Academy Award-winning actress, Loretta Young, was an old Hollywood heavyweight in the 1930s and ’40s.
Hailing from Salt Lake City, Utah, Young’s first on-screen role was at the age of three in the 1916 silent film, Sweet Kitty Bellairs.
In the 1930s, Young played opposite superstar leading men like Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Tyrone Power, and by the 1940s, Young was a star in her own right.
Young appeared in over 8 films a year in the early 40s, culminating with a Best Actress Oscar-win for the 1947 comedy, The Farmer’s Daughter. The following year, Young played opposite Cary Grant in fan favorite, The Bishop’s Wife (re-made in 1996 as The Preacher’s Wife, starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston), before receiving another Academy Award nomination for her role as Sister Margaret in 1950 dramedy, Come to the Stable.
In the 1950s, Young pivoted to television, hosting and starring in anthology series Letter to Loretta (retitled The Loretta Young Show) from 1953 to 1961. The series earned Young three Best Actress Emmy Awards, as well as a Golden Globe for Best TV Show.
Young retired from acting but returned for the 1986 made-for-TV film, Christmas Eve, for which Young won a Best Actress Golden Globe.
Young earned another Golden Globe nomination in 1989 for TV film, Lady in a Corner, playing a fashion magazine editor-in-chief.
Young’s personal life became public when it was revealed in Wester Anderson’s authorized biography, Forever Young: The Life, Loves and Enduring Faith of a Hollywood Legend, that Young had a secret daughter with Clark Gable. Young wouldn’t allow the biography to be published until after her death from ovarian cancer in 2000.
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