Myrna Loy

"Life, is not a having and getting, but a being and becoming." ~ Myrna

Myrna Loy was born Myrna Adele Williams on August 2, 1905, in Helena, Montana. Her father died when she was thirteen and her family moved to California. She began her career working as an extra in films like Ben-Hur and The Jazz Singer. Myrna was usually cast as a femme fatale due to her exotic looks. In 1930 she was offered a contract with MGM. When she teamed up with William Powell to make The Thin Man her image was changed to the ideal wife. Myrna and William became one of Hollywood's most popular screen teams and made more than a dozen movies together including Libeled Lady and The Great Ziegfeld. In 1936 she married producer Arthur Hornblow Jr. and was voted the "Queen Of Hollywood" in a nationwide poll. Myrna wanted to be a mother but a botched abortion left her unable to have children. She divorced Arthur and married John Hertz Jr. of the Hertz Rent A Car family in 1942. They divorced two years later.

Her success continued with starring roles The Best Years Of Our Lives, Cheaper By The Dozen, and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Myrna's third marriage, to screenwriter Gene Marky, lasted four years. She married Howland H. Sergeant, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, in 1951 but this marriage didn't last either. Myrna continued to appear in movies and starred on Broadway in the play The Women. At the age of seventy she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo a mastectomy. After retiring from acting she published her autobiography Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming. Although Myrna was never nominated for an Oscar in 1991 she was given an honorary Academy Award for her career achievement. She died on December 14, 1993 from complications during surgery. Myrna is buried at Forestvale Cemetery in Helena, Montana.