The acclaimed actor (JOHNNY GUITAR, THE KILLING, DR. STRANGELOVE, THE GODFATHER) and author (Wanderer, Voyage) died on May 23rd, 1986 from prostate cancer at age 70.
''Women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh... I do not avoid women, Mandrake. But I... I do deny them my essence.''
Gen. Jack D. Ripper DR. STRANGELOVE
Hayden was born March 26th, 1916.
He was much more that just an actor and author.
Hayden's first love was the sea.
At age 16 he quit school and took a job as a first mate on a schooner.
Hayden later worked as a fireman on a steamer and sailed around the world many times, before, at age 22, he got his first command, skippering the square rigger Florence C. Robinson from Massachusetts to Tahiti.
A picture of Hayden on a magazine cover after a Fisherman's Race led to him getting a screen test in Hollywood. The rest is cinema history.
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
With Ben Cooper and Joan Crawford in JOHNNY GUITAR
THE KILLING
Al Pacino takes out Hayden in THE GODFATHER
Sterling and Elliott Gould in THE LONG GOODBYE
Long live Sterling Hayden! KING OF THE GYPSIES
With Craig Wasson in THE OUTSIDER
He later joined the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of the CIA) and as an undercover agent he sailed supplies to Yugoslav partisans and parachuted behind enemy lines to establish rescue teams in enemy territory. He made Captain and won a Silver Star and received a commendation from Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia.
His friendship with Yugoslav partisans led to a brief membership with the Communist Party.
Returning to Hollywood, he went back to films, mainly to pay for his many sailing voyages.
During the Red Scare, he cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee, revealing his brief Communist ties.
In 1958, after a bitter third divorce from his second wife , Betty Ann de Noon (they married and divorced 3 times in 9 years!), he defied a court order and sailed with his four children to Tahiti.
He had 2 more kids with his third and final wife, his widow, Catherine Devine McConnell.
His autobiography, Wanderer, was first published in 1963.
"Why did you never write? Why, instead, did you grovel along, through the endless months and years, as a motion‑picture actor? What held you to it, to something you so vehemently professed to despise? Could it be that you secretly liked it—that the big dough and the big house and the high life meant more than the aura you spun for those around you to see?
from Wanderer
His 1896 seafaring novel Voyage was published in 1976.
Hayden's other film and TV credits include: BLAZE OF NOON, FLAMING FEATHER, HELLGATE, FLAT TOP, THE GOLDEN HAWK, NAKED ALIBI, ARROW IN THE DUST, BATTLE TAXI, TIMBERJACK, SHOTGUN, TOP GUN (1955), THE COME ON, ZANE GREY THEATER, CRIME OF PASSION, WAGON TRAIN, PLAYHOUSE 90, HARD CONTRACT, GAS, BANACEK, THE STARLOST, WINTER KILLS, DEADLY STRANGERS, VENOM, NINE TO FIVE, THE BLUE AND THE GRAY, and more.
Director John Farrow, William Holden, and Hayden on the set of BLAZE OF NOON
Run, don't walk, from a cinema showing VENOM
NINE TO FIVE
Did you know...?
He was supposedly producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown's first choice to play Quint in JAWS.
Robert Shaw (A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, THE STING), got the role.
In the late 1960's he bought a canal barge in the Netherlands and moved it to Paris to live on it part of the time.
Rumor is he turned down the James Coburn role in THE MAGNIFICENT 7.
http://youtu.be/N1KvgtEnABY 'Bodily fluids' and 'Life essence' scene
More on Hayden:
Sterling Hayden - Wikipedia
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