Legendary Actress Loretta Young Dies
L O S A N G E L E S, Aug. 12, 2000 -- 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.
Was Married at 17
She eloped with him when she was 17, and they lived together foreight months before she filed for divorce in 1931, claiming shepaid most of the bills. Miss Young never spoke of the marriage, andit never appeared in her official biography.
Her career flourished in the 1930s, with contracts to WarnerBros.-First National and then 20th Century-Fox. In 1934 sheappeared in 10 films, including Born to Be Bad (Cary Grant),The House of Rothschild (George Arliss), The Devil to Pay(Ronald Colman), Caravan (Charles Boyer), Cecil B. DeMille’sThe Crusades, Call of the Wild (Clark Gable), Shanghai(Charles Boyer).
Miss Young’s career flourished into the ’40s with such films asThe Story of Alexander Graham Bell (Don Ameche), The DoctorTakes a Wife (Ray Milland), Bedtime Story (Fredric March),The Lady from Cheyenne (Robert Preston), China (Alan Ladd),Along Came Jones (Gary Cooper), The Stranger (OrsonWelles).
Career Boost
After 20 years of stardom, her career seemed ready for theinevitable decline. Then producer Dore Schary offered her TheFarmer’s Daughter, in which she would play a maid who ends upbeing elected to Congress. “Do you mean you want me to play itwith a Swedish accent, a blond wig and all?” she asked. “Isn’tthat dangerous?”
“Yes, but it could also win you an Academy Award,” saidSchary.
No one else thought so. Rosalind Russell was the heavy favoritefor Mourning Becomes Electra. When Miss Young was announced asbest actress of 1947, the audience gasped in surprise. “At longlast!” she sighed as she held the Oscar.
The award bolstered her career, and she went on to such films asThe Bishop’s Wife (Cary Grant, David Niven), Come to theStable (John Lund), Mother Was a Freshman (Van Johnson),Because of You (Jeff Chandler). Her last feature came in 1953with It Happens Every Thursday (John Forsythe).
“Pictures were great, but there was no real communication withthe audience,” she said in a 1966 interview. “The other aspectsof being a movie star I can’t knock: the fame, the grand houses,the glamour, the money, friends.”
Worked for Charity
A lifelong Roman Catholic, the actress worked tirelessly for thechurch’s charities, including a home for unwed mothers and achildren’s foundation. She insisted on propriety on her movie sets,and even enforced a kitty for her charities, to which set workerscontributed a coin every time they swore. Legend has it that onRachel and the Stranger, the irreverent Robert Mitchum loosed aspate of profanity and dropped $5 into the kitty.
Miss Young’s daughter Judy, adopted in the mid-’30s, claims MissYoung hid one lapse from traditional morality. In a 1994 book,Uncommon Knowledge, Ms. Lewis claimed she was the result of anaffair between a married Gable and Miss Young. According to Ms.Lewis, Miss Young had her baby in secret in late 1935, theneventually “adopted” the child when she was 2.
A spokesman denied it, and in a 1995 New York Times interview,Miss Young refused to discuss the story, calling it a “rumor of abygone time,” and adding, “I have made peace with my daughter.”
She was born Gretchen Young on Jan. 6, 1913, in Salt Lake City,where her father was a railroad auditor. She had two older sisters,Polly Ann and Elizabeth (who had her own movie career as SallyBlane) and younger brother, Jack.
When Gretchen was 3, her father abandoned his family. Her mothermoved the children to Los Angeles and opened a boarding house. Shelater married and had a fourth daughter, Georgianna, who became thewife of Ricardo Montalban.
An uncle in the movie business found work for the Young girls asextras, and Gretchen started when she was 5. Eight years later,director Mervyn Leroy called the Young house with a role for PollyAnn in Naughty but Nice. “Polly Ann isn’t here; will I do?”Gretchen inquired. She made her acting debut in the comedy, and thestar, Colleen Moore, changed the 13-year-old’s name to Loretta.
Throughout her career and afterward, she always appeared themovie queen, with perfect coiffure and makeup, dressed in thelatest fashion, upbeat in her view of life. On the screen and off,she always seemed taller than her 5 feet 5 inches. She seldomvaried from 109 pounds.
After the end of her TV series, she pursued the things deniedher during the hectic years in the studios.
“I decided the whole world was a soundstage, and I wanted tosee it,” she told a reporter in 1986. “I traveled for two years.When I came back, I wasn’t anxious to return to work, and I didn’tneed to financially. Suddenly the years slipped by. I was living mylife. It was quiet when I wanted it quiet and exciting when Iwanted it exciting.”
Stayed Out of Limelight
Except for Christmas Eve in 1986, she stayed out of thelimelight, pursuing her charities and spending time with herfamily.
In 1940 she married broadcast executive Thomas Lewis, and theyhad two sons, Christopher, born in 1944, and Peter, in 1945. MissYoung and Lewis were separated for many years before she divorcedhim in 1969.
In August 1993, Miss Young surprised her friends by marryingfashion designer Jean Louis. She was 80, he was 85. She told DailyVariety: “We’ve known each other for so long. And when somethingis right, it just slips into place.”
Jean Louis died in April 1997.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete. She is survived by hersister, daughter Judy, of Los Angeles, and two sons, Peter, ofSolvang, and Christopher, of Palm Springs.