30 Years of Brilliance: 1930-1959
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress whose prolific, 129 movie career started in Silent movies and who rose to fame and Hollywood stardom through her appearances in the popular 'Thin Man' series of the early 1930's, with William Powell. During this time she completely changed her image from seductive 'femme fatale' to witty, urbane, wholesome woman next door, the perfect wife and companion. By the mid 1930's she was so popular with the moviegoing public that she had become the highest paid actress in Hollywood and in a popular newspaper had been voted 'Queen' of Hollywood to Clark Gable's 'King'.
Myrna was ladylike and appeared demure but with a wicked sense of humor. She has been called the 'best actress never to have been nominated for any Oscars' but she was one of Hollywood's most popular leading ladies through the 1940s, and in 1990 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented her with an honorary award for career achievement.
Myrna's mother had studied music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago and she began to hold musical soirees at the family's new home in Culver City. Myrna had inherited her mother's artisitic leaning and she and her friends staged dance recitals on the front lawn as part of the soirees. As well as normal schooling, Myrna also received additional music and ballet lessons and she began to nurture an ambition to become an actress after an evening at the theater to see Maeterlinck's 'The Blue Bird'.
She left school at 18 and began working as a dancer at the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Movie House as one of a troupe who acted as scene-setters for the main movie itself. She gained valuable stage experience during her dancing career and her movie break came when publicity photos for the Movie House, but which featured Myrna, were seen by Rudolph Valentino. His wife, Winifred Shaunessy, whose stage name was Natacha Rambova, arranged for screen tests for Myrna and she eventually got a part as an extra in MGM's silent version of Ben Hur in 1925. In the same year Warner Brothers signed her up to a 7 year contract and also changed her name to Myrna Loy.
She started her career by being given role after role as an exotic and mysterious asiatic beauty, partly because of her almond-shaped eyes, in films such as 'Exquisite Sinner' and 'Don Juan' in 1926, 'The Squall' in 1929 and 'Consolation Marriage' in 1931. With the early Talkies she continued in the same mold in movies such as 'The Black Watch in 1929, 'A Connecticut Yankee' in 1931, 'Thirteen Women' in 1932, and 'The Mask of Fu Manchu' in 1932. Just as it seemed she was going to be typecast in the vamp role she was able to break out with several excellent performances in different roles, and in 1932, after signing with MGM she played her first comedy role - Valentine in Rouben Mamoulian's musical masterpiece 'Love Me Tonight' with Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier.
She continued to show the new side to her acting talents in 'The Animal Kingdom' in 1932 and 'When Ladies Meet' the following year and brought her trademark genteel but very real sexiness opposite John Barrymore in'Topaze' in 1933. Another excellent performance in 'Penthouse' in 1933 persuaded MGM to give her a starring role in 1934 as Nora Charles in the first of the 'Thin Man' series with William Powell, who was at the time, one of the biggest male stars in Hollywood.
'The Thin Man' became one of the biggest hits of 1934, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film. Myrna's reviews were excellent and she was acclaimed for her newly discovered comedic skills. From the start she and William Powell liked each other and acted well together and they became one of the most popular screen couples of the time. Their partnership was to be one of Hollywood's most prolific on-screen pairings, and they appeared in 14 films together, 6 of them in the 'Thin Man' series.
'The Thin Man' and subsequent films made Myrna into a fully fledged Hollywood star and established her new image as a smart, capable, and sexy modern wife. Her sultry vamp image was gone for ever and she was afterwards cast in bigger roles in more important movies.
Between 1934 and 1939 she made 21 movies, including outstanding successes like 'Manhattan Melodrama' in 1934, the film immortalised by John Dillinger, who watched it before being gunned down, 'The Great Ziegfeld', 'Libeled Lady', 'Wife vs. Secretary' all in 1936, and 'Test Pilot' and 'Too Hot to Handle' in 1938. In 1937, Myrna and Clark Gable were voted "King and Queen of Hollywood" in a nationwide poll of newspapers. During this time she was one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood and her celebrity status was such that 'Men-Must-Marry-Myrna' Clubs were formed. James Stewart, then an up-and-coming young star declared that he would "only marry Myrna Loy".
Myrna was active during WWII in money raising activities for War Relief and she took an active interest in Red Cross work and selling war bonds. Immediately after the war she left MGM after 15 years and was free and able to choose her own movies. She renewed her successful career with a much-praised, sympathetic performance opposite Fredric March in William Wyler's Oscar-winning masterpiece, 'The Best Years of Our Lives' in 1946, which many consider to be her best ever movie. Her popularity had not diminished and in swift succession she made 'Song of the Thin Man', the last of the series, in 1947, then, with Cary Grant, 'The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer' in the same year, and 'Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House' in 1948. She continued with 'The Red Pony' in 1949, 'Cheaper by the Dozen' with Clifton Webb in 1950, and its sequel 'Belles on Their Toes' in 1952. All were big box-office successes.
After 1952 the roles became fewer and fewer as producers and directors inevitably began to look for younger talent. In 1960 she appeared in 'Midnight Lace' and then, in 1963, after much persuasion from friends and colleagues, she went into stage acting, in 'Marriage-go-Round'. It was a new outlet for Myrna's talents and she began to appear often in theatrical productions. In 1965 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. She made her Broadway debut in 1973 in a revival of 'The Women' and she became a founder member of the American Place Theatre, a non-profit theatre set up to help the development of new plays and playwrights. Myrna was cast by Burt Reynolds as his mother in 'The End' in 1978 and her last motion picture was Sidney Lumet's 'Just Tell Me What You Want' in 1980.
In the latter part of her life Myrna was politically very active. She was a a founding member of The Committee for the First Amendment, an action group formed in September 1947 by actors in support of the Hollywood Ten during the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee and she proved tok be a formidable and influential opponent of Hollywood ‘witch-hunt’ blacklisting. She also carved out a role as a highly respected spokesperson for international social issues. A supporter of the UN and a prominent figure in UNESCO, she also served on the Civil Rights Commission.
During the 1970's Myrna survived breast cancer and had two masectomies. In 1987 she published her autobiography, 'Being and Becoming', reflecting on her life and career. She died in 1993 in New York City aged 88. Her ashes were interred at Forestvale Cemetery, in Helena, Montana. Also in Helena, The Myrna Loy Center, named in her honor, hosts movies, educational programs, and live performances. Myrna never won an Oscar for her achievements but she is still regarded as one of the brightest stars from Hollywood's Golden Age.
