Susan Hayward 1917 – 1975 ….the indomitable redhead from Brooklyn !

Like her heroine, Ruby Stevens, she left Brooklyn to be a movie star! And like Ruby (who became Barbara Stanwyck) she never looked back! By the late 1950s she was a top star at 20 th Century Fox with five Oscar nominations and one gold statuette. But her most courageous performance came on April 2 nd, 1974 when she gave that coveted award to another actress. Wearing a gorgeous Noel Miller gown and a wig to disguise the loss of her own red tresses, cancer-stricken Susan Hayward took the arm of actor Charlton Heston and bravely walked on the stage to give the Best Actress Oscar to Glenda Jackson. It was to be her last public appearance.

She was born Edythe Marrenner in a Brooklyn tenement on June 30 th, 1917 , the youngest of Walter and

Susan at 5

Ellen Marrenner’s three children. She was close to her brother Wally but a rift developed between Edythe and sister Florence that grew wider over the years. When Edythe was 7, a car hit her while she was crossing a street and she suffered a broken hip. Bedridden for months, she lived for the movie magazines that neighbors and friends would bring her to read. They showed her a world of magic outside the dreary poverty that surrounded her.

When she was 10, Edythe’s dream of becoming a Hollywood star took on more definition when she was cast as a princess in a school play “Cinderella in Flowerland” (her Prince Charming in that play, Ira Grossel had the same dream…. he later changed his name to Jeff Chandler). After high school graduation in 1935, Edythe crossed the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan and the Great White Way…but the road to stardom would be full of pot holes.

One year at the Feagan Drama School was all that Edythe could afford even with the extra money from part-time modeling. She left to do modeling full time. But the dream never died. A break came when she posed for an article in Saturday Evening Post and someone at Selznick Studios saw it. She was called

Model Edythe Marrener with one "n"!

into their New York office and asked to do a screen test in Hollywood , all expenses paid. Since she was under 21 they were also willing to pay for a chaperone. Thrilled, Edythe packed up and headed for Tinseltown with older sister Florence along. She also took with her a do-or-die attitude, a Victorian view of sex, a fiery temper and a good right hook (see Arabella’s Notes).

Once there, she took the same test given to starlets looking to play Scarlett in “Gone With The Wind” (even though she was never considered for that role) But the test was only proved inexperienced the 19-year-old was at that time and the studio released her. However, spunky Edythe just planted her feet firmly in the California turf and refused to budge. She found a young agent (Ben Medford) who felt she had potential. He took her to Max Arnow at Warner Bros. who changed her name to Susan Hayward. The studio signed her to a 6-month contract and put her in “Girls On Probation”. The movie tanked but it looked good on her resume. After 5 more bit parts the studio dropped her. Paramount signed her but loaned her out more than they used her. It was left to directors like Cecil B. De Mille and Gregory Ratoff to provide her with roles that suited her and helped her talent grow.

In late November, 1944 while doing her volunteer work at the Hollywood canteen, Susan met actor Jess Barker who was the emcee that night. He asked her for coffee and then tried to steal a kiss. She slapped his face. Three months later he proposed and they were married on July 24 th, 1944 . It would be a stormy nine years before ending in a bitter divorce and custody battle over their twin sons.

In 1947 Susan finally got the role she could sink her teeth into…..as Angelica in “Smash-Up: The Story Of A Woman” and it earned her a first Oscar nomination (she lost to Loretta Young for “The Farmer’s Daughter”). But she was on a roll. There would be 3 more nominations before she would finally get the gold!

In August, 1954 the divorce from Jess was finally over and Susan set out for Saint George , Utah with the twins to make “The Conqueror” with John Wayne. No one knew at the time that making that picture could be hazardous to their health. In May of 1953 during an atom bomb test blast, a freak windstorm blew a radioactive cloud (later named “Dirty Harry”) over the Utah desert. Out of 220 cast and crew members, 91 died from cancer….including Susan Hayward.

After “The Conqueror” Susan went into two more films back to back….”Untamed” with Tyrone Power and “Soldier of Fortune” with Clark Gable. Only Richard Egan who was on the set with her in “Untamed” saw the depression building. Suddenly the pressure of work and the divorce was too much for even Susan and on April 26 th, 1955 she attempted suicide by taking an overdose of pills. Only her desire to reassure her mother by phone saved her life.

Then at a Christmas party in 1955 Susan met the love of her life, 47-year-old Floyd Eaton Chalkley, a wealthy attorney from Carrollton , Georgia . They eloped on February 9 th, 1957 and Susan moved into his Georgian home ready to give up her career to be a Southern housewife. But Eaton convinced her she could do it all with him at her side. She proved him right by winning the gold Oscar 2 years later as Barbara Graham in “I Want To Live”. It was the last award-winning role of her career.

The marriage lasted 14 years until Eaton’s tragic death of hepatitis in 1966.

Susan went into seclusion first in Carrollton and then, when the memories there became too much, she moved to Fort Lauderdale , Florida . Since Eaton had been a devout Catholic, Susan began to study Catholicism and even traveled to Pittsburgh to be confirmed in the faith. She did accept a small part in “Valley of the Dolls” that took her only 2 weeks work and showed her outstanding talent once again. She even briefly tried stage and television roles but her health began to give way.

Hospitalized in March, 1973, Susan was told she had multiple brain tumors and all of them were inoperable. In April of that year, her son Timothy was granted power of attorney over her estate. She continued to try various treatments, including cobalt and losing both her beautiful hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. With the exception of that appearance at the 1974 awards ceremonies, Susan Hayward remained mostly in seclusion. On March 14 th, she lost her battle for life. Susan was buried in her Noel Miller green sequined gown. She was laid to rest in the small cemetery behind Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church next to her husband in Carrollton , Georgia . The plaque above the grave reads: “F. Eaton Chalkley, 1909-1966” and “Mrs F. E. Chalkley, 1917-1975” with the inscription “I am the Resurrection and the Life”. The smaller stone, put there by someone in the town reads “Grave of Susan Hayward Chalkley”.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church.

Susan Hayward's final resting place

For more on Susan Hayward’s life onscreen and off screen, please read Arabella’s Notes. For information on my sources for this article please e-mail me at mamalion27@aol.com.

Filmography