Legendary Actress Loretta Young Dies

L O S   A N G E L E S, Aug. 12 -- Loretta Young, the elegant beauty whose acting career extended from silent movies to television and included an Academy Award for best actress in The Farmer’s Daughter, died today of ovarian cancer, her longtime agent and friend Norman Brokaw said. She was 87.

Young died at the home of her sister Georgian Montalban andactor Ricardo Montalban early this morning, said Brokaw, heragent for 50 years and chairman of the William Morris Agency.

“She was an incredible lady,” Brokaw said. “I learned fromher that if you can handle yourself with class and dignity, you canwork as long as you want in this business.”

Both on and off the screen, Miss Young presented the image ofserene uprightness. In 88 movies dating from 1927 to 1953, sheinvariably played the strong-willed heroine with firm principles.

Won Three Emmys

From 1953 to 1963, she appeared on television in more than 300episodes of The Loretta Young Show, opening the program withher much-satirized trademark of sweeping through a doorway, alwaysin a high-style gown. She was nominated seven times for Emmys asbest starring actress and won three times.

“During the series I played every role possible—Chinese,Japanese, Swedish, Indian, old, ugly, young, pretty,” she remarkedin a 1973 interview. “It was a marvelous experience for an actressto do everything she had ever wanted to do. I got it out of mysystem.”

She retired at the end of The New Loretta Young Show in1963, devoting her time to charities and a line of beauty productsbearing her name. She returned to acting in 1986, appearing in atelevision movie, Christmas Eve.

During her Hollywood heyday, Miss Young appeared opposite mostof the top male stars of her time. They included Lon Chaney, RonaldColman, John Barrymore, Clark Gable, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy,Cary Grant, Charles Boyer, Tyrone Power, David Niven, Joel McCrea,Robert Mitchum, William Holden and Joseph Cotten.A shapely beauty with large blue-gray eyes and high cheekbones,Loretta starred at 15 in 1928 with Chaney in Laugh, Clown,Laugh. She was never less than a star afterward. In 1929 and 1930she appeared in 15 movies, including Broken Dishes with thebluff, hard-drinking actor Grant Withers.