She also starred in films such as Born to Be Bad (1934), Call of the Wild (1935), The Crusades (1935), Eternally Yours (1939), The Stranger (1946), The Bishop's Wife (1947), and Key to the City (1950).

She was signed to a contract by John McCormick, husband and manager of actress Colleen Moore, who saw the young girl's potential.

In 1934, she co-starred with Cary Grant in the pre-Code drama Born to be Bad released by Twentieth Century Pictures.

Also in 1935 she portrayed Berengaria, Princess of Navarre in the Cecil B. DeMille directed historical epic The Crusades (1935).

In 1938 she played Countess Eugenie de Montijo in the romantic drama Suez starring opposite Tyrone Power.

During World War II, Young made Ladies Courageous (1944; re-issued as Fury in the Sky), the fictionalized story of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron.

It depicted a unit of female pilots who flew bomber planes from the factories to their final destinations.

In 1946, Young made The Stranger, in which she plays a small-town American woman who unknowingly marries a Nazi fugitive (Orson Welles).

"[7] Critic Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post noted, "The languorous Miss Young has the toughest assignment, being called on to shift from the starry-eyed bride of the early reels to the woman who must know in her heart that her husband is one of the most hated of men.

"[8] In 1947, Young won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Farmer's Daughter, a political comedy that required her to learn a Swedish accent.

Ruth Roberts, who had coached Ingrid Bergman on how to lose her Swedish accent, taught Young how to gain one.

In 1953, she appeared in her last theatrical film, It Happens Every Thursday, a Universal comedy about a New York couple who move to California to take over a struggling weekly newspaper; her co-star was John Forsythe.

She returned at the program's conclusion to offer a brief passage from the Bible or a famous quote that reflected upon the evening's story.

(Young's introductions and concluding remarks were not re-run on television because she legally stipulated that they not be, as she did not want the dresses she wore in those segments to make the program seem dated.)

From then on, Young appeared in only about half of each season's shows as an actress, and served as the program's host for the remainder.

For her performance she received another Golden Globe Award nomination in the same category losing to Christine Lahti in the CBS film No Place Like Home.

[17] Young and Clark Gable were the romantic leads of the 1935 Twentieth Century Pictures film The Call of the Wild.

Young, her sisters, and their mother devised a plan to conceal the pregnancy and then pretend that her child had been adopted.

After returning to California, she gave an interview from her bed, covered in blankets; at that time, she stated that her long movie absence was due to a condition she had had since childhood.

[21] Judy Lewis bore a strong resemblance to Gable,[22] and her true parentage was widely rumored in entertainment circles.

In interviews with Anderson for the book, Young stated that Lewis was her biological child and the product of a brief affair with Gable.

Lewis said Young shared this information after learning of the concept of date rape from watching Larry King Live; she had previously believed it was a woman's job to fend off men's amorous advances and had perceived her inability to thwart Gable's attack as a moral failing on her part.

[25] In 1952, she appeared in radio, print, and magazine ads in support of Dwight D. Eisenhower in his campaign for US president.

She attended his inauguration in 1953, along with Anita Louise, Louella Parsons, Jane Russell, Dick Powell, June Allyson, and Lou Costello, among others.

[25] Young was also an active member of the Hollywood Republican Committee, with her close friends Irene Dunne, Ginger Rogers, William Holden, George Murphy, Fred Astaire, and John Wayne.

[26] From the time of Young's retirement in the 1960s until not long before her death, she devoted herself to volunteer work for charities and churches, together with her friends of many years Jane Wyman, Irene Dunne, and Rosalind Russell.