Susan Hayward
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.
This article is about the 20th-century actress. For the 21st-century actress, see Susan Heyward.
Susan Hayward
June 30, 1917
March 14, 1975 (aged 57)
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cemetery
Carrollton, Georgia
Actress
1937–1972
2
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 Georgia, her film appearances became infrequent; although she continued acting in film and television until 1972. She died in 1975 of brain cancer.
Early life[edit]
Hayward was born Edythe Marrenner on June 30, 1917, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, the youngest of three children to Ellen (née Pearson) and Walter Marrenner. Her mother was of Swedish descent. She had an older sister, Florence, and an older brother, Walter Jr.[1] In 1924, Marrenner was hit by a car, suffering a fractured hip and broken legs that put her in a partial body cast with the resulting bone setting leaving her with a distinctive hip swivel later in life.[2][3][4]
Hayward was educated at Public School 181 and graduated from the Girls' Commercial High School in June 1935 (later renamed Prospect Heights High School).[5] According to the Erasmus Hall High School alumni page, Hayward attended that school in the mid-1930s,[6] although she only recollected swimming at the pool for a dime during hot summers in Flatbush, Brooklyn.[7] During her high school years, she acted in various school plays, and was named "Most Dramatic" by her class.[8]
Death[edit]
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]