Sterling Hayden

Sterling Hayden (March 26, 1916 â€" May 23, 1986) was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir. He is most noted for his appearance as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). He also played the Irish policeman, Captain McCluskey, who was gunned down by Al Pacino, in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather in 1972.

Sterling Hayden in The Killing

Born in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, Hayden's parents were George and Frances Walter, who named him Montague Relyea Walter. After his father died, he was adopted at the age of nine by James Hayden and renamed Sterling Walter Hayden. As a child, he lived in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and Maine, where he attended Wassookeag School in Dexter, Maine.

Hayden was a genuine adventurer and man of action, not dissimilar from many of his movie parts. He ran away to sea at 17, as a ship's boy, then later was a fisherman on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. After serving as sailor and fireman on larger vessels, he was awarded his first command at 19, and sailed around the world several times.

Hayden became a print model and later signed a contract with Paramount Studios, who dubbed the 6' 5" (1.96 m) actor "The Most Beautiful Man in the Movies" and "The Beautiful Blond Viking God". His first film starred Madeleine Carroll, with whom he fell in love and whom he married. But after just two film roles, he left Hollywood to serve as an undercover agent with William J. Donovan's COI office. He remained there after it became the OSS. Hayden also joined the Marines under the name John Hamilton. His World War II service included running guns through German lines to the Yugoslav partisans and parachuting into fascist Croatia. He won the Silver Star and a commendation from Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito.

His admiration for the Communist partisans led to a brief involvement with the Communist Party. According to his IMDB biography, "As Red Scare deepens in U.S., he cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee, confessing his brief Communist ties and 'naming names'. Forever after he seemed to hold himself in great contempt for this 'ratting'". But his wife at that time, Betty Denoon, insists that the 'names' her ex-husband provided had already been named by others.

Sterling Hayden professed distaste for film acting, claiming he did it mainly to pay for his sailing vessels. In 1959, after a very bitter divorce he was awarded custody of his children. He defied a court order and sailed to Tahiti with all four children, Christian, Dana, Gretchen and Matthew. In the 1970s after his appearance in The Godfather he appeared several times on NBC's The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder where he talked about his career resurgence and how it had funded his new adventures; Buying a barge in Amsterdam and living and touring on it finally docking it on the Seine in Paris, and renting Caboose cars with friends and drinking, playing music and having fun while criss-crossing America connected to Amtrak trains.

Hayden wrote two well-received books: his autobiography Wanderer in 1963 and a historical novel,Voyage: A Novel of 1896 in 1976. In 1986, Sterling Hayden died of prostate cancer in Sausalito, California. He was 70.

Quotes

"To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... cruising it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

"I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of security. And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.

What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.

"The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

"Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?"

From his book Wanderer

Filmography

He appeared in many films, among them:
The Blue and the Gray TV Series (mini) (1982)
Venom (1982)
Gas (1981)
The Starlost: The Beginning TV (1980)
Nine to Five (1980)
The Outsider (1979)
Winter Kills (1979)
King of the Gypsies (1978)
1900 (1976)
Cipolla Colt (1975)
Is It Any Wonder? (1975)
Deadly Strangers (1974)
The Final Programme (1973)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Le Grand départ (1972)
The Godfather (1972)
Le Saut de l'ange (1971)
Loving (1970)
Ternos Cacadores (1969)
Hard Contract (1969)
Carol for Another Christmas TV (1964)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Terror in a Texas Town (1958)
Ten Days to Tulara (1958)
Zero Hour!(1957)
Gun Battle at Monterey (1957)
5 Steps to Danger (1957)
Crime of Passion (1957)
The Killing (1956)
The Come On (1956)
The Last Command (1955), playing Jim Bowie
The Eternal Sea (1955)
Shotgun (1955)
Timberjack (1955)
Suddenly (1954)
Naked Alibi (1954)
Johnny Guitar (1954), title role
Arrow In the Dust (1954)
Prince Valiant (1954)
Crime Wave also called The City is Dark, (1954)
Fighter Attack (1953)
The Golden Hawk (1952)
Hellgate (1952)
Denver and Rio Grande (1952)
Flaming Feather (1952)
The Star (1952)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
El Paso (1949)
Blaze of Noon (1947)
Virginia (1941)

External links

*Biography with many photos