orig. Myrna Williams
born Aug. 2, 1905, Radersburg, Mont., U.S.
died Dec. 14, 1993, New York, N.Y.
U.S. film actress.
She played bit parts in Hollywood movies before being cast as the exotic mistress in the 1925 production of Ben-Hur , which established her early film persona as a foreign vamp. She earned praise as the wittily sophisticated Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934) and its sequels and in other movies such as The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), and Lonelyhearts (1958). Dubbed the "Queen of Hollywood" during her heyday, she evinced equality in a male-dominated world, and her combination of beauty and brains made male audiences regard her as the ideal mate. She worked for the American Red Cross in World War II and later for UNESCO.