Julie Haydon
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Julie Haydon (June 10, 1910 – December 24, 1994) was an American actress who performed on Broadway and in films.
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[edit] Motion picture actress
Born as Donella Donaldson in Oak Grove, Illinois, she changed her name and began her acting career in the 1930s. She began appearing in films in the 1930s. Some have alleged that although she didn't appear in the film herself, she and not Fay Wray, provided Ann Darrow's memorably chilling screams in the 1933 movie King Kong, but others dispute this claim[citation needed].
Some of her films are the Age of Innocence (1934) (with Irene Dunne), The Scoundrel (1935) (with Noel Coward), and A Family Affair (1937), the initial movie in the Andy Hardy series.
[edit] Broadway
When she was 19 years old, Haydon toured with Minnie Maddern Fiske in Mrs. Bumstead Leigh. Within two years, she played Ophelia in a Broadway production of Hamlet at the Hollywood Playhouse.
Haydon debuted on Broadway in 1935 in Bright Star by Philip Barry. The production lasted but seven performances before closing. Plays in which she had roles which were more successful are Shadow and Substance by John Vincent Carroll. In this one she performed as a saintly maid. Julie created the role of the prostitute, Kitty Duval, in The Time of Your Life by William Saroyan. The play won a Pulitzer Prize for its author.
She was the original 'Laura Wingfield' in the original production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, a role also played by, among others:
- Jane Wyman in the first film version of the play
- Karen Allen in the second film version
- Barbara Loden in the 1966 TV production
- Joanna Miles in the 1973 television film
- Calista Flockhart in a 1980s Broadway revival
[edit] Television
Beginning in 1949 Haydon began making appearances on television. She performed in episodes of Kraft Television Theater (1949), Armstrong Circle Theater (1950), The United States Steel Hour (1954), and Robert Montgomery Presents (1954).
[edit] Later career
In 1955, Haydon married the drama critic George Jean Nathan, who died in 1958. They had no children and she never remarried. Following his death Haydon appeared as a guest in plays, mostly in community theaters and on college campuses. She delivered lectures taken from books written by Nathan.
In 1962 the actress left New York and returned to the midwest. For a decade she was actress in residence at the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minnesota. She played the role of the mother in revivals of The Glass Menagerie. In 1980 Miss Haydon returned to the theater in New York to perform the role off Broadway.
[edit] Death
Julie Haydon died in La Crosse, Wisconsin of cancer, aged 84. She was buried next to her husband in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York.
The Nathan-Haydon papers were donated to the La Crosse public library archives.
[edit] References
- New York Times, Julie Haydon Is Dead At 84; A Star in Glass Menagerie, December 29, 1994, Page B8.
