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Sterling Hayden 1916 - 1986

Sterling Hayden of Wilton, Fairfield County, CT was born on March 26, 1916 in Montclair, New Jersey United States, and died at age 70 years old on May 23, 1986 in Sausalito, Marin County, CA. Sterling Hayden was buried Cremated. Ashes scattered in San Francisco Bay. in Died in Sausalito, at home..

Sterling Hayden

Sterling Relyea Walter - at birth. Then adopted as Sterling Walter Hayden.

Wilton, Fairfield County, CT 06897

March 26, 1916

Montclair, New Jersey, United States

May 23, 1986

Sausalito, Marin County, California, 94965, United States

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Sterling Hayden Sterling Hayden (1916 - 1986)

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Sterling Hayden's History: 1916 - 1986

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Introduction

Sterling Walter Hayden (born Sterling Relyea Walter; March 26, 1916 – May 23, 1986) was an American actor, author, sailor and decorated Marine Corps officer and an Office of Strategic Services' agent during World War II. A leading man for most of his career, he specialized in westerns and film noir throughout the 1950s, in films such as John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954), and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). He became noted for supporting roles in the 1960s, perhaps most memorably as General Jack D. Ripper in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Hayden's success continued into the New Hollywood era, with roles such as Irish-American policeman Captain McCluskey in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), alcoholic novelist Roger Wade in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973), and elderly peasant Leo Dalcò in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 (1976). With a distinctive "rapid-fire baritone" voice and standing at 6 ft 5 in (196 cm), he had a commanding screen presence in both leading and supporting roles.
03/26

1916

Birthday

March 26, 1916

Birthdate

Montclair, New Jersey United States

Birthplace

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Military Service

Mr. Hayden was serving in the Marine Corps, and they were divorced after four years. During World War II, Mr. Hayden served with the Office of Strategic Services in Yugoslavia, Italy and Germany, and won a Silver Star. He left the service as a Captain. Facebook Comment. The guy was also a bona fide badass during WWII; serving in the OSS as a US Marine Corps officer, he sailed with supplies from Italy to Yugoslav partisans and parachuting into fascist Croatia. Hayden, who also participated in the Naples–Foggia campaign and established air crew rescue teams in enemy-occupied territory, became a first lieutenant on September 13, 1944, and a captain on February 14, 1945. He received the Silver Star for gallantry in action in the Balkans and Mediterranean. Marshal Tito awarded him the Order of Merit.
Professional Career

Actor, Author, Adventurer. Born Sterling Relyea Walter, at 6 foot, 5 inches, he was known as one of the tallest Hollywood actors. His father died when he was young and his mother remarried. His stepfather adopted him at 9 and renamed him Sterling Walter Hayden. He left home at 15 to go to sea and ended up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he worked as a Grand Banks fisherman and learned the art of sailing. He was mate on Irving Johnson's Yankee on its noted circumnavigation in 1937. He was navigator on the Essex-built schooner Gertrude L. Thebaud under Captain Ben Pine in the 1938 Fisherman's Cup races vs the Canadian schooner Bluenose. Partly due to the intense media coverage of those races, he was discovered by the press: his photo in the Boston Post captioned "Thebaud Sailor Like Movie Idol" led to modeling opportunities in New York and a call from Paramount Pictures. After captaining a voyage to Tahiti, he signed with Paramount in 1941. He met his first wife, actress Madeleine Carroll on the set of his first picture, "Virginia" (1941), and they married in 1942. After filming a second picture, he enlisted in the Marine Corps using the pseudonym John Hamilton, attended OCS, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. He served as an undercover agent in the OSS in Croatia and Italy and was awarded the Silver Star among other medals. Leaving active duty in 1946 as a Captain, he returned to Hollywood where he quickly became a leading man in Westerns and film noir movies such as "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950), "Johnny Guitar" (1954), and "The Killing" (1956) and also made multiple TV appearances on "Playhouse 90", in particular a live adaptation of William Faukner's "The Old Man". He appeared in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, confessing a brief fling with the Communist Party due to his admiration for Tito's partisans, but later repudiated his cooperation. A custody battle with his second wife caused him to flee Hollywood in 1959, sailing with his 4 children to the South Seas. This story was at the heart of his controversial but well-received autobiography "The Wanderer" (1963). Returning to Hollywood, but now as a character actor rather than a leading man, he gave what is probably his most notable performance as General Jack D. Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove" (1964), for which he was nominated by BAFTA as "Best Foreign Actor". Other noted roles were a corrupt cop in "The Godfather" (1972), Roger Wade in "The Long Goodbye" (1973), Leo Dalco in Bertolucci's "Novecento" (1976), and a comedic turn as the CEO in "Nine to Five" (1980). He often expressed his dislike for acting, stating that he only acted to pay for his sailing. Utilizing his love for the sea and knowledge of sailing, he also authored the best-selling 1976 work "Voyage: A Novel of 1896". He was married three times with six children, and died of prostate cancer. Family Members Parents George W. Walter 1881–1925 Spouse Madeleine Carroll 1906–1987 (m. 1942)
05/23

1986

Death

May 23, 1986

Death date

Prostate cancer.

Cause of death

Sausalito, Marin County, California 94965, United States
Death location

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Gravesite & Burial

mm/dd/yyyy
Funeral date
Cremated. Ashes scattered in San Francisco Bay. in Died in Sausalito, at home., California United States
Burial location
Obituary

Sterling Hayden, the handsome blond actor who played wholesome leading-man movie roles in the 1940's and 1950's and later weathered into a rough-hewn solid character actor in films such as ''Dr. Strangelove'' and ''The Godfather,'' died yesterday at his home in Sausalito, Calif. Mr. Hayden, who was 70 years old and also had a home in Wilton, Conn., had been suffering from prostate cancer for more than two years. He made more than 50 movies, beginning with ''Virginia'' in 1941, but his abiding love was the sea. He owned a schooner in California and a 100-foot, Netherlands-based canal barge he used all over Europe. The strapping, 6-foot-5-inch Mr. Hayden, who made a notable impression with his acting in John Huston's ''Asphalt Jungle'' (1950), in which he appeared as a doomed petty hoodlum, found it difficult to subjugate his love for the sea to his need to make a living as an actor. In 1959, in defiance of a court order obtained by his second wife, the former Betty Ann DeNoon, from whom he was divorced, Mr. Hayden got their four children aboard his schooner, the Wanderer, and took them on a prolonged South Seas journey. A Book About the Sea He wrote of his obsessive fascination with the sea in a 1963 autobiography, ''Wanderer,'' in which he also said he would never be able to erase the guilt he felt over his testimony, in 1951, before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Mr. Hayden had admitted past membership in the Communist Party and named several of his Hollywood acquaintances as fellow travelers. He was praised by the committee as ''an intensely loyal citizen,'' and thus avoided being blacklisted in Hollywood. In 1970 his 700-page epic novel of the sea, ''Voyage,'' was a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. In the 1980's Mr. Hayden appeared in a documentary, ''Pharos of Chaos,'' filmed aboard his barge in Europe, and seemed to be in an alcoholic stupor much of the time, supplementing his wine intake with hashish. On camera he said: ''What confuses me is I ain't all that unhappy. So why do I drink, I don't know.'' In 1981, in Brampton, Ontario, a judge dropped charges of hashish possession against Mr. Hayden after his attorney told the court the actor was using it to combat his alcoholism. A High-School Dropout Mr. Hayden was named Sterling Relyea Walter when he was born in Montclair, N.J., on March 26, 1916. He dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and hired on as mate on a schooner. He was a ship's captain at 22, and in need of cash to buy his own boat, established himself as a model in New York. Paramount Pictures signed the strikingly handsome and virile young man to a contract in 1940, puffing the newcomer as ''The Beautiful Blond Viking God'' and ''The Most Beautiful Man in the Movies.'' He winced, ''but the money was good,'' he said. More publicity poured upon him after his second movie, ''Bahama Passage,'' when he married Madeleine Carroll, a popular actress. They saw little of each other, however, since Mr. Hayden was serving in the Marine Corps, and they were divorced after four years. During World War II, Mr. Hayden served with the Office of Strategic Services in Yugoslavia, Italy and Germany, and won a Silver Star. After a few unmemorable postwar roles at Paramount, Mr. Hayden scored critically in 1950 in ''The Asphalt Jungle,'' but his evident talent was tapped only rarely in the years to come. He gave commanding performances in Stanley Kubrick's ''The Killing'' and as the crazed Air Force general who sets off a nuclear Armageddon in Mr. Kubrick's ''Dr. Strangelove'' (1964). 'An Imposing John Brown' Mr. Hayden was also praised for his vivid, if brief, performance as a corrupt police captain in Francis Ford Coppola's ''Godfather'' (1972). And, reviewing the television Civil War mini-series ''The Blue and the Gray'' in 1982, John J. O'Connor wrote in The New York Times: ''Mr. Hayden makes an imposing John Brown, capturing the passion of a fanatic and the searing insight of a prophet. His scenes carry a special stamp of authenticity.'' Mr. Hayden is survived by his third wife, the former Catherine Devine McConnell, whom he married in 1960; their sons, Andrew and David, and a stepson, Scott; his four children from his marriage to Betty Ann DeNoon - Christian, Dana and Matthew, and Gretchen Ruckert - and 11 grandchildren. Funeral services will be private.

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