Loretta Durkin

**Loretta Durkin** is a recurring character in Season 3 of *Only Murders in the Building*. She is an actor in Oliver's play.

She is portrayed by Meryl Streep.

## History

### No Strings

In 1962, Loretta went to see Diahann Carroll perform in *No Strings* at the Gooseberry Theater. After that performance, Loretta began training to become a performer herself, but went through her whole life without success until Oliver Putnam hired her to play the nanny in his new play *Death Rattle*.

### Giving Birth

During a show performance in her hometown, Loretta met a visiting director from New York. Through him, she became pregnant. She didn't feel she was ready to raise a child, so she placed him to be adopted by a family that couldn't have children. She received updates from the baby's family as he grew and they eventually conceived a child. She kept a book where she collected pictures of him.

### Death Rattle

Loretta was delighted to be cast in *Death Rattle*, for which she'd auditioned in order to reconnect with the baby, Dickie Glenroy, whose brother, Ben had been cast as the lead. At the first read-through, she attempted two different accents for the nanny before giving a flat read in her own accent. She caused further delays when she didn't realize the next line in the play was hers and remained silent. Ben tried to get Oliver to fire her, but he refused and told Loretta that if she went, he would go, too.

During rehearsals, Loretta and Dickie became close and Loretta helped Dickie realize how poorly Ben had treated him and he decided to tell Ben after the show that he wouldn't be his manager anymore. However, Ben walked in on their conversation and took the note Dickie had written for himself. Ben blamed Loretta and during their rehearsal, he told Loretta to stay away from his brother. When Charles walked in and saw Ben threatening Loretta, Charles punched him.

Shortly after the show started that night, Ben collapsed on stage and was pronounced dead. While he was taken away, Oliver sent everyone else to his place for the party he'd planned. At the party, Loretta played the piano and sang with Oliver, which helped them both feel better. Loretta then said the upside of the show being cancelled was that they didn't have to live by his rules for the show anymore, including the one that prevented them from dating. Before they could say anything else, Ben came in. He told them his stomach had been pumped and he realized he owed everyone an apology for his behavior. Among the apologies, he talked to Loretta, but instead of apologizing, he called her a snake, which he said he knew because he was one himself. He left to take a phone call and Loretta gathered her things and left as well, telling Mabel that Ben might be back, but it didn't change the fact that he was a jerk.

### Death Rattle Dazzle

With Ben dead, his brother, Dickie, offered to be Loretta's manager. He used his connections to get her an audition for an offshoot of an offshoot of a *Grey's Anatomy* spinoff. Then she went back to Oliver's apartment, where she learned he was turning *Death Rattle* into a musical. She said it was odd, but it might make it accessible. They could have a hit as long as they found the heart. Just as Dickie told her she'd gotten the part, Oliver told her she was under contract with him and had to be in New York for his show.

When Loretta came to Oliver's place so they could present the show to Cliff and Donna in the hopes of getting them to provide continued financial support for the show, he apologized and said he was just scared of losing her. He told her he wouldn't be enforcing the contract, but asked her to sing the song he'd written for the nanny before she left. She agreed and sang the song. As she sang, Kimber joined in and when they finished, everyone clapped. After everyone left, Oliver thanked Loretta and said he'd miss her. She told him she was staying and he kissed her.

### Date Night

Loretta had Oliver over to her place for their date. She made pork chops in the oven, which she hated because she was used to making them in the microwave. This left them too tough to eat and Oliver lost a tooth in his. Loretta took Oliver out on a ferry, where they smoked a joint together and realized they'd been running in the same circles for a few decades without actually meeting because something always prevented Loretta from auditioning for his shows, little things. She began to fear she was cursed, though she'd been considered lucky as a child. Finally, when they neared a bridge, Loretta explained that as a child, when she lost a tooth, her mother took her out on a ferry on the Mississippi River and when they passed under a bridge, she would throw her tooth in and make a wish. Oliver delighted in the tooth ferry pun and happily threw his tooth in. When she asked him what he wished for, he kissed her. They went back to her place and had sex. Afterward, she got up to draw them a bath.

### Arrest

Loretta wrote Dickie a letter, but when she went to put it in the memory book, she found it missing. At the sitzprobe, she confronted Oliver, who admitted he'd taken it. He tried to get her to explain why she had it while also maintaining that he trusted her. Oliver told Loretta that Mabel was investigating Dickie as a potential suspect.

Loretta went to Mabel and said she really didn't think Dickie could be the killer, but was unable to give a good reason to explain why. Before going on for her big final number, Loretta talked to Dickie, who admitted to feeling free after Ben died only to feel trapped again when he learned Ben had survived the first murder attempt. While performing, Loretta was horrified to see the cops arresting Dickie. Wanting to protect him, Loretta confessed to murdering Ben and was arrested in his place.

### Arraignment

As Loretta's arraignment started five days later, Charles, Mabel, and Oliver came in and told her not to plead guilty. They said they knew she'd only confessed to save Dickie, but that Dickie didn't do it and they could prove it. They told her they knew who really did and she asked who. Just then, Donna stood up in the audience.

Charles paid Loretta's bail and she was freed. She went back to the Arconia with them, where she revealed that she had the blood-soaked hankie from Ben's body, which she'd gotten from Dickie and which she hoped could tie Donna to the push. The trio took the hankie and used it to get Donna to confess, but they agreed to wait until after the show to call the police. Loretta had planned to wait until after the show to tell Dickie she was his birth mother, but after singing "Look for the Light," she went backstage and told him. He told her he already knew, that he'd felt something as soon as they first met. She told him she always thought about him, even before they first met.

During the course of the show, the truth that Cliff had actually pushed Ben after Donna poisoned him came out. They were both arrested. At the afterparty at Oliver's, Dickie told Loretta she had multiple offers and this could be the big break she'd always sought. Seeing that she'd have to move to LA no matter what she chose, Loretta talked to Oliver, who said he liked LA in small doses, so he could visit but not move there.

## Relationships

### Oliver Putnam

Loretta was romantically interested in Oliver Putnam, and expressed a desire to be more than friends after the play was cancelled.

### Ben Glenroy

Loretta was not fond of Ben, and the feeling appeared to be mutual. After apologizing to every cast member except her, he called Loretta a snake. Likewise, she did not show much relief that he survived his injuries, and stated even though he lived it didn't change the fact he is an asshole.

## Career

Loretta is a struggling actress. She was finally offered a role in the Broadway play, *Death Rattle*.

## Notes and Trivia

* Her father was the editor of the *Clayton Chronicle*.
* She has a side gig as a professional gift wrapper.

## Gallery

### Episode Stills

Photography by Patrick Harbron"The Show Must..." (S01E01)."Grab Your Hankies" (S03E03)."Ah, Love!" (S03E05)."Sitzprobe" (S03E08)."Thirty" (S03E09)."Opening Night" (S03E10)

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Ah, Love!" (2023). Season 3, episode 5.
2. ↑ "Ghost Light" (2023). Season 3, episode 6.
3. ↑ "Opening Night" (2023). Season 3, episode 10.
4. ↑ "Opening Night" (2023). Season 3, episode 10.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 "Sitzprobe" (2023). Season 3, episode 8.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 "The Show Must..." (2023). Season 3, episode 1.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Thirty" (2023). Season 3, episode 9.
8. ↑ "Grab Your Hankies" (2023). Season 3, episode 3.
9. ↑ "Opening Night" (2023). Season 3, episode 10.