Loretta Young
| Loretta Young | ||
 Studio portrait of Young, 1943 | ||
| Background information | ||
| Born as: | Gretchen Young | |
| Born | Jan 6, 1913 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. | |
| Died | Aug 12, 2000 - age 86 Los Angeles, California, U.S. Ovarian cancer | |
| Spouse(s): | Grant Withers
(1930 - 1931) annulled Tom Lewis (1940 - 1969) div. Jean Louis (1993 - 1997) died | |
| Children: | Judy Lewis
Christopher Lewis (screenwriter) | |
| Relatives: | Polly Ann Young (sister)
Sally Blane (sister) Georgiana Young (maternal half-sister; née Belzer) | |
| Occupation: | Actress, television host | |
Loretta Young (born Gretchen Young; ✦January 6, 1913 – †August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film The Farmer's Daughter (1947), and received her second Academy Award nomination for her role in Come to the Stable (1949). Young moved to the relatively new medium of television, where she had a dramatic anthology series, "The Loretta Young Show", from 1953 to 1961. It earned three Emmy Awards, and was re-run successfully on daytime TV and later in syndication. In the 1980s, Young returned to the small screen and won a Golden Globe for her role in Christmas Eve in 1986.
Early life
She was born Gretchen Young in Salt Lake City, Utah, the daughter of Gladys (née Royal) and John Earle Young. She was of Luxembourgish descent. When she was two years old, her parents separated, and when she was three, her mother moved the family to Hollywood. A priest helped her to establish a boarding house as income. Her sister's husband helped the little girls get small parts in silent films for income. She met Ida Botiller Lindley and very wealthy widow by 1925, and Ida had no children and wanted to carry on her dead husband's name, thus proposed to Gladys to adopt young John Royal Young, and educate him as a lawyer, as was her dead husband. Thus, John became John R. Lindley and became a lawyer. Gretchen and her sisters, Polly Ann and Elizabeth Jane (better known as Sally Blane), all worked as child actresses, but of the three, Gretchen was the most successful. Polly, Sally and John Royal all died in 1997, in their 80s.
Young's first role was at the age of two or three in the silent film Sweet Kitty Bellairs. During her high-school years she was educated at Ramona Convent Secondary School. She was signed to a contract by John McCormick, husband and manager of actress Colleen Moore, who saw the young girl's potential. Moore gave her the name Loretta, explaining that it was the name of her favorite doll.
Death
Young died of ovarian cancer on August 12, 2000, at the home of her maternal half-sister, Georgiana Young (the wife of actor Ricardo Montalban) in Santa Monica, California. She was interred in the family plot in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Her ashes were buried in the grave of her mother, Gladys Belzer.
Career
- Wikipedia article: Loretta Young Career
Filmography
- Wikipedia article: Loretta Young Filmography
External links
- Wikipedia article: Loretta Young
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Note: Loretta Young was a volunteer at the Hollywood Canteen |
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