Myrna Loy - Personal Life

Personal Life

Loy was married and divorced four times:

• 1936–1942 Arthur Hornblow, Jr., producer
• 1942–1944 John Hertz Jr. of the Hertz Rent A Car family
• 1946–1950 Gene Markey, producer and screenwriter
• 1951–1960 Howland H. Sargeant, UNESCO delegate

Loy had no children of her own, though she was very close to her first husband Arthur Hornblow's children.

There were rumors that Myrna Loy had affairs with:

• Spencer Tracy during the filming of Whipsaw in 1935 and Libeled Lady in 1936.
• Leslie Howard during the filming of The Animal Kingdom in 1932.
• Gambler Titanic Thompson claimed he had an affair with her

In later life, she assumed an influential role as Co-Chairman of the Advisory Council of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing. In 1948 she became a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, the first Hollywood celebrity to do so. She was also an active Democrat.

Loy was a devout Methodist and during her time of residence in New York City she was a member of St. Paul's Methodist Church (which later became known as The United Methodist Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew).

Her autobiography, Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming, was published in 1987. Loy had two mastectomies in 1975 and 1979 for breast cancer.

On December 14, 1993, she died during surgery in New York City at the age of 88. She was cremated in New York and the ashes interred at Forestvale Cemetery, in Helena, Montana.