Loretta Young

"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.

Loretta's family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1915. Shortly after, her father abandoned the large family. John R. Young ("Jack"), was adopted by two sisters who changed his surname to Lindley. He later became an attorney and the father of five. He had little contact over the years with his blood family.

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 The Sheik (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.

Turned down the part of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night (1934). Claudette Colbert was then given the role and won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance.

In 1935, she made Call of the Wild (1935) with Clark Gable. They had an affair, and Loretta became pregnant. 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 canceled. 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.

Returned to work three months after giving birth to her daughter Judy Lewis to begin filming on The Unguarded Hour (1936).

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.

Cast members in the film The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939) included not only Loretta Young but, portraying her character's sisters, her real-life, actress sisters as well: Polly Ann Young and Sally Blane. Further, portraying the fourth on-screen sister was a fourth real-life half-sister, Georgiana Young, although the latter was not a professional actress. (Years later, Georgiana, whom Loretta dubbed "Georgie", would appear occasionally on Loretta's television show The Loretta Young Show (1953).

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.

Was three months pregnant with her son Christopher Lewis when she completed filming on And Now Tomorrow (1944).

She was the mother of singer/songwriter Peter Lewis (Peter Charles Lewis) (B. July 15, 1945), a former member of the infamous 1960s San Francisco rock band Moby Grape, and Christopher Lewis, a film director.

Loretta Young's third husband was Academy Award winning clothing and costume designer, Jean Louis. He was well known for designing for the stars at Columbia Studios, Universal and in his own salon in Beverly Hills. His most famous creations included the strapless gown for Rita Hayworth in the film Gilda (1946) as well as Marilyn Monroe's white sequined gown she wore to sing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy. Jean Louis married Loretta after the death of his first wife, Maggy, who was a personal friend of Loretta for over 50 years.

She reached the pinnacle of her career when she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in The Farmer's Daughter (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 The Bishop's Wife (1947) with David Niven and Cary Grant. It was another box office success and continues to be a TV staple during the holiday season.

Was the 30th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for The Farmer's Daughter (1947) at the 20th Academy Awards on March 20, 1948.

In 1949, Loretta starred in the well-received film, Mother Is a Freshman (1949) with Van Johnson and Rudy Vallee and Come to the Stable (1949).

The latter garnered Loretta her second Oscar nomination, but she lost to Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress (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 The Loretta Young Show (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.

Her daughter Judy Lewis had married about three years before and had a daughter in 1959, whom they named Maria.

By 1960, Loretta was a grandmother.

Loretta and Tom Lewis divorced in the early 1960's. 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.

She turned down roles in The Innocents (1961) and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964).

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.

In 1972, Miss Young sued NBC for violating her contract in allowing reruns of The Loretta Young Show (1953) to be shown, wherein audiences might have ridiculed her gowns and hairstyles, which were by then 10 or even 20 years out of date. The court awarded her more than a half-million dollars.

Aunt of Robert Foster who, from 1975 to 1978, played the role of Grimsley, the vampire-mortician horror host of Fright Night (1970) on Channels 9 (then KHJ-TV) and 5 (KTLA) in Southern California.

In 1976, there was talk of a comeback role for Loretta, as Mother Cabrini in a biography of the first American to attain sainthood to be directed by Martin Scorsese. The project unfortunately never materialized.

Sweet, sweeter, sweetest. No combination of terms better describes the screen persona of lovely Loretta Young. A&E's Biography (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.

Her final performance was in a made for TV film Lady In A Corner (1989).

In 1990, she became a great-grandmother when granddaughter Maria, daughter of Judy Lewis, gave birth to a boy.

Caused a buzz in 1999 when she appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine looking a lot younger than her 86 years, "today's air brushing techniques can do wonders" was her explanation.

She died at the home of her sister Georgiana Montalban and Georgiana's husband, actor Ricardo Montalban, in the early morning of August 12, 2000.

She was posthumously awarded a Golden Palm Star at the Palm Springs Walk of Stars on May 19, 2011.

Her image appears on the cover of the 2012 music CD Electro Swing V.

She was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month for January 2013.