Loy, Myrna

Loy, Myrna (b. Myrna Williams)

(1905–93) actress; born in Raidersburg, Mont. She began her film career as an exotic vamp, but her gift for comedy emerged in The Thin Man (1934). By 1936 she was the top feminine box-office draw, and she was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1991. Offscreen she was never associated with the world of Hollywood glamour and scandal, but she did have a lively social conscience and during the McCarthy era she was among the few actors who protested the treatment of actors by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.