And like fellow Brooklyn gal, Barbara Stanwyck; Susan Hayward, born Edyth Marrener in 1917, came from that poorer side of town and struggled through childhood, however fortunate to survive being struck by an automobile crossing the street when the actress was all but seven years old, an accident that would ensue a permanent disability, but Hayward proved early on she wasn't about to take that or anything else laying down.
Hayward already had a penchant for acting when she was in her primary school years and often won the lead in various school performances, but just acting in the odd school play was hardly enough to sustain the ambitious kid. She was gifted with an ethereal beauty and these beguiling looks would land her some modeling assignments before any such pomp and circumstance marching.
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| Susan Hayward bottling it with Bill Williams in Deadline At Dawn (1946) |
Her first liaison with the celluloid world would come in the year 1937, now twenty and ready to put the Hawthorne effect to good use in an uncredited role, albeit a Busby Berkeley production - Hollywood Hotel and hobnobbing with the likes of one Dick Powell and one Louella Parsons would not exactly hinder any agendas, nosir, noladyree.
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| Don't leave her hanging on the telephone...Hayward having a chin-wag in Back Street (1961) |
Hayward was one of the top contenders for the role of Gone With The Wind's Scarlett O'Hara but needless to say Vivien Leigh would pull rank with her extensive experience. Susan's moment to illuminate would finally come when she just absolutely smashed it in Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman in 1947. Stuart Heisler's unauthorized response to A Star Is Born, helped seal the deal for the actress who was nominated for Best Actress for her portrayal of Angie Evans Conway, the troubled torch singer, with the vocals being supplied by classical singer Peg La Centra. It was hard to refute Hayward's vitalizing performance as anything less than masterful. And this would be revived in the 1961 updating of Fannie Hurst's Back Street, and essentially any role this dame was able to get her marvelous mitts on. Susan Hayward was simply unforgettable though she is seemingly unremembered for an actress of her stature and proportion. Hayward would spend much of her later life in Georgia, where her flame would be put out far, far too soon in the year 1975. Susan was 57.