Loretta Young

Loretta Young, born Gretchen Michaela Young in Salt Lake City, Utah, on January 6, 1913, was an American actress whose career began in silent films at age three and continued through television movies into 1989. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for *The Farmer's Daughter* (1947) and received a second nomination for *Come to the Stable* (1949). Her filmography includes notable titles such as *Born to Be Bad* (1934), *Call of the Wild* (1935), *The Crusades* (1935), *Eternally Yours* (1939), *The Stranger* (1946), *The Bishop's Wife* (1947), and *Key to the City* (1950). Young successfully transitioned to television, hosting and starring in *The Loretta Young Show* from 1953 to 1961, a dramatic anthology series that earned three Primetime Emmy Awards and enjoyed successful reruns. She later starred in *The New Loretta Young Show* (1962–1963) and returned to the small screen in the 1980s with two NBC television movies: *Christmas Eve* (1986), for which she won a Golden Globe, and *Lady in a Corner* (1989). Young was of Luxembourgish descent. Her parents separated when she was two, and her mother moved the family to Hollywood, where a priest helped establish a boarding house. Young and her sisters, Polly Ann and Sally Blane, worked as child actresses. She was educated at Ramona Convent Secondary School. At 17, she eloped with actor Grant Withers, but the marriage was annulled the following year. She was named a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1929. Her career included work with directors such as Cecil B. DeMille and Orson Welles, with whom she starred in *The Stranger*.