She was born Princess Loretta Edith Andrews on April 27, 1911 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father, William Andrews, was a freight agent, and her mother, Edith Andrews, was a housewife. The family moved to Los Angeles, California when she was a teenager. At the age of twenty Loretta was chosen to be one of the Goldwyn Girls and made her film debut in the 1931 musical Palmy Days. In 1933 she was offered a contract at Warner Brothers. The beautiful blonde appeared in many films including Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers Of 1933, and Fog Over Frisco. Unfortunately most of her roles were just bit parts.
When she wasn't on a film set she was posing for sexy (and sometimes semi-nude) pin-up pictures. Loretta married Frank D. Allen, an oil executive, on April 29, 1935. Tragically he died just five months later. Her final film was the 1941 musical Sis Hopkins. After her second marriage ended in divorce she married James Crofton, the owner of a racetrack in Mexico. The couple remained together until James died in 1968. She continued to live in California for the rest of her life. On July 23, 2004 she died at the age of ninety-three.
Loretta is buried at
Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Hollywood Hills, California.
