Louis Hayward

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Louis Hayward

Louis Hayward in Anthony Adverse
Born Louis Charles Hayward
(1909-03-19)19 March 1909
Johannesburg, South Africa
Died 21 February 1985(1985-02-21) (aged 75)
Palm Springs, California, United States
Occupation Actor
Years active 1932-1974
Spouse(s) Ida Lupino
(m.1938-1945; divorced)
Peggy Morrow Field
(m.1946-1950; divorced)
June Hanson
(m.1953-1985; his death)
Awards Bronze Star Medal

Louis Charles Hayward (19 March 1909 – 21 February 1985) was a British actor born in South Africa.

Biography

Born in Johannesburg, Louis Hayward lived in South Africa and was educated in France and England, including Latymer Upper School in London.[1] He spent some time managing a night club but wanted to act and bought into a stock company. He became a protege of Noël Coward and began appearing in London in plays such as Dracula and Another Language; he also started being cast in some British films of the early 1930s.

Hayward came to Broadway in 1935 with a production of Noël Coward's Point Valaine working with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.[2] It only ran a short time, after which Hayward moved to Hollywood.[3] He started getting work almost immediately, gaining great attention in the prologue of Anthony Adverse (1936). He was then cast as the first screen incarnation of Simon Templar in Leslie Charteris' [4] The Saint in New York.

In 1938 he starred in The Duke of West Point for producer Edward Small who signed him to make three films over the next five years, meaning he was unable to reprise his part as the Saint. However Small cast him in a dual role in The Man in the Iron Mask as well as The Son of Monte Cristo (1940).[5] He had a small role in The Magnificent Ambersons (1941) which was cut out. He became an American citizen in December 1941.

War Service

During World War II, Hayward enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and commanded a photographic unit that filmed the Battle of Tarawa in a documentary titled With the Marines at Tarawa (winner of the 1944 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Hayward was awarded the Bronze Star Medal[6] When off-duty in New Zealand he "went under the name of "Captain Richards" to avoid the rush of the ladies" as recalled by a waiter at a Wellington restaurant, the Green Parrot.[7]

Return to Hollywood

Returning to Hollywood, he played the role of Philip Lombard in the 1945 version of And Then There Were None. He also continued to make swashbuckler films, including several for Edward Small.

In the 1950s Hayward made large numbers of television appearances. He starred in the 1954 syndicated television series The Lone Wolf and the 1961 British television series The Pursuers. Hayward's other television work includes a role as a judge in an episode, "Day of Reckoning" (original air date 22 November 1962), of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour.[8]

Hayward's work in live theatre included Noël Coward's "Conversation Piece," and later, in the early 1960s, the national tour of Camelot, in which he appeared as King Arthur. His standby for the role was Byrne Piven, better known as the father of actor Jeremy Piven.

He retired from acting during the 1970s.[citation needed]

Personal life

Hayward married actress/director Ida Lupino November 17, 1938, in a quiet civil ceremony held in the Santa Barbara courthouse. After Louis returned from the war he was drastically different (he was suffering from depression most likely caused by post traumatic stress disorder) and this caused a strain in the marriage. They were divorced in 1945. He then met Peggy Morrow and after dating for a while they married on May 29, 1946. They divorced just 4 years later on March 13, 1950. Louis Hayward had one son, Dana (who died in 2007), with his third wife, June Hanson (who died in 1998). He was posthumously reported to have had a long-standing homosexual relationship with playwright/screenwriter Noël Coward in biographies of the latter.[9][10][11]

Death

Louis Hayward died in Palm Springs, California, from lung cancer, aged 75, blaming his illness on a five-decade habit of smoking three packs of cigarettes daily. At Hayward's request, he had no funeral or memorial service.[12]

Selected filmography

Source

  • Wise, James E.; Anne Collier Rehill (1999). "LouisHayward". Stars in the Corps: Movie actors in the United States Marines (2nd edition ed.). Naval Institute Press. pp. 27–34. ISBN 978-1-55750-949-9. Retrieved 21 March 2009. 

References

  1. ↑ Latymer Upper School; A History of the School and its Foundation, Nigel Watson
  2. ↑ Production details at IBDB
  3. ↑ Louis Hayward Longs for Adventurous Life Kingsley, Grace. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 06 Mar 1939: 20.
  4. ↑ www.saint.org
  5. ↑ SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD: Louis Hayward to Play Lead in 'Man in the Iron Mask' for United Artists OPENING AT CONTINENTAL ' The Singing Blacksmith,' New Yiddish Picture, Will Begin Engagement Today Casting for "Hotel Imperial" Coast Scripts Of Local Origin Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 01 Nov 1938: 27.
  6. ↑ Tarawa documentary won Academy Award - Marine Corps Community for USMC Veterans
  7. ↑ page 69 Bioletti, Harry The Yanks are Coming: the American Invasion of New Zealand 1942-1944(1989, Century Hutchison, ISBN 1-86941-034-3)
  8. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394032/
  9. ↑ Morley, Sheridan (2005). Coward (Life & Times). Haus Publishing. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-904341-88-8. 
  10. ↑ Various (2007). The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama. Columbia University Press. p. 296. ISBN 978-0-231-14032-4. 
  11. ↑ Hoare, Philip Hoare (1995). Noel Coward: A Biography. Simon and Schuster. p. 273. ISBN 0-684-80937-0. 
  12. ↑ "Actor Louis Hayward dead at age 75". The Tuscaloosa News. 22 February 1985. p. 17. Retrieved 14 September 2010. 

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