Loretta Young biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Actress. Born Gretchen Michaela Young, on January 6, 1913, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Young's parents separated when she was two years old, and she and her siblings moved with their mother to Hollywood, California, where their mother opened a boardinghouse. By the time she was four, Young had begun appearing as a child extra in silent films, often alongside her two older sisters. She attended a convent school, but returned to Hollywood at age 14 to sign a contract with First National Studio (the precursor of Warner Bros.), where studio executives gave her the professional name of Loretta.

Career Highlights

In the years to come, Young made a graceful transition from pretty child actor to one of Hollywood's foremost leading ladies of the 1930's and 1940's. She made close to 100 films, working with prominent directors such as Frank Capra (Platinum Blonde, 1931), Cecil B. DeMille (The Crusades, 1935), and Orson Welles (The Stranger, 1946), and A-list leading men like Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and Tyrone Power. Young won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the romantic comedy The Farmer's Daughter (1947); she earned a second Best Actress Oscar nomination for Come to the Stable (1949). She also starred in the Christmas classic The Bishop's Wife (1947), costarring Grant and David Niven. The strong-willed Young was one of the first female stars to command a six-figure salary.

Television Success

In 1953, Young announced her retirement from film. After completing her last movie, It Happens Every Thursday (1953), she never returned to the big screen. Instead, Young signed a contract with Proctor & Gamble and the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to produce and star in her own dramatic anthology television series, The Loretta Young Show. The show ran for eight seasons from 1953 to 1961, making Young one of the first major Hollywood stars to build a successful career in the fledgling medium of television. She won the first of her three Emmy Awards in 1953, becoming the first actress to win both an Oscar and an Emmy.

Personal Life

Young also consistently made headlines for her personal life, beginning in 1930 when she eloped at age 17 with the much-older Grant Withers, her costar in the film The Second Story Murder (1930). Their marriage was annulled the following year.