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and The End- 1978. Her last film was in 1981 called Summer Solstice , and her final acting credit was a guest spot on the sitcom Love, Sidney in 1982. By the time the 1960s rolled around, Loy had been working with UNES CO for more than a decade. She had managed to balance her career in Hol lywood with her political work, throwing her support and countless hours lobbying for other democratic presidential campaigns. She worked hard to campaign for Kennedy. During the Kennedy campaign, he invited her to be part of his Conference on Constitutional Rights and American Freedom. It was there that she met Hubert Humphrey, who was the one who put her on the National Council Against Discrimination in Housing Committee where

She made countless hospital visits herself and put in long stints at stage-door canteens. She was also very outspoken about Adolf Hitler to the point where he banned her films from being seen in Germany. After the war, when she did return, her star quality didn’t diminish. She went back to working regularly, and that first year back made, she starred in The Best Years of Our Lives , considered to be one of the greatest films of the 1940s, and also her favorite movie that she ever made. She also learned that a certain Hollywood Reporter wrote an article accusing her of communism. Managing to stave off those accusations, that same year, she was appointed to UNESCO, the United Nations department of Culture, as the US ambassador.

she worked throughout the Civil Rights Move ment. Loy made huge strides in the organization. She found that though President Kennedy had signed the Housing Act of 1961, “where they had uncovered massive evidence that eighty percent of federally sponsored housing was operated on a segregated basis,” Kennedy was never able to fulfill the promises of the Housing Act. Loy’s work led directly to Lyndon B. Johnson addressing the mat ter in the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Having finally seen some measure of success in the fight against housing discrimination, 1968 saw Loy back in Hollywood to make the movie April Fools. On the subject of the Vietnam War, Loy identi fied with the college students who protested against the war and considered herself to be getting “more radical” as she aged. As Loy reached her upper 70’s, she started to receive honors for her tremen dous career onscreen. One of a handful of great movie stars never nominated for an acting Oscar, Loy received an honorary Academy Award in 1991 during the 63rd Annual Academy Awards show. She was unable to travel to Hollywood to accept the award in person, so the Academy arranged a live satellite link to her Manhattan apartment.

In 1947, Myrna Loy did sue the Hollywood Re porter for $1 million for their printed accusation accusing her of being a Communist, an accusation fueled in part by the actress having been vocal and active in left-wing politics since the 1930s. After Loy brought suit against them, the paper was forced to print a retraction, but Loy didn’t stop there. She sent off a missive to the House Un-American Ac tivities Committee, the governmental body inves tigating alleged Communist infiltration into the United States, that had subpoenaed many of her colleagues in the entertainment industry. The mes sage read simply “I DARE YOU TO CALL ME TO TESTIFY.” They didn’t dare, and Loy was left alone from then on. She went on to organize an opposi tion to the House Un-American Activities Com mittee in Hollywood. She didn’t want for money, as she was one of the top paid actresses in Holly wood and she demanded the same wages her male costars were receiving. She got it too! Over the next few years, she became increasingly involved representing UNESCO, attending con ferences all over the world and on official radio programs, then also signing on with the American

Loy and Powell team up in The Thin Man series

Association for the United Nations where she spoke at conferences on be half of women’s rights. (She was the very first Actress to work for the UN- UNESCO.) From early on in her life, Myrna was not afraid to voice her political opin ions. Politics was always a heavy discussion in her family. Her father being the youngest person, at age 21, to be elected to the Montana State Legisla ture. She stated that every American should stand for what and who they be lieve in regardless of whether they were republican or democrat; that it was their duty to get involved in the political process. In 1932, she was active in the election campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and remained a champion of his ABC programs throughout his presidency. She was Co-Chairman of the Advisory Council of the National Committee against discrimination in housing - exposing segregation in federal funded projects. She never per sonally met Roosevelt, though she made many trips to the White House and developed a close and lasting friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt. She continued to make films through the 50s but the roles started getting fewer, her biggest success coming at the start of that decade with Cheaper by the Dozen. By the 1960s, the parts had all but dried up as producers and direc tors looked elsewhere for talent. She turned her attentions to doing some stage productions. In 1960 she appeared in Midnight Lace and was not in another film until 1969 in The April Fools. The 1970s found her mainly in TV movies, not theatrical productions anymore, except for small roles in Airport- 1975

She became a founding member of the American Place Theatre, a non-profit theatre set up to help new writers develop. She was a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center in 1988. In 1991, the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing and Media Arts opened in down town Helena, Montana, not far from Loy's childhood home. Located in the historic Lewis and Clark County Jail, it sponsors live performances and al ternative films for under-served audiences. Her profile, especially her nose, was the most requested by woman in the 30’s and 40’s to their plastic surgeons. In the mid 70’s, Loy underwent two mastectomies after being diagnosed with breast cancer. She never did have any children. She died at her residence in Manhattan December 14, 1993 at the age of 88. True fact- In 1934, gangster John Dillinger, public enemy #1, who was so enamored with Loy, snuck in to see her new movie Manhattan Melodrama , but was gunned down by the cops and shot dead in front of the theatre after an anonymous tip. Loys’s mother, Della Williams, was a talented pianist who encouraged Myrna's interest in the arts throughout her life. As an actress, Myrna was among the best there was. But it was as an activist that Myrna Loy had her most lasting impact on the world. Myrna Loy- someone who should be re membered!

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