- Young, Loretta
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▪ 2001Gretchen Michaela YoungAmerican actress (b. Jan. 6, 1913, Salt Lake City, Utah—d. Aug. 12, 2000, Los Angeles, Calif.), brought beauty and grace to her performances in more than 90 motion pictures, most of them in the 1930s and '40s, and to her role as the glamorous hostess and star of her television series in the 1950s and early '60s. She was perhaps best known for her twirling entrances as she displayed her designer gowns during the introduction to her weekly TV drama. At age three Young moved to Los Angeles with her mother and sisters after her parents' marriage broke up, and the young girls soon began appearing in movies as extras or in small parts. When she was 14, she managed to snare a part in the film Naughty but Nice (1927) that was originally intended for her sister Polly Ann, and her career blossomed. A small role in The Whip Woman (1928) was followed by Young's first lead, in Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928), and her first talking picture, The Squall (1929). Over the next several years, she was paired with a number of Hollywood's leading men, including Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (in such films as The Careless Age [1929] and Loose Ankles [1930]), James Cagney (Taxi! [1932]), Spencer Tracy (A Man's Castle [1933]), Ronald Colman (Clive of India [1935]), Clark Gable (The Call of the Wild [1935]), Tyrone Power (Ladies in Love [1936]), and Cary Grant and David Niven (The Bishop's Wife [1947]). Young also became known for her romances with some of those matinee idols, most notably Gable, by whom she had a daughter, although that fact was not acknowledged until many years later. Other films included The Farmer's Daughter (1947), for which she won a best actress Academy Award; Come to the Stable (1949), for which she received an Oscar nomination; and Cause for Alarm (1951). From 1953 to 1961 Young presented her anthology series, at first titled A Letter to Loretta but then changed to The Loretta Young Show. She won three Emmy Awards for best actress—in 1954, 1956, and 1959—and thereby became the first actress to win both an Oscar and an Emmy. The show returned in 1962–63 as The New Loretta Young Show. Young then virtually retired from show business and devoted herself mostly to charitable works, although she returned for the television movies Christmas Eve (1986) and Lady in a Corner (1989). Her memoirs, The Things I Had to Learn, appeared in 1961.
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▪ American actressoriginal name Gretchen Michaela Youngborn January 6, 1913, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.died August 12, 2000, Los Angeles, Calif.American motion picture actress noted for her ethereal beauty and refined, controlled portrayals of virtuous and wholesome women.Young began her career at age four as a child extra. She later attended convent school and at 14 took a movie part that led to a contract with Twentieth Century Fox studios. Moving quickly from bit parts to ingenues and leading ladies, she made a smooth transition to sound films.After a Hollywood career of more than 20 years, Young silenced many critics who regarded her as little more than a bland beauty of modest talent when she won an Oscar in 1947 for her performance in The Farmer's Daughter. She received a second nomination for best actress in 1949 for her role as a nun in Come to the Stable. Her other notable films include The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939), The Stranger (1946), and The Bishop's Wife (1947).Retiring from films in 1953, Young hosted the Emmy Award-winning The Loretta Young Show on NBC television from 1953 to 1961, making her the first entertainer to receive both an Oscar and an Emmy. Though she acted in the majority of the episodes of the sentimental drama anthology, the show is remembered primarily for Young's signature swirling entrances in which she displayed all sides of her glamorous contemporary gowns.Young retired from acting at age 50, though she did make a brief comeback in two made-for-TV films in the late 1980s. A lifelong Catholic, Young devoted herself to religious charities throughout her career and into retirement. She was the mother of actress Judy Lewis, the daughter of Clark Gable.Additional ReadingJoe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein, Loretta Young: An Extraordinary Life (1986).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
