Friday, May 27, 2016

Sterling Hayden: The Star


Thursday night, I watched my DVR recording of The Star. The 1952 film aired on TCM a week or two ago and I recorded it as it was part of a Bette Davis night on the network. The Star was ok, and Davis had a few good scenes, but it certainly wasn't one of her films that I look forward to watching a second time.


What did grab my attention were the far too scenes featuring Davis' co-star Sterling Hayden. Hayden's image could be used as visual for the term 'beefcake' with his great facial structure, strong sturdy body and beautiful blonde hair.


I knew the name, but in checking out his IMDB, the only film with Hayden in it that I had seen was one of his last performances in Nine to Five when the actor was in his 60's.  He certainly grabbed my attention and clearly, from the many shirtless images that came up while googling him, he grabbed the attention of others.


So many young men and women used to make their way to Hollywood to find fame and fortune, but I don't think many today have the stories of actors that came decades before them.  Hayden's story was unique, and one he wrote about in his autobiography.  The little snippet below is from Wikipedia, and also helps explain all of the images on-line of Sterling on the Ocean.


'Hayden dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and took a job as mate on a schooner. His first voyage was to Newport Beach, California, from New London, Connecticut. Later, he was a fisherman on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, ran a charter yacht, and served as a fireman on 11 trips to Cuba aboard a steamer. He 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 schooner Yankee.'

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn! It's Mr. Tinsworthy from "Nine To Five"!!! I'll never look at him the same way ever again whenever I watch that movie from now on!

Rodin said...

Sterling Hayden was very hot along with Robert Ryan and to a lesser degree Dan Duryea from films of the 1950's ....film noir.