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Susan Hayward

Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward
Born: Jun 30, 1918 in Brooklyn, New York
Died: Mar 14, 1975 in Hollywood, California
Occupation: Actor,
Active: '30s-'60s
Major Genres: Drama, Romance
Career Highlights: I Want to Live!, I'll Cry Tomorrow, Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman
First Major Screen Credit: Beau Geste (1939)
8 Videos for Susan Hayward
I Want to Live! (1958) I Married a Witch (1942) Beau Geste (1939)
I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) Reap the Wild Wind (1942) Hollywood Hotel (1937)
Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947) Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
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Biography:

Energetic red-haired leading lady Susan Hayward (born Edythe Marrener) specialized in portraying gutsy women who rebound from adversity. She began working as a photographer's model while still in high school, and when open auditions were held in 1937 for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, she arrived in Hollywood with scores of other actresses.

Unlike most of the others, however, she managed to become a contract player. Her roles were initially discouragingly small, although she gradually work her way up to stardom. For her role in Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947) -- the first in which she played a strong-willed, courageous woman -- Hayward received the first of her five Oscar nominations; the others were for performances in My Foolish Heart (1950), With a Song in My Heart (1952), I'll Cry Tomorrow (1956), and I Want to Live (1958), winning for the latter.

Although the actress maintained her star status through the late '50s, the early '60s saw her in several unmemorable tearjerkers, and although she formally retired from films in 1964, that retirement was not a permanent one - as she later returned to the screen for a few more roles including parts in a couple of telemovies and one theatrical feature during the early 1970s.

Her ten-year marriage to actor Jess Barker ended in 1954 with a bitter child-custody battle, and she died in 1975 after a two-year struggle with a brain tumor, one of several cast and crew members from 1956's The Conqueror to be stricken with cancer later in life. ~ All Movie Guide.