Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  CAUSE: Hays died in Sullivan, Indiana, aged 74, of natural causes.

  Susan Hayward

  (EDYTHE MARRENER)

  Born June 30, 1917

  Died March 14, 1975

  Fiery redhead. Born at 3507 Church Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, she studied to be a dress designer before changing her mind and becoming a model. Like many a hopeful, the 5́ 1˝ Marrener travelled to Hollywood when she learned of the hunt for an actress to play Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind (1939). Although she was unsuccessful in auditions for the role, she stayed in Tinseltown and her name was changed to Susan Hayward (after agent Leland Hayward). She began appearing in a number of films in bit parts, including Hollywood Hotel (1938), The Amazing Dr Clitterhouse (1938), The Sisters (1938), Comet Over Broadway (1938), Campus Cinderella (1938) and her first billed film Girls On Probation (1938) as Gloria Adams. In 1939 she signed a contract with Paramount. Gradually the roles she was assigned became larger and the films more expensive. She was Isobel Rivers in Beau Geste (1939), Estelle Masterson in I Married A Witch (1942), Drusilla Alston in Reap The Wild Wind (1942), Charmian Kittredge in Jack London (1943), Kate Benson in Young And Willing (1943) and Mildred Douglas in The Hairy Ape (1944). On July 23, 1944, at St Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Los Angeles, she married actor Jess Barker. On February 17, 1945, at St John’s Hospital, Santa Monica, she gave birth to non-identical twins Gregory and Timothy. In 1946 Walter Wanger put her under personal contract and her star began to soar. In 1947 she played alcoholic Angelica Evans in Smash-Up – The Story Of A Woman and earned herself the first of her five Academy Award nominations. My Foolish Heart (1949), in which she played unmarried mother Eloise Winters, was her second Oscar nod. In 1951 Darryl F. Zanuck bought out her contract for $200,000 and called her “my $12-million baby,” that being the amount he had expended on three of her films. Over the next five years her films raked in enormous amounts for the company, but Zanuck began to dislike her, supposedly because she had spurned his sexual advances. It was third time unlucky for Hayward in With A Song In My Heart (1952) as disabled chanteuse Jane Froman – she was again beaten to an Oscar. Her other films of the time included Rawhide (1951) as Vinnie Holt, I’d Climb The Highest Mountain (1951) as Mary Elizabeth Eden Thompson, David And Bathsheba (1951) as Bathsheba, The Snows Of Kilimanjaro (1952) as Helen, White Witch Doctor (1953) as Ellen Burton, Demetrius And The Gladiators (1954) as Messalina, Untamed (1955) as Katie O’Neill, Soldier Of Fortune (1955) as Jane Hoyt and Top Secret Affair (1957) as Dorothy ‘Dottie’ Peale. Her marriage to Barker broke down and they divorced in 1955. A bitter custody battle ensued during which Hayward attempted suicide on April 25. On February 9, 1957, she married lawyer Eaton Floyd Chalkley, Jr (b. 1908, d. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, January 9, 1966, of hepatitis) in Phoenix, Arizona. He was by her side when she finally won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of killer Barbara Graham in I Want To Live! (1958). The Sixties were not a good decade professionally for Hayward and she retired in 1964, but made the occasional foray into film-making. On June 30, 1966, she was baptised a Roman Catholic. Her final public appearance came on April 2, 1974, at the Oscars when, with Charlton Heston, she presented the Best Actress award. She asked expert Frank Westmore to do her make-up. He was shocked by her appearance. The cobalt treatments that she had been undergoing to combat a brain tumour had wrecked her hair, eyelashes and eyebrows. Her body was thin and she suffered seizures. He was to say later, “I was never more proud of my craftsmanship than when I saw Susan walk out on that stage … She looked not much different from the Susan Hayward of 1945, and that’s how the world will remember her.”

  CAUSE: In 1956 she played Bortai in Howard Hughes’ execrable The Conqueror. It was a part that almost certainly led to her early death. Around half the cast and crew became stricken with cancer after working on the film, which had been shot in St George, Utah, near the site of atom bomb tests. Susan was diagnosed with tumours on her vocal chords in 1968. In March 1972 a tumour was discovered on one of her lungs during a regular medical. Then she began suffering from blinding headaches. She put them down to hangovers, but a scan revealed tumours on her brain as well. In April 1972 she suffered her first seizure and a trip to the hospital revealed 20 tumours growing rapidly in her brain. She underwent immediate chemotherapy. On March 30, 1973, her son, Timmy, applied to be made conservator, but she fought the application and he withdrew it. On July 17, 1973, the National Enquirer published an interview with him and a picture of Susan having a seizure. Her condition gradually worsened and on October 17, 1974, she went into a coma that lasted four days. Doctors feared the worst and had informed her family. She recovered and went home to die. By February 1975 no one other than close family was allowed to visit. There were three exceptions – close friend Ron Nelson, Katharine Hepburn and Greta Garbo. Hayward’s bedroom stank from the oozings from her body and because she could no longer control her bowels. On March 6, 1975, she went into another four-day coma. At 2.24pm Susan Hayward died of a massive seizure, during which she bit off her tongue, in Laurel Way, Hollywood, California. Ron Nelson performed extreme unction on the body. She was buried in the cemetery of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Center Point Road, Carrollton, Georgia 30117.

  FURTHER READING: A Star Is A Star Is A Star! The Lives And Loves Of Susan Hayward– Christopher P. Andersen (London: Robson Books, 1981); Red: The Tempestuous Life Of Susan Hayward– Robert LaGuardia & Gene Arceri (London: Robson Books, 1990).

  Rita Hayworth

  (MARGARITA CARMEN CANSINO)

  Born October 17, 1918

  Died May 14, 1987

  ‘Love goddess’. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Margarita Carmen Cansino was the gorgeous flame-haired 36C-24-36 daughter of 5́ 6˝ Eduardo Cansino (b. 1896, d. December 24, 1968), a sleazy professional dancer, who seduced her. The teenage Margarita was also his dancing partner and this seemed to fuel Cansino’s lust. It is often thought that, in many cases, family members are aware of incest but give it tacit approval by keeping quiet; the daughter believes she is keeping the family together and thus remains silent. Certainly, Margarita’s two brothers, Sonny (b. October 13, 1919, d. March 1974, of cancer) and Vernon (b. May 21, 1922, d. April 1974), were aware of their father’s reputation. The family lived in a three-bedroom house in a strange arrangement – one bedroom was for the boys, one for Eduardo and the other was shared by mother and daughter. The mother, Volga Haworth (b. August 25, 1897, d. January 25, 1945, at 9.30pm of generalised peritonitis due to a ruptured appendix), also took to travelling with her husband and daughter leaving the young boys home alone. It seemed, to her, better to protect her daughter and risk charges of abuse for her sons. In 1926 Margarita made her film début in La Fiesta and went on to appear in Cruz Diablo (1934) and Paddy O’Day (1935) as Tamara Petrovitch. She appeared in Under The Pampas Moon (1935), billed as Rita Cansino. She became Rita Hayworth (abbreviating ‘Margarita’ and slightly changing her mother’s maiden name) in The Shadow (1937) and learned her trade in B movies. Determined to succeed she took elocution lessons, lost weight and raised her hairline with electrolysis. Although at one time she was a singer with Xavier Cugat’s orchestra, movie bosses obviously didn’t think this qualified her to sing on film. Thus, her voice was dubbed by Ann Greer in Gilda (1946) and Pal Joey (1957). She began to appear in bigger budget films such as Howard Hawks’ Only Angels Have Wings (1939) as Judy McPherson. However, it was her performance in Blood And Sand (1941) as Dona Sol Des Muire that made her a star. She appeared opposite Fred Astaire in You’ll Never Get Rich (1941); at first he was wary of her, but soon came to appreciate her dancing skills. In September 1943 she filed for divorce from her first husband, Edward Judson (whom she had married on May 29, 1937), having begun an affair with Victor Mature, but the couple never made it up the aisle and she married Orson Welles on September 7, 1943, instead (the day her divorce came through). Their daughter, Rebecca, was born on December 17, 1944. A cousin of Ginger Rogers, Rita’s portrait was stuck to the side of t
he first atom bomb exploded at Bikini Atoll. During her marriage to Welles she made probably her best musical, Cover Girl (1944). Two years later came the high point of her cinematic career in Gilda (1946), which raked in $4 million domestically alone. Rita appeared opposite Glenn Ford in one film. Ford later commented of the project: “I’ve never played anyone but myself on screen. No, I take that back. Once I tried to throw myself into the role of a Spanish gypsy. The picture was The Loves Of Carmen with Rita Hayworth and it was the biggest bomb in history.” By this time the marriage was suffering and Columbia chief Harry Cohn ordered husband and wife to appear together in The Lady From Shanghai (1948), believing the close proximity of working together would bring about a reconciliation. In the event it served only to force them further apart and in 1948 they divorced. Suspended by Cohn, Rita lost $248,000 a year. Husband number three, on May 27, 1949, was playboy Prince Aly Khan and during this marriage Rita had a daughter, Yasmin (b. Lausanne, Switzerland, December 28, 1949), but rarely appeared on screen. Divorced on September 23, 1953, and broke, she returned to Hollywood but met with mixed fortunes. On September 24, 1953, she married bandleader Dick Haymes but that, too, ended in divorce after two years. Her fifth marriage (to James Hill on February 2, 1958) was no happier. On May 12, 1960, Rita collapsed when she heard Khan had been killed in a car crash in France. During the Forties she appeared in only one really successful film, Pal Joey (1957), as Vera Simpson. Her last film was The Wrath Of God (1972) as Senora De La Plata. After this she was hired for the British film Tales That Witness Murder, but was sacked, whereupon she retired. On March 9, 1977, it was revealed that she was “gravely disabled as a result of mental disorder or impairment by chronic alcoholism” and was “unable or unwilling to accept responsibility for her treatment.” Four years later in June 1981, it was revealed that she was actually suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Speaking of her poor romantic track record, Hayworth once commented, “Every man I’ve ever known has fallen in love with Gilda and wakened with me.”

  CAUSE: She died at the San Remo Apartments, 145–146 Central Park West, New York, aged 68, from Alzheimer’s disease.

  FURTHER READING: Rita: The Life Of Rita Hayworth – Edward Z. Epstein & Joseph Morella (London: W.H. Allen, 1983); If This Was Happiness: A Biography Of Rita Hayworth – Barbara Leaming (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989).

  Edith Head

  (EDITH CLAIRE POSENER)

  Born October 28, 1897

  Died October 24, 1981

  Hollywood’s most decorated. Born in San Bernardino, California, an only child, lesbian prude Edith Head began working as a language teacher (French and Spanish) in La Jolla before moving to a girls’ school in Hollywood. She lied her way into a job at Paramount and managed to stay there for almost 50 years, designing for almost every star that ever graced the big screen. She created outfits for Jean Harlow, Dorothy Lamour, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Hedy Lamarr, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis to name but eight. Her work was rewarded with eight Oscars and 35 nominations. Her films included She Done Him Wrong (1933), Death Takes A Holiday (1934), Wells Fargo (1937), The Big Broadcast Of 1938 (1938), The Cat And The Canary (1939), Road To Singapore (1940), The Texas Rangers Ride Again (1940), Road To Zanzibar (1941), My Favorite Blonde (1942), I Married A Witch (1942), Holiday Inn (1942), Road To Morocco (1942), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Notorious (1946), The Virginian (1946), My Favorite Brunette (1947), Road To Rio (1947), My Friend Irma (1949), The Great Gatsby (1949), A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court (1949), The Heiress (1949), for which she won her first Oscar, Samson And Delilah (1949), for which she won her second, Sunset Blvd. (1950), All About Eve (1950), for which she won her third Academy Award, A Place In The Sun (1951) for which she won her fourth, My Favorite Spy (1951), Road To Bali (1951), The Greatest Show On Earth (1952), Roman Holiday (1953) and her fifth Oscar, Houdini (1953), Shane (1953), Rear Window (1954), The Country Girl (1954), The Bridges At Toko-Ri (1954), White Christmas (1954), Sabrina (1954), which won her a sixth Oscar, To Catch A Thief (1955), The Ten Commandments (1956), Gunfight At The O.K. Corral (1957), Vertigo (1958), King Creole (1958), Alias Jesse James (1959), The Facts Of Life (1960) and her seventh Oscar, G.I. Blues (1960), Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961), Blue Hawaii (1961), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), The Birds (1963), Hud (1963), The Nutty Professor (1963), Marnie (1964), The Sons Of Katie Elder (1965), The Great Race (1965), Barefoot In The Park (1967), Sweet Charity (1969), Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969), Airport (1970), Myra Breckinridge (1970), The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean (1972), The Sting (1973), which won her an eighth and final Academy Award, Airport 1975 (1974), Rooster Cogburn (1975), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), Gable And Lombard (1976) and Airport ’77 (1977). “Edith Head gives good wardrobe” was a famous piece of graffiti, but the lady herself was unamused by it. Indeed, she had little in the way of a sense of humour. She married twice. Her first marriage to Charles Head, which ended in 1938, was rarely discussed. Her second was to Wiard Boppo Ihnen and they were together for 39 years until his 1979 death, aged 91.

  CAUSE: She died in Los Angeles, California, of bone marrow disease, four days before her 84th birthday.

  Eileen Heckart

  Born March 29, 1919

  Died December 31, 2001

  Gravel-voiced actress. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Anna Eileen Heckart first received plaudits from the critics on Broadway in 1953 as the love-starved Rosemary Sidney in Picnic. The following year she created the role of Mrs Daigle in The Bad Seed, a part she reprised in the 1956 film version, gaining an Oscar nomination as supporting actress. Earlier in 1956 she made her film début in Miracle In The Rain, which starred Jane Wyman and Van Johnson. That year, she also appeared in Somebody Up There Likes Me and Bus Stop. In 1969, she created the stage role of the domineering mother of a blind young man in Butterflies Are Free and repeated it in the 1972 movie, which won her an Oscar. A week after collecting the Oscar she went to sign on and the whole benefits office burst into applause. She was awarded Emmys in 1967, for a production called Save A Place For M e at Forest Lawn and in 1994, for an episode of Love & War. In 2000, she won a special Tony award for her lifetime of theatre work. She married John Harrison Yankee, Jr. in 1944 and by him had three sons, Mark, Philip, and Luke. He died in 1997.

  CAUSE: She died of cancer at her home in Norwalk, Connecticut. She was 82.

  Margaux Hemingway

  (MARGOT HEMINGWAY)

  Born February 19, 1955

  Died June 30, 1996

  Flawed beauty. Born in Portland, Oregon, the granddaughter of novelist Ernest Hemingway, (6)߰Margot (she changed her name to match the Château Margaux her parents were supposedly drinking when she was conceived) was raised on a farm in Ketchum, Idaho. She made her film début in Lipstick (1976) as rape victim Chris McCormick (in which little sister Mariel played her screen sister) and in which she appeared topless. She landed a $1-million contract – the largest then signed – with cosmetic firm Fabergé on May 20, 1975, making her one of the first supermodels and earning her a place in The Guinness Book Of Records. Her face regularly adorned magazine covers. She appeared in Killer Fish (1978) as Gabrielle, They Call Me Bruce? (1982) as Karmen, Over The Brooklyn Bridge (1984) as Elizabeth, La Messe En C Mineur (1990) as Sophie, Inner Sanctum (1991) as Anna Rawlins, in which she is briefly topless, Love Is Like That (1992) as Jackie, Deadly Rivals (1992) as Agent Linda Howerton, Frame-Up II: The Cover-Up (1993) as Jean Searage, Inner Sanctum II (1994) as Anna Rollins, Double Obsession (1994) as Heather Dwyer, in which she bares her right breast, and Vicious Kiss (1995). Away from the screen she was desperately unhappy. In Paris on June 21, 1975, she married hamburger baron Erroll Wetson but they were divorced after less than three years. She wed Bernard Foucher in 1980 and that too ended in divorce after five years. She began to drink heavily and put on weight. On December 4, 1987, she entered the Betty Ford Center in a bid to c
onquer her alcoholism. She left believing she had beaten her demons and 30lb lighter. To show off her new figure she posed nude for Playboy in May 1990, but ultimately her period of rehab wasn’t sufficient to pull her around. In the end she lived alone and had few friends.