Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy (born August 2, 1905, Radersburg, Montana, U.S.—died December 14, 1993, New York, New York) was an American motion-picture actress who began her screen career playing treacherous femmes fatales and who attained stardom during the 1930s in roles as glib, resourceful sophisticates. Dubbed the “Queen of Hollywood” during her heyday, Loy was often promoted by her studio as every man’s “dream wife.”

Loy was the daughter of a rancher and moved to Los Angeles in 1918, working first as a dancer in a chorus line, then as a bit player in the 1925 production of Ben-Hur. Her small role as an exotic mistress fixed her film style for the next decade. In her subsequent and increasingly important roles—such as those in Arrowsmith (1931), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), and Love Me Tonight (1932)—Loy personified the foreign vamp for American audiences. She broke out of this screen mold with her role as a wise and worldly paramour torn between a rogue gambler (Clark Gable) and a straitlaced attorney (William Powell) in Manhattan Melodrama (1934). She and Powell again teamed to portray the husband-and-wife detective team of Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934). An enormously effective screen partnership, Loy and Powell appeared in 13 films together, often as the witty, sophisticated, martini-loving Charleses or as characters not far removed from them. The popularity of The Thin Man spawned numerous sequels, with After the Thin Man (1936) frequently cited as the best film in the series. Loy’s other standout films of the period include The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Libeled Lady (1936), Test Pilot (1938), The Rains Came (1939), I Love You Again (1940), and Love Crazy (1941). Loy’s screen persona appealed to men and women: she evinced equality in a male-dominated world (or at least emerged wiser and more level-headed than her male counterparts in roles that called for her to be the subservient spouse), and her combination of beauty and brains made male audiences regard her as the ideal mate.

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During World War II she worked with the American Red Cross and later served as a representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Loy appeared on-screen less frequently after the war, dividing her time between acting and political causes. She was an officer and adviser of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing and was a member of the Committee for the First Amendment, a group of prominent Hollywood actors who protested the actions of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Nevertheless, she still delivered excellent performances in such well-received films as The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), The Red Pony (1949), and Cheaper by the Dozen (1950). In her later years Loy toured extensively in stage productions and occasionally accepted character roles in films. One of her final roles came in Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), a middling comedy made worthwhile by Loy’s scene-stealing performance. She was awarded an honorary Oscar for life achievement in 1991.