Myrna Loy

Witty and beautiful, American actress Myrna Loy found lasting fame thanks to her portrayal of Dashiell Hammett's Nora Charles. Born in Helena, Montana, the actress relocated as a child with her family to Los Angeles. She began appearing around LA as a dancer in her teens. She was soon acting in small parts in silent films, making her screen debut as a dancer in "Pretty Ladies" (1925). Between 1925 and 1930, Loy appeared in 54 films, including a brief appearance in the first feature with sound, "The Jazz Singer" (1927). Besides showcasing her skills as a dancer, the actress was typically used as a young temptress in these roles, and was frequently used to play Asian characters. She began graduating to larger roles in the early-'30s, starring opposite Will Rogers in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1931) and "Love Me Tonight" (1932) with Maurice Chevalier. She also played social-climbing Becky Sharp in "Vanity Fair" (1932). She was cast opposite Clark Gable in "Manhattan Melodrama" (1934), a film that also featured William Powell. Shortly thereafter, Loy and Powell began one of Hollywood's most historic pairings when the played socialite detectives Nick and Nora Charles in "The Thin Man" (1934). The duo went on to play Hammett's characters in five sequels. Outside of the series, they also starred together in six additional films, including "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) and "Love Crazy" (1941). Dubbed the "Queen of the Movies" during her heyday, she was paired multiple times with Gable, "The King," most notably in "Too Hot to Handle" (1938). During World War II, she took a break from acting to work with the Red Cross. After the war, she starred in the Oscar-winning "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) about veterans returning home. After frequently playing an idealized wife, she moved to playing idealized mother characters in popular films like "Cheaper By the Dozen" (1950). She also formed yet another on-screen partnership, this time with Cary Grant, in the box-office hits "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" (1947) and "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream Home" (1948). During the 1950s, Loy began working more on television and in supporting roles, including starring in a TV adaption of the Judy Garland hit, "Meet Me in St. Louis" (CBS, 1959). For the rest of her career, she primarily appeared in guest roles on TV series such as "Family Affair" (CBS, 1966-71) and "Columbo" (NBC, 1968-78), and a series of television movies, including a late-career pairing with Henry Fonda in "Summer Solstice" (1981). In the '60s and '70s, she also began a new chapter in her career by appearing in various stage productions. In feature films, she joined an all-star cast for the disaster film "Airport 1975" and appeared in the Burt Reynolds comedy "The End" (1978). Her last on-screen performance was a guest role on the Tony Randall sitcom, "Love, Sydney" (NBC, 1981-83) in 1982. After a long illness, Loy passed away during surgery on December 14, 1993 at the age of 88.