Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward | |
---|---|
Born | Edythe Marrenner June 30, 1917 New York City, U.S. |
Died | March 14, 1975 | (aged 57)
Resting place | Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cemetery Carrollton, Georgia |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1937–1972 |
Spouses | |
Children | 2 |
Susan Hayward (born Edythe Marrenner; June 30, 1917 – March 14, 1975) was an Academy Award-winning American film actress, best known for her film portrayals of women that were based on true stories.
After working as a fashion model for the Walter Thornton Model Agency, Hayward traveled to Hollywood in 1937 to audition for the role of Scarlett O'Hara. She secured a film contract and played several small supporting roles over the next few years.
By the late 1940s, the quality of her film roles improved, and she achieved recognition for her dramatic abilities with the first of five Academy Award for Best Actress nominations for her performance as an alcoholic in Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947). Hayward's success continued through the 1950s as she received nominations for My Foolish Heart (1949), With a Song in My Heart (1952), and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), winning the Academy Award for her portrayal of death row inmate Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (1958). For her performance in I'll Cry Tomorrow she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress.
After Hayward's second marriage and subsequent move to
Early life
Hayward was born Edythe Marrenner on June 30, 1917, in the
Hayward was educated at Public School 181 and graduated from the Girls' Commercial High School in June 1935 (later renamed
Career
Hayward began her career as a model, traveling to Hollywood in 1937 to try out for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.[9] Though Hayward did not get the part, she was used for other actors' screen tests by David Selznick and received a contract at Warner Bros.[10]
Warner Bros.
Talent agent Max Arnow changed Marrenner's name to Susan Hayward once she started her six-month contract for $50 a week with Warner's.[11] Hayward had bit parts in Hollywood Hotel (1937), The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938) (her part was edited out), and The Sisters (1938), as well as in a short, Campus Cinderella (1938).[12]
Hayward's first sizeable role was with Ronald Reagan in Girls on Probation (1938), where she was a strong 10th in billing. She was also in Comet Over Broadway (1938), but returned to unbilled and began posing for pinup "cheesecake" publicity photos, something she and most actresses despised, but under her contract she had no choice. With Hayward's contract at Warner Bros. finished, she moved on to Paramount Studios.[11]
Paramount
In 1939, Paramount Studios signed her to a $250 per week contract. Hayward had her first breakthrough in the part of Isobel in Beau Geste (1939) opposite Gary Cooper and Ray Milland. She held the small, but important, haunting love of youth role as recalled by the Geste brothers while they searched for a valuable sapphire known as "the blue water" during desert service in the Foreign Legion; the film was hugely successful.[13]
Paramount put Hayward as the second lead in
Hayward went to Columbia for a supporting role alongside Ingrid Bergman in Adam Had Four Sons (1941), then to Republic Pictures for Sis Hopkins (1941) with Judy Canova and Bob Crosby. Back at Paramount, she had the lead in a "B" film, Among the Living (1941).
United Artists and Republic
Hayward costarred in I Married a Witch (1942) with Fredric March and Veronica Lake, as the fiancé of Wallace Wooly (March) before Lake's witch reappears from a Puritanical stake burning 300 years earlier.[15] The film served as inspiration for the 1960s TV series Bewitched and was based on an unfinished novel by Thorne Smith. It was made for Paramount but was sold to United Artists.[15][16] She was next in Paramount's all-star musical review Star Spangled Rhythm (1943) that also featured its nonmusical contract players.[17]
Hayward appeared with William Holden in Young and Willing (1943), a Paramount film distributed by UA. She was in Republic's Hit Parade of 1943 (1943), her singing voice dubbed by Jeanne Darrell.[18]
She starred in the film version of The Hairy Ape (1944) for UA. Back at Paramount she was Loretta Young's sister in And Now Tomorrow (1944). She then left the studio.
RKO gave Hayward her first top billing in Deadline at Dawn (1946), a Clifford Odets written Noir film, which was Harold Clurman's only movie as director.[20]
Walter Wanger and stardom
After the war, Hayward's career took off when producer Walter Wanger signed her for a seven-year contract at $100,000 a year.[21] Her first film was Canyon Passage (1946).
In 1947, she received the first of five
RKO used her again for They Won't Believe Me (1947). She subsequently worked for Wanger on The Lost Moment (1948) and Tap Roots (1948). Both films lost money but the latter was widely seen.[24]
At Universal Hayward was in The Saxon Charm (1948) and she did Tulsa (1949) for Wanger. Both films were commercial disappointments.
20th Century Fox
Hayward went over to
She stayed at that studio to make the western Rawhide (1951) with Tyrone Power, and the romantic drama I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1951).
Hayward then starred in three massive successes: David and Bathsheba (1951) with Gregory Peck, the most popular film of the year;[25] With a Song in My Heart (1952), a biopic of Jane Froman, which earned her an Oscar nomination; and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), with Peck and Ava Gardner.
RKO borrowed Hayward for
Peak
MGM hired Hayward to play the alcoholic showgirl/actress
Although Hayward never truly became known as a singer—she disliked her own singing
In 1956, she was cast by Howard Hughes to play Bortai in the historical epic The Conqueror, as John Wayne's leading lady. It was critically deprecated but a commercial success.[32] She did a comedy with Kirk Douglas, Top Secret Affair (1956) which flopped.[33]
Hayward's last film with Wanger,
Decline as star
Hayward made Thunder in the Sun (1959) with Jeff Chandler, a mediocre wagon train picture about French Basque pioneers,[36] which was a modest success financially, and then Woman Obsessed (1959) at Fox.
In 1961, Hayward starred as a shrewd working girl who becomes the wife of the state's next governor (Dean Martin) and ultimately takes over the office herself in Ada. The same year, she played Rae Smith in Ross Hunter's lavish remake of Back Street, which also starred John Gavin and Vera Miles. Neither film was particularly successful; nor were I Thank a Fool (1962) at MGM, Stolen Hours (1963), and Where Love Has Gone (1964), which co-starred Bette Davis.
Later career
Hayward was reunited with
She received good reviews for her performance at Caesars Palace in the Las Vegas production of Mame that opened in December 1968. She was replaced by Celeste Holm in March 1969 after her voice gave out and she had to leave the production.[38][39]
She continued to act into the early 1970s, when she was diagnosed with brain cancer.
She appeared in the TV movie Heat of Anger (1972) and the western film The Revengers (1972) with William Holden.
Her final film role was as Dr. Maggie Cole in the 1972 made-for-TV drama
Personal life
During World War II, Hayward supported the war effort by volunteering at the Hollywood Canteen, where she met her first husband, actor Jess Barker. They married on July 23, 1944, and on February 19, 1945, fraternal twin sons named Gregory and Timothy were born.[43] The marriage was turbulent, with a judge granting an interlocutory divorce decree on August 17, 1954.[44] During the contentious divorce proceedings, Hayward stayed in the United States rather than join the Hong Kong location shoot for the film Soldier of Fortune. She shot her scenes on a sound stage with co-star Clark Gable in Hollywood. A few brief, distant scenes of Gable and a Hayward double walking near landmarks in Hong Kong were combined with the indoor shots. By April 1955, the stress of divorce proceedings and overwork prompted a suicide attempt.[44]
In 1957, Hayward married Floyd Eaton Chalkley, commonly known as Eaton Chalkley, a successful Georgia rancher and businessman who had worked as a federal agent. The marriage was a happy one. They lived on a farm near Carrollton, Georgia, and owned property across the state line in Cleburne County, just outside Heflin, Alabama.[45] She became a popular figure in the area in the late 1950s. Chalkley died on January 9, 1966. Hayward went into mourning and did little acting for several years. She took up residence in Florida, because she preferred not to live in her Georgia home without her husband. On June 30, 1966, she was baptized Catholic by Father Daniel J. McGuire at SS. Peter and Paul's Roman Catholic Church in the East Liberty section of Pittsburgh. Hayward had met McGuire, an acquaintance of Chalkley, in Rome eight years prior.[46]
Before her Catholic baptism, Hayward had been a proponent of astrology.[47] She particularly relied on the advice of Carroll Righter, who called himself "the Gregarious Aquarius" and the self-proclaimed "Astrologer to the Stars", who informed her that the optimal time to sign a film contract was exactly 2:47 a.m., causing her to set her alarm for 2:45 so she could be sure to obey his instructions.[48]
Death
Hayward's doctor found a lung tumor in March 1972 that metastasized and, after a seizure in April 1973, she was diagnosed with brain metastases.[49] On March 14, 1975, she suffered a seizure in her Beverly Hills home and died at the age of 57.[50] A funeral service was held on March 16 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in Carrollton, Georgia. Hayward's body was buried in the church's cemetery.[51]
Theories about the radioactive fallout from atmospheric atomic bomb tests[52] surround the making of The Conqueror in St. George, Utah. Several production members, including Hayward, John Wayne, Agnes Moorehead, Pedro Armendáriz (who died by suicide after a diagnosis of cancer), and director Dick Powell later succumbed to cancer and cancer-related illnesses.[53] As ascertained by People magazine in 1980, out of a cast and crew totaling 220 people, 91 of them developed some form of cancer, and 46 had died of the disease.[54]
Susan Hayward has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6251 Hollywood Boulevard.[55]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1937 | Hollywood Hotel | Starlet at table | Uncredited |
1938 | The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse | Patient | Scenes deleted |
The Sisters | Telephone operator | Uncredited | |
Girls on Probation | Gloria Adams | ||
Comet Over Broadway | Amateur Actress | Uncredited | |
Campus Cinderella | Co-Ed | Short subject | |
1939 | Beau Geste | Isobel Rivers | |
Our Leading Citizen | Judith Schofield | ||
$1,000 a Touchdown | Betty McGlen | ||
1941 | Adam Had Four Sons | Hester Stoddard | |
Sis Hopkins | Carol Hopkins | ||
Among the Living
|
Millie Pickens | ||
1942 | Reap the Wild Wind | Cousin Drusilla Alston | |
The Forest Rangers | Tana "Butch" Mason | ||
I Married a Witch | Estelle Masterson | ||
Star Spangled Rhythm | Herself – Genevieve in Priorities Skit | ||
A Letter from Bataan | Mrs. Mary Lewis | Short subject | |
1943 | Young and Willing | Kate Benson | |
Hit Parade of 1943 | Jill Wright | ||
Jack London
|
Charmian Kittredge | ||
1944 | The Fighting Seabees | Constance Chesley | |
The Hairy Ape | Mildred Douglas | ||
And Now Tomorrow | Janice Blair | ||
Skirmish on the Home Front | Molly Miller | Short subject | |
1946 | Deadline at Dawn | June Goffe | |
Canyon Passage | Lucy Overmire | ||
1947 | Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman | Angelica "Angie" / "Angel" Evans Conway | Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress |
They Won't Believe Me | Verna Carlson | ||
The Lost Moment | Tina Bordereau | ||
1948 | Tap Roots | Morna Dabney | |
The Saxon Charm | Janet Busch | ||
1949 | Tulsa | Cherokee Lansing | |
House of Strangers | Irene Bennett | ||
My Foolish Heart | Eloise Winters | Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress | |
1951 | Screen Snapshots: Hopalong in Hoppy Land | Herself | Short subject |
I'd Climb the Highest Mountain | Mary Elizabeth Eden Thompson | ||
Rawhide | Vinnie Holt | ||
I Can Get It for You Wholesale | Harriet Boyd | ||
David and Bathsheba | Bathsheba | ||
1952 | With a Song in My Heart | Jane Froman |
|
The Snows of Kilimanjaro | Helen | ||
The Lusty Men
|
Louise Merritt | ||
1953 | The President's Lady
|
Rachel Donelson | |
White Witch Doctor
|
Ellen Burton | ||
1954 | Demetrius and the Gladiators | Messalina | |
Garden of Evil | Leah Fuller | ||
1955 | Untamed | Katie O'Neill (Kildare) (Van Riebeck) | |
Soldier of Fortune | Mrs. Jane Hoyt | ||
I'll Cry Tomorrow | Lillian Roth |
| |
1956 | The Conqueror | Bortai | |
1957 | Top Secret Affair | Dorothy "Dottie" Peale | |
1958 | I Want to Live! | Barbara Graham |
|
1959 | Thunder in the Sun | Gabrielle Dauphin | |
Woman Obsessed | Mary Sharron | ||
1961 | The Marriage-Go-Round | Content Delville | |
Ada | Ada Gillis | ||
Back Street | Rae Smith | ||
1962 | I Thank a Fool | Christine Allison | |
1963 | Stolen Hours | Laura Pember | US title: 'Summer Flight'. |
1964 | Where Love Has Gone | Valerie Hayden Miller | |
1967 | The Honey Pot | Mrs. Lone Star Crockett Sheridan | |
Valley of the Dolls | Helen Lawson | ||
Think Twentieth | Herself | ||
1972 | The Revengers | Elizabeth Reilly | |
Heat of Anger | Jessie Fitzgerald | TV movie | |
Say Goodbye, Maggie Cole | Dr. Maggie Cole | TV movie |
Other awards
- Golden Globe Henrietta Award for World Film Favorites 1953
- Photoplay Awards Most Popular Female Star 1953
- Picturegoer Awards Gold Medal 1953
- Laurel Awards Golden Laurel 1956
- David di Donatello Golden Plate Award 1959
- Sant Jordi Awards Best Foreign Actress 1960
Box office rankings
For a number of years, exhibitors voted Hayward among the most popular stars in the United States:
- 1951 – 19th
- 1952 – 9th
- 1953 – 9th
- 1954 – 14th
- 1955 – 19th
- 1956 – 13th
- 1959 – 10th
- 1961 – 19th
Radio appearances
Year | Program | Episode/Source |
---|---|---|
1946 | Duffy's Tavern | |
1946 | Suspense |
"Dame Fortune"[56] |
1952 | Lux Radio Theatre | I Can Get It for You Wholesale[57] |
1952 | Cavalcade of America | Breakfast at Nancy's[58] |
See also
- List of notable brain tumor patients
References
- ISBN 978-0-7864-4334-5.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-8088-3.
- ^ Arceri, Gene (2010). Brooklyn's Scarlett: Susan Hayward: Fire in the Wind. BearManor Media.
- ^ Biography News. Gale Research Company. 1975.
- ISBN 9780786480883.
- ^ New York Magazine. May 4, 1987.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ^ Holston 2009, p. 7.
- ^ "From the Archives: Susan Hayward Dies; Received Oscar in 1959". Los Angeles Times. March 15, 1975. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ISBN 9780292761261.
- ^ a b Arceri, Gene (2010). Brooklyn's Scarlett: Susan Hayward: Fire in the Wind. BearManor Media.
- ISBN 9780786480883.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
- ProQuest 166697839.
- ^ a b "I Married a Witch Is an Underrated Halloween Gem". Vanity Fair. Retrieved September 28, 2019.
- ISBN 9780813159287.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 28, 2019.
- ISBN 9780520215214.
- ^ "Rep Budgets Seebees Epic at $1,500,000". Variety. 150 (4): 6. April 7, 1943.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 26, 2019.
- ^ p.46 Holston, Kim R. Susan Hayward: Her Films and Life McFarland, September 24, 2002.
- ^ "NYTimes film review: Smash-Up, Story of a Woman". www.nytimes.com. April 11, 1947. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
- ^ Matthew Bernstein, Walter Wagner: Hollywood Independent, Minnesota Press, 2000, p. 443.
- ^ Matthew Bernstein, Walter Wagner: Hollywood Independent, Minnesota Press, 2000, p. 444.
- ^ a b "The Top Box Office Hits of 1951". Variety. January 2, 1952.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
- ^ "Lillian Roth". The Official Masterworks Broadway Site. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ^ The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
- ^ North, Alex (February 28, 2009). "I'll Cry Tomorrow(1955)". filmscoremonthly.com. Film Score Monthly. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
- ^ "Vocalist Marni Nixon, Lip-Syncer Extraordinary : 'Ghost' singing: She supplied the vocals for Deborah Kerr in 'The King and I' and backed Natalie Wood in 'West Side Story.'". Los Angeles Times. November 17, 1990. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ^ Laurents, Grace (December 2, 2012). "I'll Cry Tomorrow Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
- ^ "The Top Box-Office Hits of 1956". Variety Weekly. January 2, 1957.
- ^ Scheuer, Philip K. (May 25, 1958). "Graham Story Filmed: Slayer Role Taxes Susan 'A Town Called Hollywood' Susan Hayward Wrapped Up in Murderess Role". Los Angeles Times. p. G1.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
- Archive.org.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-7407-5118-9.
- ISBN 978-1-4766-0329-2.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-8088-3.
- ^ Say Goodbye, Maggie Cole, retrieved January 18, 2018
- ^ "How They've Managed to Stop the Show". Los Angeles Times. March 18, 2000. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ISBN 9780786480883.
- ^ Tribune, Chicago (June 23, 1985). "Red The Life of Susan Hayward". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
- ^ ISBN 9780786480883.
- ^ Profile
- ^ "Actress Hayward Joins Catholic Church". The Miami Herald (Street ed.). July 7, 1966. p. 7-F – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Sloan, Lloyd L. (March 7, 1949). "Interested in Astrology? Talk to Susan Hayward". Hollywood Citizen-News.
- ISBN 0375413154.
- ^ Tribune, Chicago (June 27, 1985). "Susan's Illness and a Final Grand Performance". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
- ^ "Actress Susan Hayward dies of brain tumor". Lewiston Morning Tribune. March 15, 1975. p. 2A. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ "Susan Hayward funeral simple". The Tuscaloosa News. March 17, 1975. p. 3. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ISBN 0-07-068662-9, p. 103.
- ^ "Cancer deaths of film stars linked to fallout". The Free Lance-Star. August 7, 1979. p. 7. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ "The Children of John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Dick Powell Fear That Fallout Killed Their Parents". People. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
- ^ "Hollywood Star Walk: Susan Hayward". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ^ http://www.escape-suspense.com/2007/11/suspense---dame.html
Further reading
- McClelland, Doug (1973). Susan Hayward, The Divine Bitch. New York: Pinnacle Books.
External links
- Susan Hayward at IMDb
- Susan Hayward Awards at iMDb
- Susan Hayward at AllMovie
- Susan Hayward at TCM
- Susan Hayward at Find a Grave
- Article about the radioactive film set Archived July 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine (from The Straight Dope)
- Susan Hayward @ FashionState.com
- Photographs and bibliography
- Susan Hayward collection at the University of West Georgia Archived September 9, 2018, at the Wayback Machine