Susan Hayward

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Susan Hayward
Image:SusanHaywardinSmashUp.jpg
from the film Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947)
Birth name Edythe Marrenner
Born June 30 1917(1917-06-30)
Brooklyn, New York
Died March 14 1975 (aged 57)
Hollywood, California
Spouse(s) Jess Barker (1944-1954) 2 children
Floyd Eaton Chalkley (1957-1966)


Susan Hayward (June 30, 1917 – March 14, 1975) was an Academy Award-winning American actress.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Hayward was born Edythe Marrenner in Brooklyn, New York to Walter Marrenner and Ellen Pearson. Her maternal grandparents were from Sweden.[1] She began her career as a photographer's model, going to Hollywood in 1937, aiming to secure the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. Her screen name was chosen by her management because it was "as close to Rita Hayworth as we can get away with."

[edit] Career

Although she did not win the role of Scarlett O'Hara, Hayward found employment playing bit parts until she was cast in Beau Geste (1939) opposite Gary Cooper. During the war years, she played leading lady to John Wayne twice, in Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and The Fighting Seabees (1944). She also starred in the film version of The Hairy Ape (1944). Later in 1955, she was cast by Howard Hughes to play Bortai in the historical epic The Conqueror, again opposite John Wayne.

After the war, she established herself as one of Hollywood's most popular leading ladies in films such as Tap Roots (1948), My Foolish Heart (1949), David and Bathsheba (1951), and With a Song in My Heart (1952).

In 1947, she received the first of five Academy Award nominations for her role as an alcoholic and fast-rising night-club singer in Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman.

During the 1950s she won acclaim for her dramatic performances as President Andrew Jackson's melancholic wife in The President's Lady (1953); the alcoholic actress, Lillian Roth, in I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), based on Roth's best-selling autobiography of the same name, for which she received a Cannes award; and the real-life California killer Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (1958). Hayward's unglamorous and gritty portrayal of Graham won her an Oscar as Best Actress.

She received good reviews for her performance in a Las Vegas production of Mame, but left the production because she felt unprepared for the demands the role made on her voice. She blamed herself for not wanting to spend the money on voice lessons that might have allowed her to keep the role. She was replaced by the talented, but prickly Oscar-winning actress and singer Celeste Holm. Hayward warned Holm that if she mistreated the "great" company she was joining, then she (Hayward) would "kick your a** back to Toledo"[citation needed] (though Holm was not a Toledo native).

She continued to act throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, when she was diagnosed with brain cancer. Her final film role was as Dr. Maggie Cole in the 1972 made-for-TV drama Say Goodbye, Maggie Cole. (The film was intended to be a pilot for a weekly television series, but due to Hayward's cancer diagnosis and failing health, the series was never produced.) Her last public appearance was at the 1974 Oscar telecast to present the Best Actress award, despite the fact she was very ill. With Charlton Heston supporting her, and having been given massive doses of dopamine, she managed to get through it. Hayward later stated, "that's the last time I do that."

[edit] Personal life

In December 1964, she was baptized a Catholic at SS Peter and Paul's Roman Catholic Church on Larimar Avenue, in the East Liberty section of Pittsburgh, by Father McGuire. She had met Father McGuire while in China and promised him that if she ever converted, he would be the one to baptize her.

Hayward died at age 57 on March 14, 1975, of pneumonia-related complications of her brain cancer, having survived considerably longer than doctors had originally predicted. She was cremated and buried next to her second husband, Eaton Chalkley, with whom she had converted to Roman Catholicism, in Carrollton, Georgia. She was survived by her two sons. Chalkley was by all accounts the love of Hayward's life, and they had lived together happily in Carrollton for years before his death in 1966.

Some[who?] theorize that Hayward’s cancer was a result of having been exposed to nuclear fallout during the filming of The Conqueror (1956) near St. George, Utah. During the 13 weeks of filming in the summer of 1955, the cast and crew were probably dusted with the fallout from the Zucchini test (May 15 1955) and possibly the Tesla test (March 1 1955). By this time, St. George had already received most of the fallout that would later make it the most famous of the "downwinder" cities (see DOE/NV 374).

However, the number of cases of cancer detected (91) and the number of deaths from cancer (46) in the cast and crew (220) are in line with the average lifetime risk of cancer in whites (around 40%) and the average lifetime risk of dying of cancer for whites (around 20%), as published by the National Cancer Institute SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2001.

Hayward has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6251 Hollywood Blvd.

[edit] Filmography and awards

[edit] Features

Year Film Role Other 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
$1000 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
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 Goth
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 Golden Globe; Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
The Snows of Kilimanjaro Helen
The Lusty Men Louise Merritt
1953 The President's Lady Rachel Donaldson
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 Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress;
Nominated - BAFTA Award
1956 The Conqueror Bortai
1957 Top Secret Affair Dorothy 'Dottie' Peale
1958 I Want to Live! Barbara Graham Academy Award for Best Actress; Golden Globe;
Nominated - BAFTA Award
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
1964 Where Love Has Gone Valerie Hayden Miller
1967 The Honey Pot Mrs. Sheridan
Valley of the Dolls Helen Lawson
Think Twentieth Herself
1972 The Revengers Elizabeth Reilly
Heat of Anger Jessie Fitzgerald TV
Say Goodbye Maggie Cole Dr. Maggie Cole TV


Awards
Preceded by
Whole Cast
of Bolshaya Semya 		Best Actress Award - Cannes Film Festival
1956
for I'll Cry Tomorrow 		Succeeded by
Giulietta Masina
for Nights of Cabiria
Preceded by
Joanne Woodward
for The Three Faces of Eve 		Academy Award for Best Actress
1958
for I Want to Live! 		Succeeded by
Simone Signoret
for Room at the Top
Preceded by
Deborah Kerr
for Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison 		NYFCC Award for Best Actress
1958
for I Want to Live! 		Succeeded by
Audrey Hepburn
for The Nun's Story
Preceded by
Joanne Woodward
for The Three Faces of Eve 		Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1959
for I Want To Live! 		Succeeded by
Elizabeth Taylor
for Suddenly, Last Summer

[edit] Biography

  • McClelland, Doug. Susan Hayward, The Divine Bitch, New York: Pinnacle Books, 1973.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ TMSI Research Database RootsWeb.

[edit] External links

de:Susan Hayward es:Susan Hayward fr:Susan Hayward it:Susan Hayward nl:Susan Hayward ja:スーザン・ヘイワード no:Susan Hayward pt:Susan Hayward ru:Сьюзен Хэйворд fi:Susan Hayward sv:Susan Hayward tg:Сусан Ҳайуард tr:Susan Hayward

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