Susan Hayward

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On March 14, 1975, actress Susan Hayward died. She was born Edythe Marrenner on June 30, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in Gone with the Wind (1939). Although she was not selected, 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 Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947). Her career continued successfully through the 1950s and she won the Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of death row inmate Barbara Graham in I Want to Live (1958). Following her Oscar-winning performance, her film appearances became infrequent, although she continued acting in film and television until 1972. She died on March 14, 1975 from brain cancer. There is speculation that she may have been affected by radioactive fallout from atmospheric atomic bomb tests while making The Conqueror with John Wayne. Several production members, as well as Wayne himself, later succumbed to cancer and cancer-related illnesses. Her cremated remains are interred at Our Lady of Perpetual Care Help Cemetery in Carrolton, Georgia.