Louis Hayward
| Louis Hayward | |
|---|---|
Louis Hayward in Anthony Adverse
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| Born |
Louis Charles Hayward 19 March 1909 Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Died | 21 February 1985 (aged 75) Palm Springs, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | lung cancer |
| Occupation | Stage, film and television 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) (1 son) |
| Children | Dana Hayward (1950–2007) |
| Awards | Bronze Star Medal |
Louis Charles Hayward (19 March 1909 – 21 February 1985) was a British actor born in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Born in Johannesburg, Louis Hayward lived in South Africa and was educated in France and England, including Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, London. 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 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. The play only ran a short time, after which Hayward received an offer from MGM to appear in The Flame Within.
He followed this with the male lead in A Feather in Her Hat for Columbia.
He gained attention in the prologue of Anthony Adverse (1936). He was then cast as the first screen incarnation of Simon Templar in Leslie Charteris' The Saint in New York (1938).
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. Instead, Small cast him in a dual role in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) as well as The Son of Monte Cristo (1940).
He became an American citizen in December 1941.
During World War II, Hayward enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in July 1942. He 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. 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 a Wellington restaurant, the Green Parrot.
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