Myrna Loy
Born: 1905-08-02 in Radersburg, Montana, USA
Died: 1993-12-14
Known For: Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934). Her successful pairing with William Powell resulted in 14 films together, including five subsequent Thin Man films. Although Loy was never nominated for a competitive Academy Award, in March 1991 she was presented with an Honorary Academy Award with the inscription "In recognition of her extraordinary qualities both on screen and off, with appreciation for a lifetime's worth of indelible performances." During World War II, Loy served as assistant to the director of military and naval welfare for the Red Cross. She was later appointed a member-at-large of the U.S. Commission to UNESCO. Her acting career by no means ended in the 1940s. She continued to actively pursue stage and television appearances in addition to films in subsequent decades.
Filmography
2009
- 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year as Self (archive footage)
2008
- Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood as Gertie Waxted (archive footage)
2007
- Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema as Self (archive footage)
2003
- Complicated Women as Self (archive footage)
1994
- That's Entertainment! III as (archive footage)
1990
- Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To as (archive footage)
1988
- American Experience as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1987
- James Stewart: A Wonderful Life as Self (archive footage)
1986
- The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn as Self (archive footage)
1982
- Night of 100 Stars as Self
1981
- Summer Solstice as Margaret
1980
- Just Tell Me What You Want as Stella Liberti
1978
- The Kennedy Center Honors as Self
- The End as Maureen Lawson
1977
- It Happened at Lakewood Manor as Ethel
1976
- That's Entertainment, Part II as (archive footage)
1975
- Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? as Self (archive footage)
1974
- The Elevator as Amanda Kenyon
- Airport 1975 as Mrs. Devaney
- Indict and Convict as Judge Christine Tayloy
1973
1972
- The Couple Takes a Wife as Barbara's Mother
- Hollywood: The Dream Factory as Self (archive footage)
1971
- Columbo as Lizzi Fielding
- Death Takes a Holiday as Selena Chapman
- Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate as Evelyn Tryon
1969
- The April Fools as Grace Greenlaw
1967
- Ironside as Andrea Wollcott
1966
1964
- The Big Parade of Comedy as Nora Charles (archive footage)
1962
- The Merv Griffin Show as Self
- The Virginian as Mrs. Miles
1961
- The Mike Douglas Show as Self
- The Legend of Rudolph Valentino as Self (archive footage)
1960
- From the Terrace as Martha Eaton
- Midnight Lace as Aunt Bea
1959
- The DuPont Show with June Allyson as Mary Sidney
- Meet Me in St. Louis as Anna Smith
- Lonelyhearts as Florence Shrike
1956
- The Ambassador's Daughter as Mrs. Cartwright
1954
- The George Gobel Show as Self
1953
- General Electric Theater as Kate Kennedy
1952
- Belles on Their Toes as Lillian Gilbreth
1951
- Schlitz Playhouse of Stars as Nancy Knox
1950
- What's My Line? as Self - Mystery Guest
- Cheaper by the Dozen as Lillian Gilbreth
1949
- The Red Pony as Alice Tiflin
- That Dangerous Age as Lady Cathy Brooke
1948
- Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House as Muriel Blandings
1947
- The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer as Judge Margaret Turner
- The Senator Was Indiscreet as Mrs. Ashton (uncredited)
- Song of the Thin Man as Nora Charles
1946
- The Best Years of Our Lives as Milly Stephenson
- So Goes My Love as Jane Budden Maxim
1944
- The Thin Man Goes Home as Nora Charles
- Twenty Years After as (archive footage)
1943
- Show-Business at War as Self
1941
- Shadow of the Thin Man as Nora Charles
- Love Crazy as Susan Ireland
1940
- A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound as Self
- Third Finger, Left Hand as Margot Sherwood Merrick
- Trifles of Importance as Self (archive footage)
- Hollywood: Style Center of the World as Self
- I Love You Again as Kay Wilson
- Northward, Ho! as Herself
1939
- Another Thin Man as Nora Charles
- From the Ends of the Earth as Self
- The Rains Came as Lady Edwina Esketh
- Lucky Night as Cora Jordan
1938
- Too Hot to Handle as Alma Harding
- Test Pilot as Ann "Thursday" Barton
- Man-Proof as Mimi Swift
- Another Romance of Celluloid as Self (uncredited)
1937
- Parnell as Katie O'Shea
- Double Wedding as Margit Agnew
- The Romance of Celluloid as Self (archive footage)
1936
- To Mary - with Love as Mary Wallace
- The Great Ziegfeld as Billie Burke
- Libeled Lady as Constance 'Connie' Allenbury
- After the Thin Man as Nora Charles
- Wife vs. Secretary as Linda Stanhope
- Petticoat Fever as Irene Campton
1935
- Wings in the Dark as Sheila Mason
- Whipsaw as Vivian Palmer
1934
- Broadway Bill as Alice 'Princess' Higgins
- Manhattan Melodrama as Eleanor Packer
- The Thin Man as Nora Charles
- Men in White as Laura Hudson
- Evelyn Prentice as Evelyn Prentice
- Stamboul Quest as Annemarie, aka Fräulein Doktor and Helena Bohlen
1933
- The Barbarian as Diana 'Di' Standing
- Topaze as Coco
- The Prizefighter and the Lady as Belle Mercer
- Night Flight as Wife of Brazilian Pilot
- When Ladies Meet as Mary
- Penthouse as Gertie Waxted
- Scarlet River as Herself (uncredited)
1932
- The Woman in Room 13 as Sari Loder
- The Mask of Fu Manchu as Fah Lo See
- New Morals for Old as Myra
- Vanity Fair as Becky Sharp
- Love Me Tonight as Countess Valentine
- Thirteen Women as Ursula Georgi
- The Animal Kingdom as Cecelia Henry Collier
- The Wet Parade as Eileen Pinchon
- Emma as Isabelle
1931
- Consolation Marriage as Elaine Brandon
- A Connecticut Yankee as Queen Morgan le Fay / Evil Sister in Mansion
- Skyline as Paula Lambert
- Transatlantic as Kay Graham
- Hush Money as Flo Curtis
- Arrowsmith as Joyce Lanyon
- Rebound as Evie Lawrence
- Body and Soul as Alice Lester
- The Naughty Flirt as Linda Gregory
1930
- The Devil to Pay! as Mary Crayle
- The Truth About Youth as Kara
- Bride of the Regiment as Sophie
- The Last of the Duanes as Lola Bland
- The Bad Man as (uncredited)
- Under a Texas Moon as Lolita Romero
- Rogue of the Rio Grande as Carmita
- The Jazz Cinderella as Mildred Vane
- Renegades as Eleanore
- Cock o' the Walk as Narita
- Isle of Escape as Moira
- Cameo Kirby as Lea
1929
- The Black Watch as Yasmani
- The Desert Song as Azuri
- Evidence as Native Girl
- Fancy Baggage as Myrna
- The Show of Shows as Performer in 'What Became of the Floradora Boys' & 'Chinese Fantasy' Numbers
- The Great Divide as Manuella
- The Squall as Nubi
- Hardboiled Rose as Rose Duhamel
1928
- Beware of Married Men as Juanita Sheldon
- A Girl in Every Port as Jetta - Girl in Singapore (uncredited)
- Turn Back the Hours as Tiza Torreon
- What Price Beauty? as Vamp
- Noah's Ark as Showgirl / Slave Girl
- The Crimson City as Isobel
- State Street Sadie as Sadie
- Pay as You Enter as Yvonne De Russo
- The Midnight Taxi as Gertie Fairfax
1927
- Ham and Eggs at the Front as Fifi
- If I Were Single as Joan Whitley
- The Heart of Maryland as Mulatta
- The Jazz Singer as Chorus Girl (uncredited)
- When a Man Loves as Convict Behind Manon (uncredited)
- Bitter Apples as Belinda White
- The Climbers as Countess Veya
- The Girl from Chicago as Mary Carlton
- Simple Sis
- A Sailor's Sweetheart as Claudette Ralston
- Finger Prints as Vamp
1926
- Why Girls Go Back Home as Sally Short
- The Cave Man as Maid
- The Exquisite Sinner as Living Statue
- The Gilded Highway as Inez Quartz
- The Third Degree as Bit Part (uncredited)
- Don Juan as Mai - Lady in Waiting
- So This Is Paris as Lalle's Maid (uncredited)
- The Love Toy as Bit Part (uncredited)
- Across the Pacific as Roma
1925
- Pretty Ladies as Showgirl (uncredited)
- Sporting Life as Chorus Girl with Lord Wainwright (uncredited)
- Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ as Slave Girl (uncredited)
- The Wanderer as Girl at Baccanal (uncredited)
- 1925 Studio Tour as Self (uncredited)