Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy was born on Aug 02, 1905 in USA. Myrna Loy's big-screen debut came with Pretty Ladies directed by Monta Bell in 1925. Myrna Loy is known for Summer Solstice directed by Ralph Rosenblum, Henry Fonda stars as Joshua and Myrna Loy as Margaret. The most recent award Myrna Loy achieved is Academy Awards, USA. The upcoming new movie Myrna Loy plays is Summer Solstice which will be released on Dec 30, 1981.

Myrna Williams, later to become Myrna Loy, was born on August 2, 1905 in Helena, Montana. Her father was the youngest person ever elected to the Montana State legislature. Later on her family moved to Radersburg where she spent her youth on a cattle ranch. At the age of 13, Myrna's father died of influenza and the rest of the family moved to Los Angeles. She was educated in L.A. at the Westlake School for Girls where she caught the acting bug. She started at the age of 15 when she appeared in local stage productions in order to help support her family. Some of the stage plays were held in the now famous Grauman's Theater in Hollywood. Mrs. Rudolph Valentino happened to be in the audience one night who managed to pull some strings to get Myrna some parts in the motion picture industry. Her first film was a small part in the production of What Price Beauty? (1925). Later she appeared the same year in Les feux de la rampe (1925) along with Joan Crawford. She was one of the few stars that would start in silent movies and make a successful transition into the sound era. In the silent films, Myrna would appear as an exotic femme fatale. Later in the sound era, she would become a refined, wholesome character. Unable to land a contract with MGM, she continued to appear in small, bit roles, nothing that one could really call acting. In 1926, Myrna appeared in the Warner Brothers film called Satan in Sables (1925) which, at long last, landed her a contract. Her first appearance as a contract player was Pourvu que ça dure (1926) where she played a maid. Although she was typecast over and over again as a vamp, Myrna continued to stay busy with small parts. Finally, in 1927, she received star billing in Bitter Apples (1927). The excitement was short lived as she returned to the usual smaller roles afterward. Myrna would take any role that would give her exposure and showcase the talent she felt was being wasted. It seemed that she would play one vamp after another. She wanted something better. Finally her contract ran out with WB and she signed with MGM where she got two meaty roles. One was in the Un coeur, deux poings (1933), and the other as Nora Charles in L'introuvable (1934) with William Powell. Most agreed that the Thin Man series would never have been successful without Myrna. Her witty perception of situations gave her the image that one could not pull a fast one over on the no-nonsense Mrs. Charles. After The Thin Man, Myrna would appear in five more in the series. Myrna was a big box-office draw. She was popular enough that, in 1936, she was named Queen of the Movies and Clark Gable the king in a nationwide poll of movie goers. Her popularity was at its zenith. With the outbreak of World War II, Myrna all but abandoned her acting career to focus on the war effort. After making Folie douce (1941) in 1941, Myrna more or less stayed away from Hollywood for five years. She broke this hiatus to appear in two Thin Man sequels while devoting most of her time working with the Red Cross. When she did return her star quality had not diminished a bit, as evidenced by her headlining Les Plus Belles Années de notre vie (1946). The film did superbly at the box-office, winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1947. With her career in high gear again, Myrna played opposite Cary Grant in back-to-back hits Deux soeurs vivaient en paix... (1947) and Un million clefs en main (1948). She continued to make films through the '50s but the roles started getting fewer, her biggest success coming at the start of that decade with Treize à la douzaine (1950). By the 1960s the parts had all but dried up as producers and directors looked elsewhere for talent. In 1960 she appeared in Piège à minuit (1960) and was not in another film until 1969 in Folies d'avril (1969). The 1970s found her mainly in TV movies, not theatrical productions, except for small roles in 747 en péril (1974) and Suicidez-moi docteur (1978). Her last film was in 1981 called Summer Solstice (1981), and her final acting credit was a guest spot on the sitcom Love, Sidney (1981) in 1982. By the time Myrna passed away, on December 14, 1993, at the age of 88, she had appeared in a phenomenal 129 motion pictures. She was buried in Helena, Montana.