--- name: "Myrna Loy" canonical: "https://film.one/person/myrna-loy" roles: ["Actor"] born: "2 August 1905" died: "14 December 1993" reviewed_on_fi1m: 6 average_fi1m_score: 76 average_as: "actor" average_over: 6 updated: "2026-09-20T01:23:02.910532+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Myrna Loy Actor. Born 2 August 1905 in Radersburg, Montana, USA. Died 14 December 1993. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 2 August 1905, Radersburg, Montana, USA - **Died:** 14 December 1993 - **Active:** 1931–1946 - **Also known as:** Мирна Лой, میرنا لوی - **Frequently works with:** [William Powell](https://film.one/person/william-powell.md), [Hunt Stromberg](https://film.one/person/hunt-stromberg.md), [Samuel Goldwyn](https://film.one/person/samuel-goldwyn.md), [Spencer Tracy](https://film.one/person/spencer-tracy.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 76, as actor, over 6 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 74 (5), 1940s 90 (1) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 79 to 79 across 3 titles - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 4 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 3 of 6 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 4, Romance 4, Comedy 2, Adventure 1, Crime 1, Music 1 - **Screen time:** 13 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $30m across 3 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrna_Loy, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105941, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001485/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13577 ## Streaming the US now - **Pluto TV:** [*The Best Years of Our Lives*](https://film.one/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives.md) (90) - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Arrowsmith*](https://film.one/film/arrowsmith.md) (70) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Myrna Loy > Myrna Loy played women who were married and liked it, which almost nobody else on screen in the 1930s managed. She listened better than she talked, and gave William Powell, across fourteen films, somebody worth being clever for. Halfway through *The Thin Man* (1934) Nick Charles lies on a sofa and shoots the baubles off the Christmas tree with the air gun his wife has given him. Watch Nora. Loy does not scold and does not applaud. She watches him the way you watch a man you chose and would choose again, and she is plainly working out how to get herself onto the case he has just refused. Wives in detective pictures nagged or trembled. Nora wanted in, said so, and the film took her side. That is what Loy did that other actors did not. She played women who were married and had not stopped enjoying it, and she played the enjoyment as a form of attention. She listened more than she talked, and when she talked it was over the top of Powell, the two of them sounding like people who had given up being polite years ago and had not yet given up being interested. We expected to admire the banter and were instead rather moved by how much these two like each other; it is in the pauses she leaves for him, exactly long enough to be generous and not so long as to be dutiful. She had been in pictures for a decade before anyone let her do it. From the mid-1920s she was cast as vamps and exotic villainesses, *The Mask of Fu Manchu* (1932) among them, and by her own count it took some eighty films before *The Thin Man* made her. *Arrowsmith* (1931) is the before: she arrives late as Joyce Lanyon, in handsome clothes, and is handed nothing to do in them. Three years on she was carrying a film. Powell is the collaborator who matters. They made fourteen films together, six of them as the Charleses, and *Libeled Lady* (1936) put them in a four-hander with Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. W. S. Van Dyke directed five of her films at his usual speed, and the speed suited her, because her best effects are reactions caught on the way past, not speeches. She served with the Red Cross during the war and worked less afterwards, though the capable wife came back for *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946) and *Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House* (1948). The cost was the label. Once she was the perfect wife nobody wrote her anything else, and she knew it. "Labels limit you, because they limit your possibilities," she said, and the later credits bear her out. We have not seen enough of her dramatic work to say how much was lost, and it is a fair complaint that the comedies asked her only to be unflappable. But unflappable is a hard thing to act, and she never let the effort show. Start with *The Thin Man*. The dog is good. She is better. ## Biography Myrna Loy was an American actress. Born Myrna Adele Williams on 2 August 1905 in Montana, she trained as a dancer before turning to acting and appeared in minor roles in silent films. She was initially typecast in exotic or vamp roles, often as a woman of Asian descent. Her breakthrough came with the role of Nora Charles in *The Thin Man* (1934). She was frequently paired with William Powell, and the two appeared together in 14 films, including five further Thin Man pictures. Loy continued to work in film, stage and television into later decades. During the Second World War she served with the Red Cross. Although never nominated for a competitive Academy Award, she received an honorary Oscar in 1991 for her body of work. She died on 14 December 1993. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (6) - *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946), Fi1m 90, as Milly Stephenson — [page](https://film.one/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives.md) - *Test Pilot* (1938), Fi1m 73, as Ann "Thursday" Barton — [page](https://film.one/film/test-pilot.md) - *Libeled Lady* (1936), Fi1m 77, as Connie Allenbury — [page](https://film.one/film/libeled-lady.md) - *The Great Ziegfeld* (1936), Fi1m 64, as Billie Burke — [page](https://film.one/film/the-great-ziegfeld.md) - *The Thin Man* (1934), Fi1m 84, as Nora Charles — [page](https://film.one/film/the-thin-man.md) - *Arrowsmith* (1931), Fi1m 70, as Joyce Lanyon — [page](https://film.one/film/arrowsmith.md) ## Complete filmography (145) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood* (2008), as Gertie Waxted (archive footage) - *William Powell: A True Gentleman* (2005), Actor - *Alias Nick and Nora* (2005), Actor - *That's Entertainment! III* (1994), as (archive footage) (uncredited) - *Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To* (1990), as (archive footage) - *Summer Solstice* (1981), as Margaret - *Just Tell Me What You Want* (1980), as Stella Liberti - *The End* (1978), as Maureen Lawson - *It Happened at Lakewood Manor* (1977), as Ethel - *That's Entertainment, Part II* (1976), as (archive footage) - *Airport 1975* (1974), as Mrs. Devaney - *The Elevator* (1974), as Amanda Kenyon - *Indict and Convict* (1974), as Judge Christine Tayloy - *The Couple Takes a Wife* (1972), as Barbara's Mother - *Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate* (1971), as Evelyn Tryon - *Death Takes a Holiday* (1971), as Selena Chapman - *Columbo* (1971), series, as Lizzi Fielding — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/tv/columbo.md) - *The April Fools* (1969), as Grace Greenlaw - *Ironside* (1967), series, as Andrea Wollcott - *Family Affair* (1966), series, Actor - *The Big Parade of Comedy* (1964), as Nora Charles (archive footage) - *The Virginian* (1962), series, as Mrs. Miles - *Midnight Lace* (1960), as Aunt Bea - *From the Terrace* (1960), as Martha Eaton - *The DuPont Show with June Allyson* (1959), series, as Mary Sidney - *Meet Me in St. Louis* (1959), as Anna Smith - *Lonelyhearts* (1959), as Florence Shrike - *The Ambassador's Daughter* (1956), as Mrs. Cartwright - *General Electric Theater* (1953), series, as Kate Kennedy, Maggie Webster, Allie Evans - *Belles on Their Toes* (1952), as Lillian Gilbreth - *Schlitz Playhouse of Stars* (1951), series, as Nancy Knox - *Cheaper by the Dozen* (1950), as Lillian Gilbreth - *That Dangerous Age* (1949), as Lady Cathy Brooke - *The Red Pony* (1949), as Alice Tiflin - *Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House* (1948), as Muriel Blandings - *The Senator Was Indiscreet* (1947), as Mrs. Ashton (uncredited) - *The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer* (1947), as Margaret - *Song of the Thin Man* (1947), as Nora Charles - *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946), as Milly Stephenson — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives.md) - *So Goes My Love* (1946), as Jane Budden Maxim - *The Thin Man Goes Home* (1944), as Nora Charles - *Twenty Years After* (1944), as (archive footage) - *Shadow of the Thin Man* (1941), as Nora Charles - *Love Crazy* (1941), as Susan Ireland - *Third Finger, Left Hand* (1940), as Margot Sherwood Merrick - *I Love You Again* (1940), as Kay Wilson - *Another Thin Man* (1939), as Nora Charles - *The Rains Came* (1939), as Lady Edwina Esketh - *Lucky Night* (1939), as Cora Jordan - *Too Hot to Handle* (1938), as Alma Harding - *Test Pilot* (1938), as Ann "Thursday" Barton — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/test-pilot.md) - *Man-Proof* (1938), as Mimi Swift - *Double Wedding* (1937), as Margit Agnew - *Parnell* (1937), as Katie O'Shea - *After the Thin Man* (1936), as Nora Charles - *Libeled Lady* (1936), as Connie Allenbury — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/film/libeled-lady.md) - *To Mary - with Love* (1936), as Mary Wallace - *The Great Ziegfeld* (1936), as Billie Burke — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/the-great-ziegfeld.md) - *Petticoat Fever* (1936), as Irene Campton - *Wife vs. Secretary* (1936), as Linda Stanhope - *Whipsaw* (1935), as Vivian Palmer - *Wings in the Dark* (1935), as Sheila Mason - *Broadway Bill* (1934), as Alice 'Princess' Higgins - *Evelyn Prentice* (1934), as Evelyn Prentice - *Stamboul Quest* (1934), as Annemarie, aka Fräulein Doktor and Helena Bohlen - *The Thin Man* (1934), as Nora Charles — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/the-thin-man.md) - *Manhattan Melodrama* (1934), as Eleanor Packer - *Men in White* (1934), as Laura Hudson - *The Prizefighter and the Lady* (1933), as Belle Mercer - *Night Flight* (1933), as Wife of Brazilian Pilot - *Penthouse* (1933), as Gertie Waxted - *When Ladies Meet* (1933), as Mary Howard - *The Barbarian* (1933), as Diana 'Di' Standing - *Topaze* (1933), as Coco - *The Animal Kingdom* (1932), as Cecelia - *The Mask of Fu Manchu* (1932), as Fah Lo See - *Thirteen Women* (1932), as Ursula Georgi - *Love Me Tonight* (1932), as Countess Valentine - *New Morals for Old* (1932), as Myra - *The Woman in Room 13* (1932), as Sari Loder - *The Wet Parade* (1932), as Eileen Pinchon - *Vanity Fair* (1932), as Becky Sharp - *Emma* (1932), as Isabelle - *Arrowsmith* (1931), as Joyce Lanyon — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/arrowsmith.md) - *Consolation Marriage* (1931), as Elaine Brandon - *Skyline* (1931), as Paula Lambert - *Rebound* (1931), as Evie Lawrence - *Transatlantic* (1931), as Kay Graham - *Hush Money* (1931), as Flo Curtis - *A Connecticut Yankee* (1931), as Queen Morgan le Fay / Evil Sister in Mansion - *Body and Soul* (1931), as Alice Lester - *The Naughty Flirt* (1931), as Linda Gregory - *The Devil to Pay!* (1930), as Mary Crayle - *Rogue of the Rio Grande* (1930), as Carmita - *The Truth About Youth* (1930), as Kara - *Renegades* (1930), as Eleanore - *The Bad Man* (1930), as (uncredited) - *The Jazz Cinderella* (1930), as Mildred Vane - *The Last of the Duanes* (1930), as Lola Bland - *Bride of the Regiment* (1930), as Sophie - *Cock o' the Walk* (1930), as Narita - *Under a Texas Moon* (1930), as Lolita Romero - *Isle of Escape* (1930), as Moira - *Cameo Kirby* (1930), as Lea - *Evidence* (1929), as Native Girl - *The Show of Shows* (1929), as Performer in 'What Became of the Floradora Boys' & 'Chinese Fantasy' Numbers - *The Great Divide* (1929), as Manuella - *The Black Watch* (1929), as Yasmani - *The Squall* (1929), as Nubi - *The Desert Song* (1929), as Azuri - *Hardboiled Rose* (1929), as Rose Duhamel - *Fancy Baggage* (1929), as Myrna - *Noah's Ark* (1928), as Showgirl / Slave Girl - *The Midnight Taxi* (1928), as Gertie Fairfax - *State Street Sadie* (1928), as Sadie - *Pay as You Enter* (1928), as Yvonne De Russo - *The Crimson City* (1928), as Isobel - *Turn Back the Hours* (1928), as Tiza Torreon - *A Girl in Every Port* (1928), as Jetta - Girl in Singapore (uncredited) - *What Price Beauty?* (1928), as Vamp - *Beware of Married Men* (1928), as Juanita Sheldon - *If I Were Single* (1927), as Joan Whitley - *Ham and Eggs at the Front* (1927), as Fifi - *The Girl from Chicago* (1927), as Mary Carlton - *The Jazz Singer* (1927), as Chorus Girl (uncredited) - *A Sailor's Sweetheart* (1927), as Claudette Ralston - *When a Man Loves* (1927), as Convict Behind Manon (uncredited) - *The Heart of Maryland* (1927), as Mulatta - *Simple Sis* (1927), Actor - *The Climbers* (1927), as Countess Veya - *Bitter Apples* (1927), as Belinda White - *Finger Prints* (1927), as Vamp - *The Third Degree* (1926), as Bit Part (uncredited) - *Across the Pacific* (1926), as Roma - *Don Juan* (1926), as Mai - Lady in Waiting - *So This Is Paris* (1926), as Lalle's Maid (uncredited) - *The Exquisite Sinner* (1926), as Living Statue - *The Gilded Highway* (1926), as Inez Quartz - *Why Girls Go Back Home* (1926), as Sally Short - *The Love Toy* (1926), as Bit Part (uncredited) - *The Cave Man* (1926), as Maid - *Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ* (1925), as Slave Girl (uncredited) - *Sporting Life* (1925), as Chorus Girl with Lord Wainwright (uncredited) - *Pretty Ladies* (1925), as Showgirl (uncredited) - *The Wanderer* (1925), as Girl at Baccanal (uncredited) ## Gallery - ![Myrna Loy](https://film.one/media/person/1225381/gallery-3a750c1e02e5.jpg) Myrna Loy — George Hurrell, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/Myrna_Loy.jpg/1280px-Myrna_Loy.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Myrna Loy (1949)](https://film.one/media/person/1225381/gallery-421051acb3cd.jpg) Myrna Loy (1949) — Ted Reed, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Myrna_Loy_%281949%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Myrna Loy](https://film.one/media/person/1225381/gallery-34dbf40216f6.jpg) Myrna Loy — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Myrna_Loy_%281930s%29_%2849191727843%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Promotional photo of Cary Grant and Myrna Loy for the film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948). Loy is wearing a costume designed by costume designer Ro](https://film.one/media/person/1225381/gallery-4144c14fc8c0.jpg) Promotional photo of Cary Grant and Myrna Loy for the film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948). Loy is wearing a costume designed by costume designer Ro — RKO radio pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Cary_Grant_Myrna_Loy_Mr_Blandings_Builds_His_Dream_House_1948.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Myrna Loy](https://film.one/media/person/1225381/gallery-71ce645ddacb.jpg) Myrna Loy — Image via TMDB - ![Myrna Loy](https://film.one/media/person/1225381/gallery-9dde6c47dc29.jpg) Myrna Loy — Image via TMDB - ![Myrna Loy](https://film.one/media/person/1225381/gallery-cc250de1603c.jpg) Myrna Loy — Image via TMDB - ![Myrna Loy in 1950](https://film.one/media/person/1225381/gallery-8cb462c40c65.jpg) Myrna Loy in 1950 — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Myrna_Loy_1950.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Myrna Loy](https://film.one/media/person/1225381/gallery-f8e877731cce.jpg) Myrna Loy — Image via TMDB - ![Myrna Loy](https://film.one/media/person/1225381/gallery-35b6aea06f06.jpg) Myrna Loy — Image via TMDB - ![Myrna Loy](https://film.one/media/person/1225381/gallery-83e1c1e34b59.jpg) Myrna Loy — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 3 won - Academy Honorary Award 1990: Academy Honorary Award (won) - Kennedy Center Honors 1988: Kennedy Center Honors (won) - National Board of Review Award for Career Achievement 1980: National Board of Review Award for Career Achievement (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/myrna-loy