Louis Charles Hayward (19 March 1909 – 21 February 1985) was a South African-born, British-American actor.
Biography
Born in Johannesburg, Louis Hayward lived in South Africa and was educated in France and England, including Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, London.[1] He spent some time managing a night club but wanted to act and bought into a stock company.
English career
He became a protégé of Noël Coward and began appearing in London in plays such as Dracula and Another Language.[2] He was in the Sir Gerald du Maurier stage play, The Church Mouse.[3]
Hayward went to Broadway in 1935 with a production of Coward's Point Valaine working with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.[4] The play, described as one of Coward's worst and poorly received critically and popularly, only ran for six weeks and was considered a failure, but Hayward won the Donaldson award, a precursor to the Tonys and as a consequence signed a four-picture contract with MGM.
Hayward's career started to gain momentum when he was cast in the prologue of Warner Bros' expensive blockbuster Anthony Adverse (1936), playing the father of the title character. His profile also was raised by marriage to Ida Lupino.[8]
In 1938 Hayward starred in The Duke of West Point (1938) 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 started building Hayward into a star, casting him in a dual role in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) under the direction of James Whale, co-starring with Joan Bennett. The film was a notable success.[9]
While 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 the Green Parrot, a Wellington restaurant.[14]
For his contributions to the motion picture and television industries, Hayward was honored in 1960 with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 and 1680 Vine Street, respectively.[16][17]
Personal life
Hayward married actress/director Ida Lupino on 17 November 1938 in a quiet civil ceremony held in the Santa Barbara courthouse. After he returned from the war, he was drastically different, which 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 29 May 1946. They divorced four years later on 13 March 1950.
Hayward had one son, Dana, with his third wife, June Hanson.[18][19]
Hayward publicly stated that his more than five-decade-long habit of smoking three packs of cigarettes daily was the likely cause of his cancer.[21][22]
Wise, James E.; Anne Collier Rehill (1999). "LouisHayward". Stars in the Corps: Movie actors in the United States Marines (2nd ed.). Naval Institute Press. pp. 27–34. ISBN978-1-55750-949-9. Retrieved 21 March 2009.
References
^Latymer Upper School; A History of the School and Its Foundation, Nigel Watson