Sterling Walter Hayden (born Sterling Relyea Walter; March 26, 1916 – May 23, 1986) was an American actor. A leading man for most of his career, he specialized in Westerns and film noir throughout the 1950s, in films such as John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954), and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). In the 1960s, he became noted for supporting roles, perhaps most memorably as General Jack D. Ripper in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
Hayden's success continued into the New Hollywood era, with roles such as Irish-American policeman Captain McCluskey in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), alcoholic novelist Roger Wade in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973), elderly peasant Leo Dalcò in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 (1976), and chairman of the board Russell Tinsworthy in 9 to 5 (1980). With a distinctive "rapid-fire baritone" voice and an imposing stature at 6 ft 5 in (196 cm), he had a commanding screen presence in both leading and supporting roles.
Hayden often professed a distaste for acting and used his earnings to finance his numerous voyages as a sailor. He was also a decorated Marine Corps officer and an Office of Strategic Services agent during World War II.
Hayden was born March 26, 1916, in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, to George Woodruff Walter (1881–1925) and Minnie Frances Walter (née Simonson; 1889–1968), who named him Sterling Relyea Walter. After his father died, Sterling was adopted at age nine by James Hayden and renamed Sterling Walter Hayden. As a child, he lived in coastal towns of New England.
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 brigantine Yankee. After working as a sailor and fireman on larger vessels and sailing around the world several times, he was awarded his first command at age 22, skippering the square rigger Florence C. Robinson 7,700 miles from Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Tahiti in 1938. Hayden spoke of his nautical experiences before the monthly meeting of the Adventurers' Club of New York on March 21, 1940.
In 1938, Hayden's photo was taken during the annual Gloucester, Massachusetts, Fishermen's Race. It went on the cover of a magazine, prompting Paramount Pictures to call and offer a screen test. Hayden did a test in New York with Jeanne Cagney, James Cagney's sister. Hayden later said:
I was completely lost, ignorant, nervous. But the next thing I knew, Paramount made me a seven-year contract beginning at $250 a week, which was astronomical. I got my lovely old mother and bought a car, and we drove to California... I was so lost then I didn't think to analyze it. I said, 'This is nuts, but, damned, it's pleasant.' I had only one plan in mind: to get $5,000. I knew where there was a schooner, and then I'd haul ass. Hayden went to Paramount in May 1940. The studio dubbed the 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) actor "The Most Beautiful Man in the Movies" and "The Beautiful Blond Viking God".
His first film, Virginia (1941), directed by Edward H. Griffith, starred Madeleine Carroll whom he married. He, Griffith and Carroll were reunited in Bahama Passage (1941). By December 1941, it was reported that Hayden had quit the movie business and declared, "I'm no actor! I'm a sailor."
After his two Paramount film roles, Hayden left Hollywood to fight in World War II. He enlisted in the Army and was sent to Scotland for training, but broke his ankle and was discharged.
Once he recovered from his injury, he chose to re-enlist in the Marine Corps. He was reportedly worried that his fellow Marines would not take him seriously because of his Hollywood fame, and so he adopted the pseudonym "John Hamilton", which he would carry throughout his war service. In June 1943, he had his name legally changed to John Hamilton.
After selection to and graduation from Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS), Hamilton was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve and was transferred for duty as an undercover agent with William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan's Office of the Coordinator of Information. Hamilton remained there after it became the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
He received the Silver Star for gallantry in action in the Balkans and Mediterranean (according to his citation, "Lt. Hamilton displayed great courage in making hazardous sea voyages in enemy-infested waters and reconnaissance through enemy-held areas"), a Bronze Arrowhead device for parachuting behind enemy lines, and a commendation from Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito. He left active duty on December 24, 1945. Tito awarded him the Order of Merit.
He returned to the United States and told the press, "I feel a real obligation to make this a better country – and I believe the movies are the place to do it." He signed a contract with Paramount and was cast as one of several brothers in an aviation film, Blaze of Noon (1947). The studio suspended him when he turned down a role in The Sainted Sisters.
Hayden made two films for Pine Thomas Productions which distributed through Paramount: one was a Western, El Paso (1949), featuring John Payne; the other was Manhandled (1949), a thriller with Dorothy Lamour. In 1950, Hayden appeared in one of his most celebrated roles as the "hooligan" (tough guy) Dix Handley in the Academy Award-nominated film The Asphalt Jungle.
Hayden's admiration for the Communist partisans he had fought alongside during World War II led him into a brief membership in the Communist Party (CPUSA) from June to December 1946. In one of his CPUSA assignments, he supported an effort by the Communist-controlled motion picture painters union to absorb other film industry unions.
In September 1947, the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) subpoenaed ten screenwriters and directors (known later as the "Hollywood Ten") as part of an investigation into "subversive" elements in the film industry. Immediately, a large group of movie luminaries, including Hayden, formed the Committee for the First Amendment to protest what they perceived as political harassment. In the next few years, as the Second Red Scare gripped the U.S., the HUAC expanded its probe to include all entertainment industry professionals with suspected links, past or present, to the CPUSA. Consequently, Hayden became a target.
In 1950, fearful that "his past might cost him his future", the actor sought the aid of entertainment lawyer Martin Gang, known as the best "clearance lawyer" in Hollywood. Gang first sent a letter to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, asking about "an unnamed client who had joined the Party as a youthful indiscretion, now regretted it, and wanted to clear his name." Hoover recommended talking to the local FBI people, "so that if anybody subsequently makes a complaint we'll know he [the unnamed client] is all right as far as we're concerned. Gang then met with HUAC Chief Counsel Frank Tavenner to work out an acceptable format for Hayden's testimony.