Sweet, sweeter, sweetest. No combination of terms better describes the
screen persona of lovely Loretta Young. A&E's
Biografie (1987) has stated that
Young "remains a symbol of beauty, serenity, and grace. But behind the
glamour and stardom is a woman of substance whose true beauty lies in
her dedication to her family, her faith, and her quest to live life
with a purpose."Loretta Young was born Gretchen Young in Salt Lake City, Utah on
January 6, 1913, to Gladys (Royal) and John Earle Young. Her parents
separated when Loretta was three years old. Her mother moved Loretta
and her two older sisters to Southern California, where Mrs. Young ran
a boarding house. When Loretta was 10, her mother married one of her
boarders, George Belzer. They had a daughter, Georgianna, two years
later.Loretta was appearing on screen as a child extra by the time she was
four, joining her elder sisters,
Polly Ann Young and Elizabeth Jane Young
(later better known as Sally Blane), as
child players. Mrs. Young's brother-in-law was an assistant director
and got young Loretta a small role in the film
The Only Way (1914). The role
consisted of nothing more than a small, weeping child lying on an
operating table. Later that year, she appeared in another small role,
in The Primrose Ring (1917).
The film starred Mae Murray, who was
so taken with little Loretta that she offered to adopt her. Loretta
lived with the Murrays for about a year and a half. In 1921, she had a
brief scene in Szejk (1921).Loretta and her sisters attended parochial schools, after which they
helped their mother run the boarding house. In 1927, Loretta returned
to films in a small part in
Naughty But Nice (1927). Even at
the age of fourteen, she was an ambitious actress. Changing her name to
Loretta Young, letting her blond hair revert to its natural brown and
with her green eyes, satin complexion and exquisite face, she quickly
graduated from ingenue to... leading lady. Beginning with her role as
Denise Laverne in
The Magnificent Flirt (1928),
she shaped any character she took on with total dedication. In 1928,
she received second billing in
The Head Man (1928) and continued to
toil in many roles throughout the '20s and '30s, making anywhere from
six to nine films a year. Her two sisters were also actresses but were
not as successful as Loretta, whose natural beauty was her distinct
advantage.The 17-year-old Young made headlines in 1930 when she and
Grant Withers, who was previously married
and nine years her senior, eloped to Yuma, Arizona. They had both appeared in Warner Bros.'
The Second Floor Mystery (1930).
The marriage was annulled in 1931, the same year in which the pair
would again co-star on screen in a film ironically titled
Too Young to Marry (1931). By
the mid-'30s, Loretta left First National Studios for rival Fox, where
she had previously worked on a loan-out basis, and became one of the
premier leading ladies of Hollywood.In 1935, she made
Zew krwi (1935)
with Clark Gable and it was thought they had an
affair where Loretta got pregnant thereafter. Because of the strict morality
clauses in their contracts - and the fact that
Clark Gable was married - they could
not tell anybody except Loretta's mother. Loretta and her mother left
for Europe after filming on The Crusades finished. They returned in August 1935 to the United States, at which time Gladys Belzer announced Loretta's 'illness' to the press. Filming on Loretta's next film, Ramona, was also cancelled. During this time, Loretta was living in a small house in Venice, California, her mother rented. On November 6, 1935, Loretta delivered a healthy baby girl whom she named Judith. It wasn't until the 1990s when she was watching Larry King Live where she first heard the word 'date rape' and upon finding out exactly what it was, professed to her friend and biographer Edward Funk and her daughter-in-law Linda Lewis, that she had gone through the same with Clark Gable. "That's what happened between me and Clark."In 1938, Loretta starred as Sally Goodwin in
Kentucky (1938), an outstanding success.
Her co-star Walter Brennan won the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Peter Goodwin.In 1940, Loretta married businessman
Tom Lewis, and from then on her
child was called Judy Lewis, although
Tom Lewis never adopted her. Judy
was brought up thinking that both parents had adopted her and did not
know, until years later, that she was actually the biological daughter
of Loretta and Clark Gable. Four
years after her marriage to
Tom Lewis, Loretta had a son,
Christopher Lewis, and later
another son, Peter Charles.In the 1940s, Loretta was still one of the most beautiful ladies in
Hollywood. She reached the pinnacle of her career when she won the
Academy Award for Best Actress in
Córka farmera (1947),
the tale of a farm girl who rises through the ranks and becomes a
congresswoman. It was a smash and today is her best remembered film.
The same year, she starred in the delightful fantasy
Żona biskupa (1947) with
David Niven and
Cary Grant. It was another box office
success and continues to be a TV staple during the holiday season. In
1949, Loretta starred in the well-received film,
Mother Is a Freshman (1949)
with Van Johnson and
Rudy Vallee and
Przyjdź do stajni (1949). The
latter garnered Loretta her second Oscar nomination, but she lost to
Olivia de Havilland in
Dziedziczka (1949). In 1953, Loretta
made
It Happens Every Thursday (1953),
which was to be her final big screen role.She retired from films in 1953 and began a second, equally successful
career as hostess of
Letter to Loretta (1953), a
half-hour television drama anthology series which ran on NBC from
September 1953 to September 1961. In addition to hosting the series,
she frequently starred in episodes. Although she is most remembered for
her stunning gowns and swirling entrances, over the broadcast's
eight-year run she also showed again that she could act. She won Emmy
awards for best actress in a dramatic series in 1954, 1956 and 1958.After the show ended, she took some time off before returning in 1962
with
The New Loretta Young Show (1962),
which was not so successful, lasting only one season. For the next 24
years, Loretta did not appear in any entertainment medium. Her final
performance was in a made for TV film
Lady in a Corner (1989).By 1960, Loretta was a grandmother. Her daughter
Judy Lewis had married about three
years before and had a daughter in 1959, whom they named Maria. Loretta
and Tom Lewis divorced in the early
1960s. Loretta enjoyed retirement, sleeping late, visiting her son Chris and daughter-in-law Linda, and traveling. She and her friend Josephine Alicia Saenz, ex-wife of John Wayne,
traveled to India and saw the Taj Mahal. In 1990, she became a
great-grandmother when granddaughter Maria, daughter of
Judy Lewis, gave birth to a boy.Loretta lived a quiet retirement in Palm Springs, California until her
death on August 12, 2000 from ovarian cancer at the home of her sister
Georgiana and Georgiana's husband,
Ricardo Montalban.show more
