Sterling Hayden 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.
44 Facts About Sterling Hayden
2.
Sterling Hayden often professed a distaste for acting and used his earnings to finance his numerous voyages as a sailor.
3.
Sterling Hayden was a decorated Marine Corps officer and an Office of Strategic Services' agent during World War II.
4.
Sterling Hayden dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and took a job as mate on a schooner.
5.
Sterling Hayden skippered a trading schooner in the Caribbean after earning his master's license, and in 1937 he served as mate on a world cruise of the brigantine Yankee.
6.
Sterling Hayden spoke of his nautical experiences before the monthly meeting of the Adventurers' Club of New York on March 21,1940.
7.
In 1938, Sterling Hayden's photo was taken during the annual Gloucester, Massachusetts, Fishermen's Race.
8.
Sterling Hayden did a test in New York with Jeanne Cagney, James Cagney's sister.
9.
Sterling Hayden enlisted in the Army and was sent to Scotland for training, but broke his ankle and was discharged.
10.
Sterling Hayden returned to the US and tried to buy a half-interest in a schooner but could not raise the money.
11.
Sterling Hayden joined the United States Marine Corps as a private, under the name John Hamilton, an alias he never used otherwise.
12.
Sterling Hayden remained there after it became the Office of Strategic Services.
13.
Sterling Hayden returned to Paramount and was cast as one of several brothers in an aviation film, Blaze of Noon.
14.
Sterling Hayden made two films for Pine Thomas Productions who distributed through Paramount: a western, El Paso, supporting John Payne; and Manhandled, a thriller with Dorothy Lamour.
15.
Sterling Hayden was apparently active in supporting an effort by the Communist-controlled motion picture painters union to absorb other film industry unions.
16.
Sterling Hayden testified that joining the Party was "the stupidest and most ignorant thing I have ever done in my life".
17.
Sterling Hayden added that he had quit the party but been persuaded to return by Karen Morley.
18.
Sterling Hayden's career received a boost when cast by John Huston in the starring role in MGM's heist thriller, The Asphalt Jungle.
19.
Sterling Hayden played a minister who doubts his faith in Journey into Light, then supported Bette Davis in The Star.
20.
Sterling Hayden followed it with a series of action films: Denver and Rio Grande, a Western, for Paramount; Hellgate, another Western; The Golden Hawk, a pirate swashbuckler for producer Sam Katzman; Flat Top, a Korean War drama; Fighter Attack, a World War II film.
21.
In 1952, while divorcing his second wife, the court heard Sterling Hayden made $100,000 the previous year.
22.
Sterling Hayden then starred in So Big, a melodrama from an Edna Ferber novel starring Jane Wyman, then it was back to medium budget action films: Take Me to Town, a Western with Ann Sheridan; Kansas Pacific, a Western for Walter Mirisch; Crime Wave, a film noir.
23.
Sterling Hayden had a support role in a big studio picture, Prince Valiant, playing Sir Gawain, then returned to more conventional material with Arrow in the Dust.
24.
Sterling Hayden began appearing on TV shows such as Celebrity Playhouse.
25.
Sterling Hayden was cast in a heist film which turned out to be a classic: The Killing, an early work from director Stanley Kubrick.
26.
Sterling Hayden often professed distaste for film acting, saying he did it mainly to pay for his ships and voyages.
27.
In 1958, after a bitter divorce from Betty Ann de Noon, Sterling Hayden was awarded custody of his children.
28.
Sterling Hayden defied a court order and sailed to Tahiti with all four children, Christian, Dana, Gretchen and Matthew.
29.
The crew sailed from San Francisco Bay to Tahiti, where Sterling Hayden had planned to film a movie.
30.
Sterling Hayden invited well-known photographer Dody Weston Thompson along to document the trip and to help shoot location choices.
31.
Marin County Superior Court Judge Harold Haley later ordered Sterling Hayden to repay Republic Pictures nearly $50,000 to recover the cost of financing the trip.
32.
In 1964, Sterling Hayden appeared in A Carol for Another Christmas on television.
33.
Sterling Hayden bought a canal barge in the Netherlands in 1969, eventually moving it to the heart of Paris and living on it part of the time.
34.
Sterling Hayden shared a home in Wilton, Connecticut, with his family and had an apartment in Sausalito.
35.
Sterling Hayden returned to filmmaking with Hard Contract, supporting James Coburn and Loving, co-starring George Segal and Eva Marie Saint.
36.
Sterling Hayden went to Europe where he appeared in Ternos Cacadores, Angel's Leap and Le grand depart.
37.
Sterling Hayden had small but important roles in The Godfather and The Long Goodbye.
38.
Sterling Hayden made some films in Europe: The Final Programme, Deadly Strangers, Cipolla Colt and 1900.
39.
Sterling Hayden was offered the role of "Quint" in Jaws but turned it down.
40.
Sterling Hayden appeared on the Canadian sci-fi TV series The Starlost, and the US detective show Banacek.
41.
Sterling Hayden returned to Hollywood for King of the Gypsies, Winter Kills, The Outsider, 9 to 5, Gas, Venom and The Blue and the Gray.
42.
Sterling Hayden wrote two acclaimed books: an autobiography, Wanderer, and a novel, Voyage.
43.
Sterling Hayden said they made him "a lot of money" but he lost most of it to taxes.
44.
Sterling Hayden died of prostate cancer in Sausalito in 1986, age 70.