Loretta Young

The 17-year old Loretta made headlines when she eloped with Grant to get married in Yuma, Arizona. The marriage was however annulled in 1931.

She married businessman Tom Lewis in 1940 and from then on her daughter started to be called Judy Lewis though Tom did not adopt her officially.

She gave birth to a son named Christopher four years after marrying Tom Lewis and later on had a second son named Peter.

Loretta Young was born Gretchen Michaela Young in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA on January 6, 1913. Her father was John Earle Young and her mother was Gladys Royal.

Her parents separated when she was only three-year-old.

She and her two elder sisters, Polly Ann and Elizabeth Jane moved with their mother to Hollywood, California, where Gladys started a boarding house.

By the time Loretta was four she had started appearing as a child extra in silent films. She appeared in ‘The Only Way’ in 1917 as a weeping child lying on an operating table. Her mother’s brother-in-law who was an assistant director helped Loretta get the role.

Later that year she appeared in another small role in ‘The Primrose Ring’ which starred Mae Murray.

In 1928 she acted as ‘Denise Laverne’ in ‘The Magnificent Flirt’ and then in ‘The Head Man’ in the same year.

During the 1920s and 1930s she acted in a number of films and went on to make about six to nine films in a year.

She appeared in ‘The Second Floor Mystery’ in 1930 opposite Grant Withers who was nine years her senior.

In 1931 both of them co-starred in the film ‘Too Young to Marry’ which seemed ironical at the time.

In the mid 1930s she left ‘First National Studios’ and joined its rival ‘Fox’ where she had worked earlier on loan.

Loretta Young won the ‘Academy Award for Best Actress’ in 1947 for ‘The Farmer’s Daughter’.

She won the ‘Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series’ in 1954, 1956 and 1958.

In 1986 she won a ‘Golden Globe’ for the film ‘Christmas Eve’.