Susan Hayward's Final Oscar Appearance
Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 5:00PM SUSAN HAYWARD CENTENNIAL
by Nathaniel R
We're doing our Susan Hayward party all out of chronology and will end with an early role. It's our way of saying that the big movie stars never really die but live on in their films. But for the penultimate stop in this Hayward fest, let's take a lot at the 1973 Oscars. She made her last public appearance on April 2nd, 1974 when she presented Best Actress with Charlton Heston at the Oscars. They were contemporaries at the peak of their stardom in the 1950s (and both won leading Oscars in the late 1950s) but Heston's career was still going strong at this point while Hayward had only intermittently working...
Tangent: this isn't about Hayward but look how pissed off or surprised the contenders look when Glenda Jackson wins her second so quickly after her first... Don't you wish today's "losers" would let their emotions show?
What people weren't aware of watching the Oscars was that she was very sick and the trademark red hair was a wig. Eleven months later she had died of a malignant brain tumor from cancer.
There are competing ideas about why she had cancer. Officially it was lung cancer from her chain smoking that had spread to her brain. Unofficially, according to a myth that doesn't seem at all implausible (given Utah's history), the cancer was a result of nuclear testing in the deserts of St George where she filmed The Conqueror (1956) with John Wayne. Supposedly nearly half of that film's 200+ cast and crew died relatively young due to various forms of cancer.
But we'll end with a happier anecdote that is related to this final Oscar appearance.
Susan Hayward was actually buried in this very dress, per her request! It was custom designed for her by Nolan Miller. It seems fitting that such an ambitious Oscar-hungry queen would want to look like the movie star she was in a way that was so connected to her perennial Best Actress glory when finally laid to rest.
Previously in our Hayward Fest
My Foolish Heart (1949)
David and Bathsheba (1951)
I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)
...and from the archive
I Want to Live! (1958)
Reader Comments (27)
Those faces are everything.
Marsha Mason was just happy to be there, but Ellen Burstyn and Joanne Woodward were clearly surprised and not elated. "I cannot believe that bitch was a no-show" immediately came to mind.
I've rewatched that video so many times. Ellen Burstyn kills me. Who was expected to win? Ellen was in the biggest hit, Mason won the Globe like Jackson did for the Comedy category. Woodward won the NYFCC award. It was only Streisand's second nomination and she won a few years before this, like Glenda did. Maybe Woodward?
Oh crap!
One hour later and i am still watching leading ladies winning clips...
Agnes Moorehead was in This movie, and Also die in 1974!
I think Ellen or Joanne expected to win,wish we could've seen Babs face,her ego obviously would not allow it.
Joanne Woodward was the widespread prediction -- not because many liked her film, but because she'd won the NY Film Critics, had been passed over in 1968 (for another critics'-winning performance), and because most of the others were lightly regarded. Today, probably a lot of people would pick Streisand, but at the time her win was viewed as too recent.
Which, of course, was true in spades of Jackson -- plus, injecting personal opinion, A Touch of Class was a crappy movie. Jackson was widely viewed as LEAST likely to win (per Hollywood oddsmaker Sidney Skolsky, who otherwise got every category right), which explains the looks of shock. It was like Adrien Brody, only an unhappy version.
I chalk up Jackson's win as a reaction to the turbulent times: Watergate, the Vietnam War, the oil crisis, etc. Hers was a light and frothy performance, an uplifting one like Art Carney's winning role in Harry & Tonto the very next year. That's what I figure.
What I find odd is the poster for "The Conqueror" which has Susan Hayward's face strangely displayed particularly since she's a star of the movie..
Considering how very sick Susan was she looks great if rail thin. It was nice that they paired her not only with a star of equal magnitude but a former costar as well. Heston knew how sick she was, it was rather an open secret in Hollywood, and was a steadying rock who helped her through what for her was an ordeal. Leaving the stage she commented to her waiting nurse that it was the last time she'd be able to pull off such an appearance and had a seizure later that night. She was a real fighter that's for sure, she survived three years after her diagnosis when the doctors told her it would be a matter of months rarely seeing anyone but becoming close with Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Stanwyck during that time. A sad end for a tough ambitious talented lady.
As far as Glenda's win and the reactions the disappointment/indifference to the win is pretty apparent. My vote would have gone to Babs, who was apparently backstage so she'd be able to accept if she won but who was too keyed up to sit in the audience, but Joanne Woodward was the front runner. Love her but aside from loving the title and Sylvia Sidney I didn't think much of Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams. A Touch of Class hasn't aged particularly well and Glenda's performance is a charming change of pace but it's not award worthy.
@Tom Q, Who did Skolsky predicted to win best actress?
Woodward was indeed widely tipped to win, but she shld've won it for Rachel, Rachel. Tying w Hepburn n then Streisand won for The Way We Were instead o Funny Girl. And all will be perfect 😀
Jack Lemmon's was also kinda a surprise as he did not win any precursor awards before Oscar. I believe its Oscar way to make up for his past losses, esp The Apartment.
@Claran -- Skolsky had Woodward first, but Marsha Mason creeping up on her. Something like 2:1 vs. 3:1 odds. Jackson, by contrast, was 10 or 15:1.
The best actor race was hard to call because Brando had won the two existing critics' awards -- New York and National Society -- but there was no way he'd win 1) for a movie viewed by older voters as fllthy and 2) after his Sacheen Littlefeather act a year prior. Predictions were split between Pacino (for falling short the previous year) and Lemmon (for all his best actor nods post- his supporting win), with Lemmon somewhat favored.
For the record, I think this is as bad a best actor/actress tandem as any in Academy history, chiefly because I despised both movies (even while liking both performers).
0:43 of the video is PERFECTION
Glenda is rarely talked about now but was THE Academy fave in the 70's,Maggie Smith makes a joke about it in California Suite
Clearly Ellen's performance is brilliant and shoulda have won. Marsha is a close second. My opinion.
How not to love when the nominee doesn't care and wins? Then, nominated again, doesn't go and wins once more. That's why Katharine Hepburn is my favorite multiple winner of all times. People of past ages used to be more honest or arrogant? Today is like if everybody knew each other and were friends since the school days and were from the same talent agency and had the same publicist .
My god, is there a decade worse dressed and with worse hairdos than the 1970s in past century?
"ambitious Oscar-hungry queen"? Susan Hayward? Not at all... Everybody knows who is The Ambitious Oscar-Hungry Queen.
Frederic: Who do you say was the actual ambitious Oscar-hungry queen? Was that Bette Davis, hungry for her third? Or maybe Kate Winslet desperate for her first? I remember reading at the time of Winslet's victory that she was dislaked in the sense that she felt entitled to it.
On a separate matter:I know this is unrelated, but now that I see Susan Hayward, I realize that season 2 of Feud should center on Bette Davis' OTHER clashes and confrontations with her female co-stars!
Let's begin with Miriam Hopkins, who worked with Davis in two films together. Read this piece: https://classicmoviesdigest.blogspot.com.ar/2010/06/bette-vs-miriam-bout-of-divas-meow.html
You then have Celeste Holm, her darling friend in All About Eve. Quote from Holm: "Holm told the story of her relationship with Bette Davis. "On the first day of shooting, I walked on the set and said 'Good morning' to Davis. She said, 'Oh shit, good manners,' and [we never spoke to each other again; only during scenes and rehearsals]".
Let's move on to Susan Hayward. Quote: ".... Before meeting each other, for the 1964 film "Where Love Has Gone" Bette Davis had admired Susan Hayward's film work & likewise, Hayward was looking forward to finally working with the great Bette Davis, all that changed when the two film stars met face to face. Hayward appeared standoffish & barely spoke to Davis, which she mistook for an unfriendly snobish attitude & Davis, made Susan Hayward uncomfortable with her larger than life persona, truth be told, the two women had entirely opposite ways of working when making a movie. Hayward approached a film role in a quiet way, not mingling with the other film stars or film crew very often & concentrating entirely on the character & how to play the role, while Davis was brash, knew everyone, opinionated & extroverted on set. For the rest of filming, Hayward & Davis barely spoke to one another ...."
It's Faye Dunaway's turn. Visit this site: https://www.bustle.com/p/did-bette-davis-feud-with-faye-dunaway-joan-crawford-wasnt-the-only-co-star-she-didnt-get-along-with-52876
We finally come to dear Lillian Gish, who costarred with Bette in "The Whales of August" and the poor lady was around 93 years old at the time! Davis was terribly mean to her,and was particularly exasperated by Gish's hearing problems. There's a detailed description in Barbara Leaming's book "Bette Davis: A Biography" , where co-star Ann Sothern comes to the defense of Gish.
Truth be told, there are also rumors that neither Holm nor Gish were blushing innocents.
Has anyone actually seen a touch of class? It is so bizarre. When you read the plot that 'a feminist begins an affair with a married man' and it's the 70s and Glenda Jackson you'd think WOW, HOW INTENSE IS THAT GOING TO BE? Truth: It's not! It's a sex farce. It's ridiculous. And it's not that Glenda is bad but even I - a person who routinely goes to events she attends in London - can't say it's up there with any of the 70s' best.
Frederic -- your "not at all" contradicts like literally everything i've ever read about Susan Hayward and Oscar.
I've said before. Burstyn should have won this, and tgen she can't cockblock Gena.
But maybe Funaway wins for Chinatown, Spacek wins for Carrie and Gena wins for Gloria.
But I think that if Burstyn had won, Dunaway would be a two time winner, because her performance in Network is jyst unbeatable.
Cal: I also love to play musical chairs with Oscars. If Susan Hayward had won in 1955 instead of Anna Magnani, then Liz Taylor would have won for Cat on a Hot Tin Toof in 1958 and Deborah Kerr would have gotten that damn Oscar on her sixth nomination for The Sundowners!
@Marcos No, I think MacLaine would win for The Apartment instead of Kerr. And MacLaine would be a two-time winner, nobody would beat her for Terms of Endearment.
Kerr could have won for The King and I if she had done her own singing, but I think she's better than Bergman even dubbed.
Anyway, I love Kerr in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, and I think she should have won over Woodward.
Woodward should not be a best actress winner. She was never the best and she's quite overrated.
@cal roth: Hey! That's quite an interesting musical chair game that you present. I agree with you that Woodward is somewhat overrated. So who'd be your winners for 55 and 58?
@marcos Hepburn in Summertime / Hayward.
My fifties, considering the nominees only:
Swanson
Leigh
Harris
A. Hepburn
Garland
K. Hepburn
Baker
Kerr
Hayward
Signoret (borderline supporting, but so powerful)
Hubel ! Babs should have won!