Filmography
1925
What Price Beauty?
The Wanderer
Pretty Ladies
Sporting Life
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
1926
The Caveman
The Love Toy
Why Girls Go Back Home
The Gilded Highway
The Exquisite Sinner
So This is Paris
Don Juan
Across the Pacific
The Third Degree
1927
Finger Prints
When a Man Loves
Bitter Apples
The Climbers
Simple Sis
The Heart of Maryland
A Sailor’s Sweetheart
The Jazz Singer
The Girl from Chicago
If I Were Single
Ham and Eggs at the Front
1928
Beware of Married Men
A Girl in Every Port
Turn Back the Hours
The Crimson City
Pay as You Enter
State Street Sadie
The Midnight Taxi
Noah’s Ark
1929
Fancy Baggage
Hardboiled Rose
The Desert Song
The Black Watch
The Squall
The Great Divide
Evidence
The Show of Shows
1930
Cameo Kirby
Isle of Escape
Under a Texas Moon
Cock o’ the Walk
Bride of the Regiment
The Last of the Duanes
The Jazz Cinderella
The Bad Man
Renegades
The Truth About Youth
Rogue of the Rio Grande
The Devil to Pay!
1931
The Naughty Flirt
Body and Soul
A Connecticut Yankee
Hush Money
Rebound
Transatlantic
Skyline
Consolation Marriage
1932
Emma
Vanity Fair
The Wet Parade
The Woman in Room 13
New Morals for Old
Love Me Tonight
Thirteen Women
The Mask of Fu Manchu
The Animal Kingdom
The Woman in His House (UK)
1933
Topaze
The Barbarian
When Ladies Meet
Penthouse
Night Flight
Scarlet River
1934
Stamboul Quest
Evelyn Prentice
Broadway Bill
Strictly Confidential (UK)
1935
Wings in the Dark
Whipsaw
1936
Petticoat Fever
To Mary – with Love
1937
Parnell
Double Wedding
1938
Man-Proof
Too Hot to Handle
Another Romance of Celluloid
1939
Lucky Night
The Rains Came
Another Thin Man
1940
Third Finger, Left Hand
Northward, Ho!
1941
Love Crazy
1943
Show Business at War
1945
The Thin Man Goes Home
1946
So Goes My Love
A Genius in the Family (UK)
1947
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
Bachelor Knight (UK)
The Senator Was Indiscreet
Mr. Ashton Was Indiscreet (UK)
1948
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
1949
The Red Pony
That Dangerous Age
If This Be Sin
1950
1952
Belles on Their Toes
1956
The Ambassador’s Daughter
1958
Lonelyhearts
1960
From the Terrace
Midnight Lace
1969
The April Fools
1974
Airport 1975
1978
The End
1980
Just Tell Me What You Want
Awards
She received an honorary Academy Award in 1991 in recognition of her extraordinary qualities both on screen and off, with appreciation for a lifetime’s worth of indelible performances.
Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming. ~ Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy: Learn more about her, review her filmography and more
Myrna Loy was born Myrna Adele Williams on August 2, 1905 in Helena, Montana. At the age of thirteen, Myrna’s father died of influenza, and the family moved to Los Angeles. She was educated in L.A. at the Westlake School for Girls where she caught the acting bug. She started at the age of 15 when she appeared in local stage productions in order to help support her family. Some of the plays were held in the now famous Grauman’s Theater in Hollywood. Mrs. Rudolph Valentino happened to be in the audience one night and she managed to get Myrna some parts in motion pictures
Her first film was a small part in the production of What Price Beauty? (1925). Later that year, she appeared in Pretty Ladies along with Joan Crawford . She was one of the few stars that would start in the silent movies and make a successful transition into the sound era. In her silent films, Myrna would appear as a exotic, femme fatale. Later in the sound era, she would become a refined, wholesome character.
Unable to land a contract with MGM, she continued to appear in small, bit roles, nothing that one could really call acting. In 1926, Myrna appeared in the Warner Brothers film called Satan in Sables (1925) which landed her a contract. Her first appearance as a contract player was The Caveman (1926) where she played a maid. Although she was typecast over and over again as a vamp, Myrna continued to stay busy with small parts. Finally, in 1927, she received star billing in Bitter Apples (1927). The excitement was short lived as she returned to the usual smaller roles afterward.
Myrna would take any role that would give her exposure and showcase the talent she felt was being wasted. She wanted roles other than being a vamp. Finally her contract ran out with Warner and she signed with MGM where she got two larger roles. One was in the The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933), and the other as Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934) with William Powell . Most agreed that the Thin Man series would never have been successful without Myrna. Her witty perception of situations gave her the image that one could not pull a fast one over on the no-nonsense Mrs. Charles. After The Thin Man (1934), Myrna would appear in five more in the series. Myrna was a big box-office draw. She was popular enough that, in 1936, she was named Queen of the Movies and Clark Gable the king in a nationwide poll of movie goers. Her popularity was at its highest point. She gave up her movie career during World War II and instead worked for the Red Cross. She continued to make films after the War and into the 1950s but the roles were fewer and fewer. By the 1960’s the parts had all but dried up.
In 1960, she appeared in Midnight Lace and was not in another until 1969 in The April Fools (1969). The 1970s found her in TV movies, including Columbo. Her last film was in 1981 called Summer Solstice (1981).
By the time Myrna passed away, on December 14, 1993, at the age of 88, she had appeared in a phenomenal 129 motion pictures. She was buried in Helena, Montana.
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