Myrna Loy (1967)

With a pert face, crinkly smile and velvet voice, the auburn-haired actress was universally called the “perfect wife.” Spunky, unflappable and appropriately cool or warm, she was the ideal marital partner of the dapper William Powell in the 1934 hit comedy-mystery “The Thin Man.” They followed “The Thin Man” with five popular sequels and seven other films.

Born Myrna Williams on Aug. 2, 1905, on her father’s cattle ranch near Helena, Mont. Her father, David Williams, called her Myrna, after the name of a railroad water stop that caught his fancy. Her mother, Della, was a singer. Started in a Chorus Line

At the start of World War II, Miss Loy left Hollywood and did full-time volunteer work, serving for four years as an assistant head of Red Cross welfare activities in New York. She also arranged for entertainment in 50 military hospitals and put in long stints at stage-door canteens.

After the war, she portrayed the compassionate, loving wife of Fredric March in “The Best Years of Our Lives,” the much-honored 1946 film about servicemen returning from combat. The performance won her the Brussels World Film Festival prize for the best performance by an actress.

A political liberal, Miss Loy joined with other Hollywood figures in the late 40’s in challenging what they deplored as the witch-hunting proceedings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Of her postwar film work for Unesco, the actress said, “One little incident to battle prejudice, dropped into the middle of an entertaining film, is worth all the documentaries ever made.”

She did not appear on the stage until 1960, at first in summer stock, because, she said, “I felt I had a lot to learn.” She starred with Claude Dauphin in the comedy “The Marriage Go-Round” and played the mother in a national tour of Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park.”

In later decades, Miss Loy lived in a book-lined terrace apartment in upper Manhattan overlooking the East River. She aided many civic causes, selecting her public-service committees as judiciously as her roles. Tribute at Carnegie Hall

In 1985, Hollywood movie stars and fans packed Carnegie Hall for a tribute to Miss Loy, who appeared in the audience looking frail but glamorous in a spangled gown. Lauren Bacall, the master of ceremonies, said she admired Miss Loy “as a person, an actress and a face, but also as a woman aware of what went on in the country and the world.”

“She’s not a frivolous human being,” Miss Bacall added. “And she’s a great wit, which I’m a sucker for.”

Miss Loy won her only Oscar, an honorary one, in 1991, more than six decades after she began her film career. Speaking via satellite hookup from her Manhattan apartment the night of the Academy Awards ceremony, she offered the audience only nine words to describe her feelings. “You’ve made me very happy,” she said. “Thank you very much.” Grace, Charm and Sophistication.

[Flint, P. B. (1993, Dec. 16). “Myrna Loy, Model of Urbanity in ‘Thin Man’ Films, Is Dead at 88.” New York Times.]