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Loretta Young dies of ovarian cancer at 87 |
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August 13, 2000
LOS ANGELES (AP) - 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 Saturday of ovarian cancer, her longtime agent and friend Norman Brokaw said. She was 87. Young died at the home of her sister Georgiana Montalban and actor Ricardo Montalban early Saturday morning, said Brokaw, her agent for 50 years and chairman of the William Morris Agency. "She was an incredible lady," Brokaw said. "I learned from her that if you can handle yourself with class and dignity, you can work as long as you want in this business." Both on and off the screen, Young presented the image of serene uprightness. In 88 movies dating from 1927 to 1953, she invariably played the strong-willed heroine with firm principles. From 1953 to 1963, she appeared on television in more than 300 episodes of "The Loretta Young Show". She retired at the end of "The New Loretta Young Show" in 1963, devoting her time to charities and a line of beauty products bearing her name. She returned to acting in 1986, appearing in a television movie, "Christmas Eve." During her Hollywood heyday, Young appeared opposite most of the top male stars of her time. They included Lon Chaney, Ronald Colman, 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, Young starred at 15 in 1928 with Chaney in "Laugh, Clown, Laugh." She was never less than a star afterward. Between 1929 and 1930 she appeared in 15 movies, including "Broken Dishes" with the bluff, hard-drinking actor Grant Withers. She eloped with him when she was 17, and they lived together for eight months before she filed for divorce in 1931, claiming she paid most of the bills. Young never spoke of the marriage, and it never appeared in her official biography. Her career flourished in the 1930s, with contracts with Warner Bros.-First National and then 20th Century-Fox. In 1934 she appeared in 10 films, including "Born to Be Bad" (Grant), "The House of Rothschild" (George Arliss), "The Devil to Pay" (Colman), "Caravan" (Boyer), Cecil B. DeMille's "The Crusades," "Call of the Wild" (Gable), "Shanghai" (Boyer). Young's career flourished into the '40s with such films as "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell" (Don Ameche), "The Doctor Takes a Wife" (Ray Milland), "Bedtime Story" (Fredric March), "The Lady from Cheyenne" (Robert Preston), "China" (Alan Ladd), "Along Came Jones" (Gary Cooper), "The Stranger" (Orson Welles). After 20 years of stardom, her career seemed ready for the inevitable decline. Then producer Dore Schary offered her "The Farmer's Daughter," in which she would play a maid who ends up being elected to Congress. "Do you mean you want me to play it with a Swedish accent, a blond wig and all?" she asked. "Isn't that dangerous?" "Yes, but it could also win you an Academy Award," said Schary. No one else thought so. Rosalind Russell was the heavy favorite for "Mourning Becomes Electra." When Young was announced as best actress of 1947, the audience gasped in surprise. "At long last!" she sighed as she held the Oscar. The award bolstered her career, and she went on to such films as "The Bishop's Wife" (Grant, Niven), "Come to the Stable" (John Lund), "Mother Was a Freshman" (Van Johnson), "Because of You" (Jeff Chandler). Her last feature came in 1953 with "It Happens Every Thursday" (John Forsythe). |