Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward (
June 30,
1917 –
March 14,
1975) was an
Academy Award-winning American
actress.
Born
Edythe Marrenner in
Brooklyn, New York of
Irish American and Swedish extraction, she began her career as a photographer's
model. She went to
Hollywood in 1937, aiming to secure the role of
Scarlett O'Hara in
Gone with the Wind.
Although she was not given the role, 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). Post-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 her five
Academy Award nominations for her role of the 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 autobiography and the real-life
California killer Barbara Graham in
I Want to Live! (1958). The latter won her an
Oscar as
Best Actress.
She also appeared in a
Las Vegas production of
Mame for which she initially received good reviews for her performance, but for which role she was vocally unprepared, and she blamed herself for not having wanted to spend the money on voice lessons that might have allowed her to keep the role.
Loretta Swit played "Agnes Gooch" in the same production.
After Hayward was forced to withdraw from the production, 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 now joining, then she (Hayward) would "kick your a** back to Toledo", from where Holm did not even come.
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 actually planned as a pilot for a possible weekly television series, but due to Hayward's cancer diagnosis and failing health, the TV series never came to be.) Her last public appearance was at the 1974 Oscar telecast to present the award for "Best Actress", 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".
Susan Hayward died at age 57 on
March 14,
1975, of pneumonia-related complications of her
cancer, having survived considerably longer than doctors had originally predicted. She was buried next to her second and final husband, Eaton Chalkley, with whom she 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 suspect that Hayward's cancer was a result of having been exposed to
radiation at a site previously used for
nuclear testing while filming
The Conqueror (1956) in
Utah. But because she was also a heavy smoker (like some other cast members who later died of cancer), this remains simply a theory.
*
1958 - Won
Best Actress in a Leading Role -
I Want to Live!*
1956 - Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role -
I'll Cry Tomorrow*
1953 - Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role -
With a Song in My Heart*
1950 - Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role -
My Foolish Heart*
1948 - Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role -
Smash-Up, the Story of a WomanHayward has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6251 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood Hotel (
1937)
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (
1938) (scenes deleted)
Campus Cinderella (
1938) (short subject)
The Sisters (
1938)
Girls on Probation (
1938)
Comet Over Broadway (
1938)
Beau Geste (
1939)
Our Leading Citizen (
1939)
$1000 a Touchdown (
1939)
Adam Had Four Sons (
1941)
Sis Hopkins (
1941)
Among the Living (
1941)
Reap the Wild Wind (
1942)
A Letter from Bataan (
1942) (short subject)
The Forest Rangers (
1942)
I Married a Witch (
1942)
Star Spangled Rhythm (
1942)
Young and Willing (
1943)
Hit Parade of 1943 (
1943)
Jack London (
1943)
The Fighting Seabees (
1944)
Skirmish on the Home Front (
1944) (short subject)
The Hairy Ape (
1944)
And Now Tomorrow (
1944)
Deadline at Dawn (
1946)
Canyon Passage (
1946)
Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (
1947)
They Won't Believe Me (
1947)
The Lost Moment (
1947)
Tap Roots (
1948)
The Saxon Charm (
1948)
Tulsa (
1949)
House of Strangers (
1949)
My Foolish Heart (
1949)
David & Bathsheba (
1951)
Snows of Kilimanjaro (
1952)
Demetrius and the Gladiators (
1954)
Soldier of Fortune (
1955)
I'll Cry Tomorrow (
1955)
The Conqueror (
1956)
Top Secret Affair (
1957)
I Want to Live! (
1958)
Thunder in the Sun (
1959)
Woman Obsessed (
1959)
The Marriage-Go-Round (
1961)
Ada (
1961)
Back Street (
1961)
I Thank a Fool (
1962)
Stolen Hours (
1963)
Where Love Has Gone (
1964)
Think Twentieth (
1967) (short subject)
The Honey Pot (
1967)
Valley of the Dolls (
1967)
The Revengers (
1972)
*
List of notable brain tumor patients*
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Susan Hayward*
Article about the radioactive film set (from
The Straight Dope)
*
Susan Hayward @ FashionState.com*
Susan Hayward's Gravesite
