Loretta Young

Born on January 6, 1913 in Salt Lake City (Utah, USA), Gretchen Michaela Young –who would later use “Loretta” as her stage name– lived most of her childhood with her mother, who separated from her husband when she was 3 years old. She decided to take her daughters to Hollywood, where she had a brother who worked as a production assistant. He recommended her nieces to appear in the film Sweet Kitty Bellairs , which thus marked the early debut of the future star, at age 4. She then appeared as a child extra in several films, such asEl caíd , one of the biggest hits of the ‘latin lover’ Rodolfo Valentino .

His mother sent him to a boarding school for nuns, where he finished his primary studies. But she was always very clear that she wanted to be an actress, so she next auditioned, and she got a permanent contract with the production company First National. She starred in Laugh, Clown, Laugh with Lon Chaney , who played a clown. With the drama Scarlet Seas she debuted in the talkies.

In 1930 she married Grant Withers , an actor with titles such asFort Apache . But the marriage was a fiasco, for which she requested its ecclesiastical annulment, which was granted. Little by little she established herself as a movie star, with titles likeThe Golden Cage , by Frank Capra ,Glory and hunger andThe Call of the Wild , both by William Wellman,Fueros humanos , by Frank Borzage orThe Devil Amuses himself , by William Dieterle.

Titles such asEternally Yours , by Tay Garnett , where her character became an assistant to a wizard she was in love with, or4 Men and a Prayer , by John Ford , where she accompanies the man she is in love with to investigate with her brothers the cause of her father’s death. She played a mixed-race Indian inRamona , from Henry King , to Berengaria, Princess of Navarre, inThe Crusades (1935) , by Cecil B. DeMille and Countess Eugenia de Montijo inSuez , by Allan Dwan .

She had a small affair with Clark Gable , with whom she had a daughter, Judy. In 1940 she married Tom Lewis , a producer and screenwriter with whom she had two other children, Peter and Christopher.

In the 1940s, the actress continued to succeed, especially withThe Stranger (1946) , by Orson Welles , where she was the daughter of a judge who is unaware that her husband is a Nazi criminal. She was the loving wife of David Niven , a pastor who hardly pays attention to her because he is obsessed with raising funds for a new cathedral, inThe Bishop’s Wife , by Henry Koster . And she embroidered the character of a psychology teacher, attacked by one of her students, inThe Accused , by William Dieterle .

His last feature film wasIt Happens Every Thursday , from 1953. That same year he signed for the television show Letter to Loretta , which was very popular, as was The New Loretta Young Show , which lasted until 1963. For 25 years he retired completely, although he would return in the 80s with the telefilms Christmas Dove and Lady in the Corner . Another television feature, Life Along the Mississippi , where she was the narrator, marked the final end of her career.

Divorced from the aforementioned Lewis, she joined Jean Louis , a prestigious costume designer who worked on titles such as the legendaryGilda , and who died in 1997. Three years later, on August 12, Loretta Young herself died, as a result of ovarian cancer.