Myrna Loy

American actress whose political views took her into prominence in UNESCO. She received a best actress award at the Brussels World Film Festival for "Best Years of Our Lives," 1946, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for career achievement, 1983, the Kennedy Center Honor in 1988 and an honorary Oscar in 1991.

The first of two children born into a pioneer family, Myrna began dancing at the age of three. Her dad, a cattleman's son who became a state representative, died of influenza and was buried on 11 November 1918. Her mom moved the children to Los Angeles shortly after so Myrna would benefit from a cultural environment. She left Westgate School for Girls due to short finances and attended Venice High School. Her art teacher had her pose for a statue he sculpted that is still on the campus. She was teaching dancing to children and dancing at Grauman's theater when she was discovered.

When she began films, thinking Williams too common, she took the name Loy which suited her parts as a Eurasian. She played vamps in over 80 films before coming into her own as the perfect wife, sophisticated and glamorous Nora in the "Thin Man" series of 13 films. The hit series, with William Powell as her foil, completed the first of the sequence in two weeks in 1934. Loy was the first actress to challenge the system, renegotiate a contract and receive equal pay for equal work.

She starred with and was pursued by some of Hollywood's biggest stars but she remained at home taking care of her mom and brother until she was 27. She was named Queen of Hollywood in 1937. At the beginning of World War II Loy moved to New York to work for the Red Cross, making only one film during the war. In 1947 she sued a magazine for $1 million when she was accused of being a sponsor of a communist front organization but dropped the suit when a retraction was published. The same year she played in "Song of the Thin Man" in exchange for release from her MGM contract.