Susan Hayward @ FashionState.Com

FashionState.Com salutes...

Glamour Queen with Grit

SUSAN HAYWARD

1917-1975

"I had to slug my way up in a town called Hollywood
where people love to trample you to death. I don't relax because
I don't know how. I don't want to know how. Life is too short to relax."
- Susan Hayward

As the lady herself tells it: "I learned at a very early age that life is a battle. My family was poor, my neighborhood was poor. The only way that I could get away from the awfulness of life, at that time, was at the movies. There I decided that my big aim was to make money. And it was there that I became a very determined woman."

Susan Hayward, the glamourous and gutsy star of more than 50 films, bucked poverty, overcame a crippling accident, and lived under the torment of her mother's clear favoritism of her pretty older sister - all of which shaped her temperamental character and drove her towards success.

Susan was born in Brooklyn as Edythe Marrenner, and she began her career in show business as an ambitious young model geared towards stardom. At age twenty-one, she had been called to Hollywood to audition for no less a role than that of Scarlett O'Hara, and although her lack of experience was clearly evident to George Cukor - the first director of "Gone With The Wind" - her drive and desire to make it in films led to small roles in several films and a dazzling array of pin-up and portrait photographs.

But her stand-offish nature and her refusal to play "casting couch" or any other games associated with starlets put her on many studio and director's blacklists, and for a time, Susan was extremely aggravated by the hindrances to her uphill climb and the neverending parade of roles in second-string films, even as audiences became more and more intrigued by the feisty actress with the flaming red mane of hair and the smoky, drawling voice.

Susan fought for bigger and better roles, and she was finally given a chance to show her mettle in "Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman". Her frank portrayal of an alcoholic electrified the critics, stunned the audiences, and earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

It was the first of five nominations, and Susan became identified with the audience as a schemer or a scrapper - the fallen woman seeking redemption. The highlight of her career occurred in 1959 when her last Oscar-nominated role - that of convicted murderess Barbara Graham in "I Want To Live!" - gained her the award she coveted so much.

A tempestuous lady who liked to keep to herself and her inner circle, Susan was married twice - once to actor Jess Barker who was the father of the twin sons she adored but refused to spoil, and secondly to Floyd Eaton Chalkley, a Southern businessman with a penchant for wheeling and dealing and whom Susan considered the love of her life. After his death in 1966, Susan refused to marry again, content to be viewed as Eaton's devoted widow and just occasionally taking roles when her drive for work overwhelmed her.

Susan was a heavy smoker and constant drinker in her later years. In 1972, she was diagnosed with twenty brain tumors, which may have been less the result of her personal habits and possibly the result of her work on the film "The Conqueror" in the 1950s. (The location of the filming - St. George, Utah - was heavily radiated at the time due to its downwind position from atomic testing sites in Nevada, with several of the films actors and a great percentage of town's population contracting various forms of cancer and other forms of illness related to radiation poisoning.) Although given a scant few months to live, Susan tried to keep this information a secret and fought like a tigress to delay the inevitable, her doctor maintaining it was a miracle that she lasted as long as she did.

Susan's last public appearance was during a remission period in 1974 - she had been invited to be a presenter at the Academy Awards ceremony and she decided to give the world just one more glimpse of the glamour and grit that epitomized so many of her best-known performances...and her private life as well.

Susan died on March 14, 1975, at the age of 57. At her request, she was buried next to her husband in the graveyard of the Catholic church her husband Eaton and she helped to finance in Carrollton, Georgia.

Her designation on the structure atop her burial place:

"MRS. F. E. CHALKLEY 1917-1975".

Even in death, Susan craved her privacy. But such a simple remembrance of her was not enough for at least one anonymous admirer who posted a memorial notice in the show business publication "Variety" each year on the anniversary of her passing that read:

A Star, Is A Star, Is A Star!
Academy Award Winning Actress
SUSAN HAYWARD
June 30, 1918 [sic] - March 14, 1975

Susan once said, "No one is going to remember me when I'm dead. Oh maybe a few friends will remember me affectionately. Being remembered isn't the most important thing anyhow. It's what you do when you are here that's important." Regardless, the petite dynamo that was Susan Hayward left a legacy for her devoted fans to enjoy - and modern actresses to follow - in the scores of films that still do not fail to reflect the fire within her soul and the enormous talent and gutsiness that brought her from being a bit player to a truly unique and respected Hollywood star.

SPOTLIGHT ON SUSAN

SUSAN ON CELLULOID, PT. 1
SUSAN ON CELLULOID, PT. 2
SUSAN ON CELLULOID, PT. 3
SUSAN THE MODEL
SUSAN THE SIREN
SUSAN - THE WOMAN, THE STAR!

SITE LINKS

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Beautiful Women: Susan Hayward
LOADS of pix and a filmography.

Cemetery Surveys, Inc. - Susan Hayward Burial Place, Carroll County, Georgia
Directions to and photos of the gravesite of Susan Hayward and her husband Eaton Chalkley at the church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Carrollton, Georgia.

Denny Jackson's Susan Hayward Page
A small fansite with pix and a bio.

The Films of Susan Hayward
Ann DiOrio's site is filled with screen caps and movie reviews!

Find A Grave: Susan Hayward
Photos of her gravesite in Carrollton, photos, and a tribute guestbook.

Ginger's Susan Hayward Homepage
No doubt about it - Ginger's a Susan Superfan! Lots of links with a bio, a filmography, scads and scads of photos, movie info, a guestbook, and a petition for the DVD release of "With a Song In My Heart". The music you hear is written by Ginger herself!

Susan Hayward (1918 to 1975)
Exclusively pix!

Susan Hayward A&E Biography Footnotes (by OhMindy)
Lots of info and screen caps!

The Susan Hayward Glove Gallery @ OperaGloves.Com
For The Love Of Opera Gloves salutes glove-lover Susan. Some lovely photos!

Susan Hayward ~ Survivor
One of the Meredy celebrity sites - this one features a short bio, reminiscences, a guestbook, a poll, links to free downloads, loads of pix...even a couple of petitions! And naturally, as is her wont, Meredy provides a trivia game!

Susan Hayward's Pictures
As advertised!

SPECIAL LINKS:
The filming of "The Conqueror"
and the unknown consequences

AboutFacts.Net: "Contamination - 1954: 'The Conqueror'
and the death of John Wayne"
Details about infection, disease, and death amongst the cast members of the film -
was it due to atomic testing in Nevada?

"The Conqueror" Film Location Site
Photos of the now infamous film site of "The Conqueror" near St. George, Utah.

Editorial Bitácora: "La Película Mortal"
Article in Spanish about "The Conqueror" speculating on the possibility of secret
testing's deadly toll on the cast and the town of St. George, Utah.

The Low Level Radiation Campaign: "The Dragon that Slew St. George"
The tragic consequences in St. George as a result of bombing tests in Nevada
in the mid-1950s.

Mother Jones: "Atomic Rage: 'The Conqueror' and Other Bombs"
Bob Harris' lament on nuclear testing and the price paid in lives in St. George, Utah...
and among the cast of "The Conqueror".

News From Babylon: "The bad and the ugly of underground
nuclear tests" (from Salt Lake Tribune)
Will Bagley opines on "The Conqueror" and the disaster at St. George.

Nuclear Fallout: "Lessons for today" (Still Pioneers @ Standard.Net)
Melisa Ann Wilson interviews two people who remember the nuclear tests in Utah.

The Straight Dope: "Did John Wayne die of cancer caused
by a radioactive movie set?"
Some information on the background of St. George and the filming of "The Conqueror".

Utah Gothic: "Did Utah Kill John Wayne?"
This website focusing on behind-the-scenes Utah editorializes about the St. George disaster.

SUSAN ON THE BOOKSHELF

"The Films of Susan Hayward" - Eduardo Moreno
(A great photo and info book on Susan)

"Red: The Tempestuous Life of Susan Hayward" - Robert LaGuardia and Gene Arceri
(The most recent and comprehensive bio on Susan.)

"A Star, Is a Star, Is a Star!: The Lives and Loves of Susan Hayward" - Christopher P. Andersen
(A review of Susan's life and times.)

"Susan Hayward: Portrait of a Survivor" - Beverly Linet
(Writer, publicist, and fan Beverly Linet's affectionate tribute.)

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