Susan Hayward

Trivia of Susan Hayward (30 June 1917 – 14 March 1975)

*She began working as a model. After filmmaker George Cukor saw a colour photo of her in the Saturday Evening Post, she was invited to audition for the part of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). Her lack of acting experience came through in her screen test, however, and she was not given the part.

*She acquired an agent—as well as a new name, Susan Hayward—and in 1937 she embarked on a series of uncredited bit parts in movies. Her first credited role was in Girls on Probation (1938), starring Ronald Reagan.Coincidentally, she would later star in a film called The President’s Lady.

*During World War II, Hayward supported the war effort by volunteering at the Hollywood Canteen, where she met her first husband, actor Jess Barker. They married on July 1944, and on February 1945, fraternal twin sons named Gregory and Timothy were born.The marriage was turbulent, with a judge granting an interlocutory divorce decree on August 1954. During the contentious divorce proceedings, Hayward stayed in the United States rather than join the Hong Kong location shoot for the film Soldier of Fortune. She shot her scenes on a sound stage with co-star Clark Gable in Hollywood. A few brief, distant scenes of Gable and a Hayward double walking near landmarks in Hong Kong were combined with the indoor shots. By April 1955, the stress of divorce proceedings and overwork prompted a suicide attempt.

*Known to have a taste for drink, she played an alcoholic in three films : Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947), My Foolish Heart (1949) and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) and was nominated for an Oscar for each performance.

*Hayward was a stargazer—and not just because she thought the night sky looked pretty. Hayward was a strong believer in astrology and consulted the map in the sky before making many of her career and personal life decisions.Whenever Hayward needed a little “astral” guidance, she consulted the “Astrologer to the Stars,” Carroll Righter. Righter informed Hayward that the best time for her to sign a contract was at precisely 2:47 am, So, whenever Hayward had a new contract to sign, she set alarm for 2:45 am.

*She didn't get along with Bette Davis.When they starred in Where Love Has Gone (1964), Hayward and Davis clashed as much off-screen as they did on-screen after Davis tore off Hayward’s wig and repeatedly lashed her with it.

*In April 1973, Hayward was diagnosed with brain cancer. On March 14, 1975, she suffered a seizure in her Beverly Hills home and died at the age of 57.Hayward wasn’t the only star from The Conqueror (1956) movie that died by invasive cancers. Fellow stars John Wayne, Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell all fell victim to cancer and cancer-related illnesses. In fact, out of a cast of 220 people, almost half of them developed cancer later in life. The theories said it was because they filming took place not far from abandoned atomic test sites. Scientists speculate that the film location might have been bathed in radioactive material.That film is sometimes called "An RKO Radioactive Picture".