“Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.”
–Myrna Loy
Despite her stardom, Myrna Loy is a Hollywood legend who is often overlooked. Men-Must-Marry-Myrna Clubs were formed due to her portrayal as housewife Milly Stephenson in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), a drama about WWII veterans adjusting to civilian life. Her upturned nose made her profile the most requested by 1930s women to their plastic surgeons. She was even known as “the Perfect Wife” and “Queen of Hollywood.”
According to Encyclopedia Britannica: “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.”
So, while Myrna was considered beautiful, she was typecast in more “wholesome” roles as wife, mother, or career woman, rather than overly sexualized roles. She was also praised for her versatility, succeeding in both comedic and dramatic roles. She could also adapt her acting style to match her co-stars.
Also, did you know she was once married to the founder of Hertz Rent-a-Car? Sounds too random to be true, I know. But what is often forgotten is her work with the Red Cross during World War II. (serving as assistant to the director of military and naval welfare for them.) and a member-at-large of the U.S. Commission to UNESCO.
“I shed no tears for lost youth,” she said in the early 1960s, “A woman who concentrates too much on herself is a bore. If she would substitute an interest in life for her preoccupation with ego, if she would learn to participate in some activity that contributes a service, she would find that she is receiving more than she is giving. My work with the U.N. has taken me all over the world, and I live in the present moment, not the past ones.”
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Myrna Adele Williams was born on August 2nd, 1905 (Leo), in Helena, Montana. Myrna grew up in Radersburg, Montana, a rural mining community 50 miles south of Helena. (I looked it up, and Radersburg currently has a population of 61. Wow! Wonder if any future actresses live there….) When father David was travelling by train in early 1905, he was at a small station called “Myrna'”- and named her after that.
David was a banker, real estate developer, and farmland appraiser in Helena. Elected at age 21, he was the youngest man to ever serve in the Montana State Legislature. Her mother Adelle studied music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, and considered becoming a concert pianist, but devoted her life to raising Myrna and David.
In the winter of 1912, Adelle nearly died of pneumonia. Thinking the Californian climate would heal her respiratory issues, David sent his wife to La Jolla, California, where Myrna would join her. While recovering, Adelle saw potential in Southern California’s real estate, and she encouraged him to purchase real estate there. Among the properties he bought was land that he would later sell, at a considerable profit, to filmmaker Charlie Chaplin for his film studio there. Adelle tried to persuade her husband to move to California permanently, but he preferred ranch life and the three returned to Montana. Soon afterward, Adelle needed a hysterectomy, and felt that Los Angeles would be the safest place to have it. They moved to Santa Monica, where Myrna (nicknamed “Minnie”) took dancing lessons.
At the age of 12, Myrna Williams made her stage debut in Helena, performing a dance she choreographed based on “The Blue Bird” from the Rose Dream operetta. However, the next year would not be as successful– or peaceful, for that matter. Her father died in the flu pandemic of 1918. Desperate for employment, Adelle moved her family to Culver City, California, in Los Angeles County.
In 1921, Myrna posed for sculptor Harry Fielding Winebrenner as “Inspiration”; the full-length figure was central in his allegorical sculpture group Fountain of Education. Fountain of Education was installed in front of the campus outdoor pool in May 1923 where it stood for decades. The sculpture was a “vision of purity, grace, youthful vigor, and aspiration” that was praised in a Los Angeles Times story that included a photo of the “Inspiration” figure along with the model’s name, “Myrna Williams”—the first time her name was printed in a newspaper. Fountain of Education appears in opening scenes of Grease (1978).
(While this is a cool story, it’s a little creepy to me because Harry Winebrenner also taught art at Myrna’s high school.)
While Myrna Loy was dancing at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, portrait photographer Henry Waxman took photos of her that caught the eyes of Rudolph Valentino and his wife Natacha Rambova. Myrna had this impression of Natacha:
“She was absolutely beautiful, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She always wore turbans and long, very stark dresses, usually velvet or brocade of the same golden brown as her eyes. She was breathtaking and I was scared. ‘I know they call me everything from Messalina to a dope fiend’, she disclosed to calm me, ‘but I really don’t eat little dancers for breakfast” ‘.
Valentino needed a leading lady for Cobra, the first independent film he and Natacha were producing. Myrna auditioned, but it didn’t get the role. She was hired as an extra for Pretty Ladies (1925), in which she and Joan Crawford danced in a chorus line. When she moved over to Warner Bros., they gave her a stage name inspired by Mina Loy (1882-1966).
Myrna and Joan Crawford would later become good friends. She even appeared with Joan’s adopted daughter Christina in a stage production of Barefoot in the Park. Myrna claimed Christina was an obnoxious child and that she misbehaved constantly during the play’s run. She said that while she never saw Joan hit her daughter, if anyone deserved a “good slap”, it was Christina. (Damn!)
Her first credited (if small) role was in What Price Beauty? (1928). Although her character is merely an unnamed “vamp” (or femme fatale), her performance attracted attention from moviegoers and film executives alike.
In silent and early sound films, Myrna was typecast as Asian femme fatales, the racist “dragon lady” stereotype. She said these “kind of solidified my exotic non-American image.” Later, when she was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, she expressed regret for taking these roles.
She was also starred in early Technicolor musicals, including Bride of the Regiment and Under a Texas Moon (both 1930). Bride of the Regiment had so much bawdy, Pre-Code humor that it ran into censorship problems. In one scene, Myrna (playing a dancer named Sophie) learns Colonel Vultow (Walter Pidgeon) who once made love to her has fallen for Countess Anna-Marie (Vivienne Segal). Sophie declares “I’ll get him back! I’ll dance until his blood is steaming!” and proceeds to dance seductively on top of a table.
The only reason I emphasize this role, is because it contrasts starkly with the “wholesome” characters she was best known for.
(Sadly, aside from the audio and a 20-second clip discovered in 2023, this film is considered lost.)
In 1932, Myrna began dating producer Arthur Hornblow Jr. while she was still married. (a contrast to her later wholesome persona) They married in 1936, but she was later rumored to have had affairs with co-star Spencer Tracy between 1935 and 1936. According to her autobiography, Spencer was the one who pursued her: ” ‘You don’t have to worry about me anymore,’ he said like a sulky child. ‘I’ve found the woman I want.’ As he outlined the virtues of Katharine Hepburn, I was relieved, but also a bit disappointed. As selfish as it sounds, I liked having a man like Spence in the background wanting me. It’s rather nice when nothing’s required in return.”
Sadly, Myrna would divorce him in Reno (1942), due to “mental cruelty”. Five days after the divorce, she married John D. Hertz, Jr., founder of Hertz Rent-a-Car, in New York City. They remained married for two years. (Honestly, I’m surprised they stayed together that long…considering how fast their relationship moved. Seems like she really enjoyed having a husband!) They divorced in Mexico, on August 21, 1944, with her again citing mental cruelty.
In 1934, Myrna got her big break in Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable and William Powell. This crime drama received good reviews, but the theaters weren’t exactly flooded. However, when gangster John Dillinger was shot to death after leaving a screening of the film, it received widespread publicity, with some newspapers reporting that Myrna Loy was Dillinger’s favorite actress. When Myrna learned that he was killed after seeing the film, her reaction was, “Oh, that poor man.”
Myrna is probably best known as Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934). This film follows witty, martini-loving Nick and Nora Charles as they solve a mystery– with lots of funny banter. Based on Dashiell Hammett’s novel of the same name, Nick (William Powell) is a retired private investigator who is called back to sleuthing with his fashionable society wife, Nora (Myrna Loy). Even Asta, their pet Fox Terrier, helps find clues.
(Fun fact: The title’s “Thin Man” is not Nick Charles, but the man he is hired to find – Clyde Wynant (who Nick describes as a “thin man with white hair”)
Director W.S. Van Dyke chose Myrna after he noticed she had a sense of humor that her previous films had not revealed.
However, the way he cast her was a bit…strange. At a Hollywood party, he pushed her into a swimming pool to test her reaction, and felt that the way she handled in handling the situation was exactly what he envisioned for Nora’s character. MGM head Louis B. Mayer first refused, as he felt Myrna was a dramatic actress, but Van Dyke insisted. Mayer cast her under the agreement that filming be completed within three weeks. (Myrna was committed to be in another movie.) So The Thin Man was filmed in three weeks– very fast in the movie world.
Myrna Loy, Skippy, and William Powell posing as their Thin Man characters, images not mine
The Thin Man was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Myrna was especially praised for her comedic timing and chemistry with William Powell. It was followed by five sequels: After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home, and Song of the Thin Man. She later referred to The Thin Man as the film “that finally made me… after more than 80 films.”
“Myrna Loy and William Powell are the ham and eggs, the peaches and cream, the salt and pepper of the movies,” one MGM writer noted at the release of the fourth movie, “They go together naturally as night and day.”
“I never enjoyed my work more than when I worked with William Powell,” she said, “He was a brilliant actor, a delightful companion, a great friend and, above all, a true gentleman.”
Although she and William Powell were friends, they were never romantically involved– though they were once accidentally checked into a hotel as “William and Myrna Powell.” However, he was in a relationship with Jean Harlow from 1935 until her death.
Myrna acted with Jean Harlow in two comedies: Wife vs. Secretary and Libeled Lady (both 1936). Despite being cast as complete opposites, the two were good friends, and Myrna was devastated by Jean’s sudden death in June 1937.
“Jean was always very cheerful, full of fun,” she said, “But she also happened to be a sensitive woman with a great deal of self-respect. All that other stuff – that was all put on. She wasn’t like that at all. She just happened to be a good actress who created a lively characterization that exuded sex appeal.”
With the outbreak of World War II, Myrna abandoned acting to work with the Red Cross. She was so critical of Adolf Hitler that her movies were banned in Germany. She also helped run a Naval Auxiliary canteen and toured to raise money for war efforts.
On January 3rd, 1946, she married screenwriter Gene Markey. He had been previously married to actresses Hedy Lamarr and Joan Bennett.
Success continued for Myrna, when she was cast in her most critically-acclaimed film, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Her persona as “the Perfect Wife” (she preferred Gore Vidal’s description, “the good-sex woman-wife”) meant she was the only choice to play Milly Stephenson, the wife of a returning WWII veteran. At first, she turned down the role, feeling it was “too small” but the film’s director, William Wyler, had built it up – and then, Wyler said, “she made it seem bigger than it was.”
The movie won seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (Fredric March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell), Best Film Editing (Daniel Mandell), Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert E. Sherwood), and Best Original Score (Hugo Friedhofer). Myrna didn’t win an Oscar, but a Brussels World Film Festival award for Best Actress. She said it was “probably my finest film.”
In 1948, Myrna made her second film with Cary Grant, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. It was a box office smash, with Harrison’s Reports calling it “a first-rate topical comedy farce … The story itself is a flimsy affair, but it is so rich in witty dialogue and in comedy incidents that one is kept laughing all the time.” It was loosely remade as The Money Pit (1986) and Are We Done Yet? (2007).
In this same year, she became a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO. She was the first celebrity to do so.
Throughout the 1950s, Myrna served as co-chairman of the Advisory Council of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing. Her acting career slowed in this decade, as she only acted in four films. On June 2nd, 1951, she married Howland H. Sargeant, her fourth and final husband. He was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. She had no children from any of her marriages.
As a lifelong Democrat, she criticized MGM’s racist casting choices. She said, “Why does every Black person in the movies have to play a servant? How about a Black person walking up the steps of a courthouse carrying a briefcase?” In 1960, she publicly endorsed John F. Kennedy for president, finding Richard Nixon corrupt and boorish.
However, her work wasn’t done yet. In 1960, she appeared in Midnight Lace and From the Terrace. In Midnight Lace, Myrna was convinced out of retirement for the role of Aunt Bea Vorman, the aunt of Doris Day’s protagonist. Doris found the film emotionally taxing, and even fainted on set. It’s a psychological thriller about a woman being stalked, so it’s not surprising. However, all trauma aside, Doris Day was nominated for a Golden Globe.
She also had a stage career with Marriage Go Round in 1961. She starred in three more plays: There Must Be a Pony, Good Housekeeping, and Barefoot in the Park. Park earned her a Chicago best actress award.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Myrna appeared in small roles on TV, notably Family Affair and Columbo. In 1975, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent two mastectomies– one in 1975 and the other in 1979. She kept her cancer diagnosis a secret until 1987, when she published her autobiography Being and Becoming.
Her last film performance was in the comedy Just Tell Me What You Want (1980). Although a character role as a secretary, she stole the scenes with her trademark humor. In 1988, she received a Kennedy Center Honor. She received the Academy Honorary Award 1991 “for her career achievement”. She accepted via camera from her NYC home, saying, “You’ve made me very happy. Thank you very much.”
Myrna with Lauren Bacall in 1993
(This would be her final public appearance.)
That same year, The Myrna Loy Center for the Performing and Media Arts opened in Helena, Montana. Located in the historic Lewis and Clark County Jail, it sponsors live performances and independent films for disadvantaged audiences. (This sounds like a cause she supported.)
Myrna Loy died on December 14, 1993 during surgery following an unspecified illness. She was 88 years old. Her health was declining for a while, as she was unable to attend the 1991 Academy Awards ceremony. (She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from them.) Her ashes are interred at Forestvale Cemetery in Helena, Montana.
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While Myrna Loy died over thirty years ago, she remains a popular and iconic actress of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Though best known for her witty characters and exasperated line delivery, she was also a brave person who stood up for important causes, such as the Red Cross and United Nations. The fact that she criticized Hollywood’s racist casting of people of color speaks volumes about her character. She dared to speak out against Hitler during an unpredictable time– unafraid to risk having her movies blacklisted.
It’s unfortunate that Hollywood was so sexist– splitting women into either “good wife” or “bad femme fatale”, both united by their affection for a man. (Might as well say, “Lights, camera, ovaries!”) Her typecasting as “perfect wife” led to her most successful roles, although one could argue the definition of “perfect” shifted. For example, the witty, mystery-solving Nora Charles was the opposite of gentle homemaker Milly Stephenson, but it was still typecasting nonetheless. She didn’t always feel fulfilled with this.
“It was a role no one could live up to, really,” she said, “No telling where my career would have gone if they hadn’t hung that title on me. Labels limit you, because they limit your possibilities. But that’s how they think in Hollywood.”
Despite the obstacles she faced, Myrna will always be remembered for her talent, work ethic, and, most importantly, her courage.
Curious History Girl 