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
- Airport 1975 as Mrs. Devaney
- Indict and Convict as Judge Christine Tayloy
- The Elevator as Amanda Kenyon
1973
1972
- Hollywood: The Dream Factory as Self (archive footage)
- The Couple Takes a Wife as Barbara's Mother
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 Virginian as Mrs. Miles
- The Merv Griffin Show as Self
1961
- The Mike Douglas Show as Self
- The Legend of Rudolph Valentino as Self (archive footage)
1960
- Midnight Lace as Aunt Bea
- From the Terrace as Martha Eaton
1959
- The DuPont Show with June Allyson as Mary Sidney
- Lonelyhearts as Florence Shrike
- Meet Me in St. Louis as Anna Smith
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
- Song of the Thin Man as Nora Charles
- The Senator Was Indiscreet as Mrs. Ashton (uncredited)
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
- Love Crazy as Susan Ireland
- Shadow of the Thin Man as Nora Charles
1940
- Hollywood: Style Center of the World as Self
- A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound as Self
- I Love You Again as Kay Wilson
- Third Finger, Left Hand as Margot Sherwood Merrick
- Trifles of Importance as Self (archive footage)
- Northward, Ho! as Herself
1939
- Another Thin Man as Nora Charles
- The Rains Came as Lady Edwina Esketh
- From the Ends of the Earth as Self
- Lucky Night as Cora Jordan
1938
- Test Pilot as Ann "Thursday" Barton
- Too Hot to Handle as Alma Harding
- Man-Proof as Mimi Swift
- Another Romance of Celluloid as Self (uncredited)
1937
- Double Wedding as Margit Agnew
- The Romance of Celluloid as Self (archive footage)
- Parnell as Katie O'Shea
1936
- The Great Ziegfeld as Billie Burke
- Wife vs. Secretary as Linda Stanhope
- After the Thin Man as Nora Charles
- Libeled Lady as Constance 'Connie' Allenbury
- To Mary - with Love as Mary Wallace
- Petticoat Fever as Irene Campton
1935
- Whipsaw as Vivian Palmer
- Wings in the Dark as Sheila Mason
1934
- The Thin Man as Nora Charles
- Manhattan Melodrama as Eleanor Packer
- Broadway Bill as Alice 'Princess' Higgins
- Stamboul Quest as Annemarie, aka Fräulein Doktor and Helena Bohlen
- Men in White as Laura Hudson
- Evelyn Prentice as Evelyn Prentice
1933
- Penthouse as Gertie Waxted
- The Prizefighter and the Lady as Belle Mercer
- Topaze as Coco
- The Barbarian as Diana 'Di' Standing
- Night Flight as Wife of Brazilian Pilot
- Scarlet River as Herself (uncredited)
- When Ladies Meet as Mary
1932
- The Mask of Fu Manchu as Fah Lo See
- Love Me Tonight as Countess Valentine
- Emma as Isabelle
- Thirteen Women as Ursula Georgi
- Vanity Fair as Becky Sharp
- The Animal Kingdom as Cecelia Henry Collier
- The Wet Parade as Eileen Pinchon
- The Woman in Room 13 as Sari Loder
- New Morals for Old as Myra
1931
- Arrowsmith as Joyce Lanyon
- Body and Soul as Alice Lester
- A Connecticut Yankee as Queen Morgan le Fay / Evil Sister in Mansion
- Transatlantic as Kay Graham
- Skyline as Paula Lambert
- Hush Money as Flo Curtis
- The Naughty Flirt as Linda Gregory
- Consolation Marriage as Elaine Brandon
- Rebound as Evie Lawrence
1930
- The Devil to Pay! as Mary Crayle
- The Last of the Duanes as Lola Bland
- Renegades as Eleanore
- Cameo Kirby as Lea
- Under a Texas Moon as Lolita Romero
- Cock o' the Walk as Narita
- The Jazz Cinderella as Mildred Vane
- The Truth About Youth as Kara
- Isle of Escape as Moira
- Bride of the Regiment as Sophie
- The Bad Man as (uncredited)
- Rogue of the Rio Grande as Carmita
1929
- The Squall as Nubi
- The Desert Song as Azuri
- The Show of Shows as Performer in 'What Became of the Floradora Boys' & 'Chinese Fantasy' Numbers
- The Great Divide as Manuella
- Fancy Baggage as Myrna
- The Black Watch as Yasmani
- Evidence as Native Girl
- Hardboiled Rose as Rose Duhamel
1928
- Noah's Ark as Showgirl / Slave Girl
- A Girl in Every Port as Jetta - Girl in Singapore (uncredited)
- Beware of Married Men as Juanita Sheldon
- The Crimson City as Isobel
- State Street Sadie as Sadie
- The Midnight Taxi as Gertie Fairfax
- What Price Beauty? as Vamp
- Turn Back the Hours as Tiza Torreon
- Pay as You Enter as Yvonne De Russo
1927
- The Jazz Singer as Chorus Girl (uncredited)
- Finger Prints as Vamp
- The Heart of Maryland as Mulatta
- When a Man Loves as Convict Behind Manon (uncredited)
- The Girl from Chicago as Mary Carlton
- Ham and Eggs at the Front as Fifi
- The Climbers as Countess Veya
- A Sailor's Sweetheart as Claudette Ralston
- If I Were Single as Joan Whitley
- Bitter Apples as Belinda White
- Simple Sis
1926
- Don Juan as Mai - Lady in Waiting
- The Gilded Highway as Inez Quartz
- So This Is Paris as Lalle's Maid (uncredited)
- The Love Toy as Bit Part (uncredited)
- Across the Pacific as Roma
- The Third Degree as Bit Part (uncredited)
- Why Girls Go Back Home as Sally Short
- The Exquisite Sinner as Living Statue
- The Cave Man as Maid
1925
- Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ as Slave Girl (uncredited)
- 1925 Studio Tour as Self (uncredited)
- Pretty Ladies as Showgirl (uncredited)
- The Wanderer as Girl at Baccanal (uncredited)
- Sporting Life as Chorus Girl with Lord Wainwright (uncredited)