Susan Hayward (born Edythe Marrenner; June 30, 1917 – March 14, 1975) was an American actress and model.
After working as a fashion model, Hayward traveled to Hollywood in 1937. She secured a film contract and played several small supporting roles over the next few years.
By the late 1940s, the quality of her film roles had improved, and she achieved recognition for her dramatic abilities with the first of five Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her performance as an alcoholic in Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947). Her career continued successfully through the 1950s and she received subsequent nominations for My Foolish Heart (1949), With a Song in My Heart (1952), and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955). She finally won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of death row inmate Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (1958).
After Hayward's second marriage and subsequent move to Georgia, her film appearances became infrequent, although she continued acting in film and television until 1972. She died in 1975 of brain cancer.
Selected filmography:
- Beau Geste (1939) as Isobel Rivers
- I Married a Witch (1941) as Estelle Masterson
- Reap the Wild Wind (1942) as Drusilla Alston
- Canyon Passage (1946) as Lucy Overmire
- My Foolish Heart (1946) as Eloise Winters
- Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) as Messalina
- The Conqueror (1956) as Bortail
- I Want to Live! (1958) as Barbara Graham
- Valley of the Dolls (1967) as Helen Lawson
- The Revengers (1972) as Elizabeth Reilly
