Tell me about Susan Hayward

She ridiculously overacted in most of her films, especially in "I Want to Live."

Susan’s Oscar.

As a director once said about Susan Hayward, "No line of dialogue is safe from her ravenous jaws."

She grew up poor in Brooklyn. But she did well for herself.

They called her a Bargain Basement Bette Davis.

I was thinking it was Hayward who died while hailing a cab, but I just Googled and it wasn't her. Which actress would that have been?

There are rumors she was homophobic...

I'm not sure what I think about them either way.

But she remains one of my favorite Old Hwood actresses.

Homophobic? She was born 103 years ago. By what metric would you measure someone's homophobia in her era? Just being absolutely mainstream would guarantee attitudes that might be unacceptable today. If you want to label her homophobic, then you have to also criticize the gay community for taking so goddamned long to get around to Stonewall and coming out and making a demand for respect and equality.

[quote]By what metric would you measure someone's homophobia in her era?

I suppose against her contemporaries. Bette Davis wasn't homophobic, nor were Lauren Bacall, Veronica Lake, Lana Turner by most accounts.

That's a start, R9. But were the women you mentioned the exceptions? If Hayward was solidly in the mainstream in her attitudes, then she was not exceptionally homophobic according to the norms of her day.

But unless there are several direct quotes from people who knew her personally attesting to the fact that she was an overt homophobe, there is nothing to examine or measure.

Taking a social norm from 2021 and applying it to 1937 is just ridiculous.

Fuck you, OP.

I made that bitch. And destroyed Judy in the process.

[quote] But unless there are several direct quotes from people who knew her personally attesting to the fact that she was an overt homophobe, there is nothing to examine or measure

It seems like there were, according to at least one biography.

And I only those specific actresses because they all mentioned or/were mentioned as being supportive of gay rights in their various bios.

R6 That was Anne Baxter. She had just been to the hairdresser and was outside waiting for a cab when she died of a massive stroke.

Thank God her hair looked good.