Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 - December 14, 1993) was
a United States motion picture actor|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 Radersburg,
Montana|Radersburg (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 in film|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 in film|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 Democratic Party.  Her
film career continued sporadically (in 1960 in
film|1960 she appeared in Midnight Lace and From
the Terrace, and was not in another until 1969|'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 battling breast cancer and enduring 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.

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

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 film)|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 (TV)|Summer Solstice (1981) (TV)

==External links==
* http://www.classicactresses.com/myrna.html Myrna
Loy at Classic Actresses
*imdb name|id=0001485|name=Myrna Loy
*http://www.myrnaloycenter.com/"The Myrna Loy
Centre", Helena, Montana, official site
*http://members.aol.com/alisaahunt/myrna/myrna.htm
Myrna Loy tribute site