Memorial Day pageant in which "Miss Myrna Williams" participated. Fountain of Education can be seen in the opening scenes of the 1978 film Grease. After decades of exposure to the elements and vandalism, the original concrete statue was removed from display in 2002, and replaced in 2010 by a bronze duplicate paid for through an alumni-led fundraising campaign.

Loy left school at the age of 18 to help with the family's finances. She obtained work at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, where she performed in elaborate musical sequences that were related to and served as prologues for the feature film. During this period, she saw Eleonora Duse in the play Thy Will Be Done, and the simple acting techniques she employed made such an impact on Loy that she tried to emulate them throughout her career.

Early years

Portrait photographer Henry Waxman had taken several pictures of Loy, and they were noticed by Rudolph Valentino when the actor went to Waxman's studio for a sitting. He was looking for a leading lady for Cobra, the first independent project his wife Natacha Rambova and he were producing. Loy tested for the role, which went to Gertrude Olmstead instead, but soon after she was hired as an extra for Pretty Ladies (1925), in which she and fellow newcomer Joan Crawford were among a bevy of chorus girls dangling from an elaborate chandelier.

Rambova recommended Loy for a small but showy role opposite Nita Naldi in What Price Beauty? (1925). Although the film remained unreleased for three years, stills of Loy in her exotic makeup and costume appeared in a fan magazine and led to a contract with Warner Bros., where her surname was changed from Williams to Loy.

Loy's silent film roles were mainly as a vamp or femme fatale, and she frequently portrayed characters of Asian or Eurasian background in films such as Across the Pacific (1926), A Girl in Every Port (1928), The Crimson City (1928), The Black Watch (1929), and The Desert Song (1929), which she later recalled "kind of solidified my exotic non-American image." In 1930 she appeared in The Great Divide. It took years for her to overcome this stereotype, and as late as 1932, she was cast as a villainous Eurasian in Thirteen Women (1932). She also played, opposite Boris Karloff, the depraved sadistic daughter of the title character in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932).

Prior to that, Loy appeared in small roles in The Jazz Singer and a number of early lavish Technicolor musicals, including The Show of Shows, The Bride of the Regiment, and Under a Texas Moon. As a result, she became associated with musical roles, and when they began to lose favor with the public, her career went into a slump. In 1934, Loy appeared in Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable and William Powell. When gangster John Dillinger was shot to death after leaving a screening of the film at the Biograph Theater in Chicago, the film received widespread publicity, with some newspapers reporting that Loy had been Dillinger's favorite actress.

Rise to stardom

After appearing with Ramón Novarro in The Barbarian (1933), Loy was cast as Nora Charles in the 1934 film The Thin Man. Director W. S. Van Dyke chose Loy after he detected a wit and sense of humor that her previous films had not revealed. 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 because he felt she was a dramatic actress, but Van Dyke insisted. Mayer finally relented on the condition that filming be completed within three weeks, as Loy was committed to start filming Stamboul Quest. The Thin Man became one of the year's biggest hits, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film. Loy received excellent reviews and was acclaimed for her comedic skills. Her costar William Powell and she proved to be a popular screen couple and appeared in 14 films together, one of the most prolific pairings in Hollywood history. Loy later referred to The Thin Man as the film "that finally made me ... after more than 80 films".

Her successes in Manhattan Melodrama and The Thin Man marked a turning point in her career, and she was cast in more important pictures. Such films as Wife vs. Secretary (1936) with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, and Petticoat Fever (1936) with Robert Montgomery gave her opportunity to develop comedic skills. She made four films in close succession with William Powell: Libeled Lady (1936), which also starred Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy, The Great Ziegfeld (1936), in which she played Billie Burke opposite Powell's Florenz Ziegfeld, the second Thin Man film, After the Thin Man with Powell and James Stewart, and the romantic comedy Double Wedding (1937). She also made three more films with Gable.

Parnell (1937) was a historical drama and one of the most poorly received films of either Loy or Gable's careers, but their other pairings in Test Pilot and Too Hot to Handle (both 1938) were successes. During this period, Loy was one of Hollywood's busiest and highest-paid actresses, and in 1937 and 1938, she was listed in the annual "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars", which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the United States for the stars who had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year.

By this time, Loy was highly regarded for her performances in romantic comedies, and she was anxious to demonstrate her dramatic ability, and was cast in the lead female role in The Rains Came (1939) opposite Tyrone Power. She filmed Third Finger, Left Hand (1940) with Melvyn Douglas and appeared in I Love You Again (1940), Love Crazy (1941), and Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), all with William Powell.

With the outbreak of World War II, Loy all but abandoned her acting career to focus on the war effort and work 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. She returned to films with The Thin Man Goes Home (1945). In 1946, she played the wife of returning serviceman Fredric March in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Loy was paired with Cary Grant in David O. Selznick's The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947). The film co-starred a teenaged 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). Throughout her career, she championed the rights of black actors and characters to be depicted with dignity on film.

Later career

After 1950, Loy's film career continued sporadically. In 1952, she starred in the Cheaper by the Dozen sequel, Belles on Their Toes. In 1956, she appeared in The Ambassador's Daughter along with John Forsythe and Olivia de Haviland. She played opposite Montgomery Clift and Robert Ryan in Lonelyhearts (1958), Dore Schary's adaptation of Nathanael West's classic 1933 novel Miss Lonelyhearts. In 1960, she appeared in Midnight Lace and From the Terrace, but was not in another film until 1969 in The April Fools. In 1965, Loy won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. In 1967, she appeared in the television series The Virginian in an episode titled "Lady of the House". In 1972, she appeared as the suspect's mother-in-law in the television series Columbo in an episode titled "Etude in Black". In 1974, she was a supporting actress in Airport 1975. Loy played Mrs. Devane, a heavy-drinking woman, imbibing Jim Beam and Olympia Beer mixed together. She played a foil to Sid Caesar. The film also starred Gloria Swanson. In 1978, she appeared in the film The End as the mother of the main character played by Burt Reynolds. Her last motion picture performance was in 1980 in Sidney Lumet's Just Tell Me What You Want. She also returned to the stage, making her Broadway debut in a short-lived 1973 revival of Clare Boothe Luce's The Women. She toured in a 1978 production of Alan Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking, directed by David Clayton.

In 1981, she appeared in the television drama Summer Solstice, which was Henry Fonda's last performance. Her last acting role was a guest spot on the sitcom Love, Sidney, in 1982.

Later years

In later life, she assumed an influential role as co-chairman of the Advisory Council of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing. In 1948, she became a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, the first Hollywood celebrity to do so. Loy had two mastectomies, in 1975 and 1979, for breast cancer.

Her autobiography, Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming, was published in 1987. The following year, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center. Although Loy was never nominated for an Academy Award for any single performance, after an extensive letter-writing campaign and years of lobbying by screenwriter and then-Writers Guild of America, West board member Michael Russnow, who enlisted the support of Loy's former screen colleagues and friends such as Roddy McDowall, Sidney Sheldon, Harold Russell, and many others, she received a 1991 Academy Honorary Award "for her career achievement". She accepted via camera from her New York City home, simply stating, "You've made me very happy. Thank you very much." It was her last public appearance in any medium.

Death and legacy

Loy died on December 14, 1993, at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan during unspecified surgery after a long illness. She was 88 years old. She had been frail and in failing health. She was cremated in New York and her ashes interred at Forestvale Cemetery in her native Helena, Montana.

For her contribution to the film industry, Myrna Loy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6685 Hollywood Boulevard.

A building at Sony Pictures Studios, formerly MGM Studios, in Culver City is named in her honor. A cast of her handprint and her signature are in the sidewalk in front of Theater 80, on St. Mark's Place in New York City.

In 1991, the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing and Media Arts opened in downtown Helena, not far from Loy's childhood home. Located in the historic Lewis and Clark County Jail, it sponsors live performances and alternative films for underserved audiences.

Personal life

Loy was married and divorced four times:

Loy had no children of her own, but was close to her stepchildren by first husband Arthur Hornblow. After her last marriage ended, she moved to 23 East 74th Street in Manhattan's Upper East Side. She later lived at 425 East 63rd Street.

There were rumors that Myrna Loy had affairs with:

Even before Loy became a staunch Democrat, one of her biggest fans was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who invited her to the White House early in his administration, and she soon became a personal friend of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Regarding her faith, Loy stated in a 1970 interview that she was a Methodist and that she was very proud of her Welsh roots on her father's side.