William Powell and Myrna Loy-The Perfect Screen Couple

William Powell and Myrna Loy in "Libeled Lady"-1936

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I am a huge fan of the movies of Myrna Loy and William Powell. They did fourteen movies together from 1934 to 1947. Their most famous pairing being the The Thin Man series of six movies where they played Nick and Nora Charles. They were married or ended up married in all of their movies...their screen couple image often transferred to real life so much so that people thought they really were married. When they traveled to San Francisco to film "After the Thin Man", the management at the hotel had reserved a suite for the two of them, assuming they really were married. Although they were very dear friends in real life, they were never romantically involved. Myrna Loy stated that they loved each other and although they would sometimes get crushes on each other, they always stayed just friends.

Loy and Powell in a publicity shot for “Love Crazy”-1941.

They first met during a rehearsal for their first movie together, “Manhattan Melodrama” (1934). They both noticed from the start that there was a complete openness and ease between them. They became the most familiar screen couple and lifelong friends from that moment on.

Here is a book written by Myrna Loy and another book written about her. Both have wonderful stories in her own words and accurate information about her, and of course William Powell too.

In "I Love You Again"-1940

There would have been even more Loy and Powell movie pairings, such as the movie "Escapade" that they started filming in 1935, but Loy had to leave the filming for several personal reasons and was replaced with another actress. There were plans for more Thin Man movies as well, but because of Powell's retirement, they never were able to materialize. Loy often visited him at his house during his retirement and they continued their personal friendship, although they did no more movies together after 1947.

One of my favorite stories of their sweet friendship is when Powell had just gotten out of the hospital after his surgery from cancer in the late 1930's and went to Myrna's house and sneaked into her living room with two bouquets of flowers that he had picked from her own garden. To her surprise when she came into the room, there was Powell sitting on her couch with flowers for her!

Myrna described their relationship as "idyllic". How nice to have a friendship like that!

Here is the list of their movies together:

Manhattan Melodrama-1934

The Thin Man-1934

Evelyn Prentice-1934

The Great Ziegfeld-1936

Libeled Lady-1936

After the Thin Man-1936

Double Wedding-1937

Another Thin Man-1939

I Love You Again-1940

Love Crazy-1941

Shadow of the Thin Man-1941

The Thin Man Goes Home-1945

Song of the Thin Man-1947

The Senator Was Indiscreet-1947 (Myrna has a cameo appearance at the end of this movie as his wife)

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Here are links on Amazon to purchase their movies on DVD and the two Myrna Loy books I mentioned above. Prime Video options are also available for some of the movies. The Thin Man set is nice, but you can also purchase them individually.

​As of this writing, The Senator Was Indiscreet is not available on DVD. I watched it years ago on VHS.

Myrna Loy’s autobiography, “Being and Becoming” is an excellent book written in Loy’s own words. The biography later written, “The Only Good Girl in Hollywood” uses some of the information already in Loy’s autobiography, but also has additional content. Both are well written and worth reading.