SUSAN HAYWARD

About Me

Born Edythe Marrener on June 30, 1918, to a poverty stricken family in Brooklyn, New York, Hayward's childhood was difficult. She was hit by a car at the age of seven and stranded at home in a body cast for months. The experience left Hayward with a limp and painful memories of a debility she would never forget. Hayward's life took an unexpected turn when she was cast as the lead in a school play at age twelve. The attention she received quickly turned her into a compulsive ham. By 1935, a sexy swagger had replaced Hayward's childhood limp, and the gorgeous seventeen-year-old possessed an hour glass figure, a brassy Brooklyn accent and a burning desire for fortune and fame. She began working as a model to help support her family, and when she was featured in the Saturday Evening Post in 1937, all of America was introduced to the red-headed siren from Brooklyn. The same year, David O. Selznick offered Hayward an audition for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. Though her lack of experience took her out of serious consideration, Hayward decided to trade in her return ticket and stay in Hollywood. After signing a contract with Warner Brothers, she changed her name to Susan Hayward.Hayward was driven to succeed as an actress and worked virtually non-stop. Offered the starring role in Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman in 1947, Susan dazzled both audiences and critics,receiving her first Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. Susan Hayward received four more nominations over the next twelve years,eventually winning for her work in the wildly successful "I Want to Live" in 1958. Sadly, the actress's happiness was eclipsed by the death of her husband Eaton Chalkey. And in 1972, just as she was emerging from her despair, she was diagnosed with cancer.Refusing to surrender to the illness without a fight, Susan Hayward even managed to present the Academy for Best Actress in 1974. On March 14, 1975, at age fifty-six, the irrepressible Brooklyn Bombshell died, leaving behind legions of fans all over the world.

My Interests

"SUSAN"

I'd like to meet:

"SMASH UP" (1945 B&W 105 MIN) with Old Commercials

Music:

Movies:

I WANT TO LIVE, MY FOOLISH HEART, I'LL CRY TOMORROW, WITH A SONG IN MY HEART, I THANK A FOOL, SMASH UP, BACK STREET, THE HONEY POT, WHERE LOVE HAS GONE, STOLEN HOURS, WOMAN OBSESSED, TULSA, ADA, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, TOP SECRET AFFAIR, HEAT OF ANGER, SAY GOODBYE MAGGIE COLE, THE REVENGERS, MARRIAGE GO-ROUND, THUNDER IN THE SUN, THE CONQUEROR, DAVID AND BATHSHEBA, DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS, SOLDIER OF FORTUNE, THE PRESIDENTS LADY, GARDEN OF EVIL, WHITE WITCH DOCTOR, THE LUSTY MEN, I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE, UNTAMED, SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, I'D CLIMB THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN, HOUSE OF STRANGERS, THE SAXON CHARM, TAP ROOTS, THE LOST MOMENT, THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME, CANYON PASSAGE, DEADLINE AT DAWN, FIGHTING SEABEES, AND NOW TOMORROW, THE HAIRY APE, CHANGE OF HEART, YOUNG AND WILLING, THE FOREST RANGERS, REAP THE WILD WIND, JACK LONDON, I MARRIED A WITCH, ADAM HAD FOUR SONS, SIS HOPKINS, BEAU GESTE, $1000 A TOUCHDOWN, THE SISTERS, GIRLS ON PROBATION, AMONG THE LIVING, AND STAR SPANGLED RHYTHM.
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I'LL CRY TOMORROW
I WANT TO LIVE
"I WANT TO LIVE" TRAILER
SUSAN HAYWARD IN MEMORY

Books:

The Conqueror, a putative love story involving Genghis Khan's lust for the beautiful princess Bortai (Hayward), was a classic Hollywood big budget fiasco, one of many financed by would-be movie mogul Howard Hughes. Originally director Powell wanted to get Marlon Brando for the lead, but John Wayne, then at the height of his popularity, happened to see the script one day and decided he and Genghis were meant for each other. Unfortunately, the script was written in a cornball style that was made even more ludicrous by the Duke's wooden line readings.
The movie was shot in the canyonlands around the Utah town of St. George. Filming was chaotic. The actors suffered in 120 degree heat, a black panther attempted to take a bite out of Susan Hayward, and a flash flood at one point just missed wiping out everybody. But the worst didn't become apparent until long afterward. In 1953, the military had tested 11 atomic bombs at Yucca Flats, Nevada, which resulted in immense clouds of fallout floating downwind. Much of the deadly dust funneled into Snow Canyon, Utah, where a lot of The Conqueror was shot. The actors and crew were exposed to the stuff for 13 weeks, no doubt inhaling a fair amount of it in the process, and Hughes later shipped 60 tons of hot dirt back to Hollywood to use on a set for retakes, thus making things even worse.Many people involved in the production knew about the radiation (there's a picture of Wayne himself operating a Geiger counter during the filming), but no one took the threat seriously at the time. Thirty years later, however, half the residents of St. George had contracted cancer, and veterans of the production began to realize they were in trouble. Actor Pedro Armendariz developed cancer of the kidney only four years after the movie was completed, and later shot himself when he learned his condition was terminal.Howard Hughes was said to have felt "guilty as hell" about the whole affair, although as far as I can tell it never occurred to anyone to sue him. For various reasons he withdrew The Conqueror from circulation, and for years thereafter the only person who saw it was Hughes himself, who screened it night after night during his paranoid last years.--CECIL ADAMS
DAVID AND BATHSHEBA
TULSA
VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

THE DIVINE REDHEAD..