Leland Hayward

Producer Leland Hayward and Jimmy Stewart as Lindbergh on the set of Lindbergh  (1955)

Leland Hayward (born September 13, 1902 in Nebraska City , Nebraska , † March 18, 1971 in Yorktown Heights , New York ) was an American theater and film producer and talent agent.

Life

Hayward is a grandson of the American politician Monroe Leland Hayward . He broke off his studies at Princeton University , then worked in various professions and eventually became a talent agent in Hollywood . At the beginning of the 1940s, he looked after more than 150 people, including James Stewart and Fred Astaire .

In 1945 he sold his talent agency to work as a producer for the theater on Broadway . His best known and most successful productions include South Pacific (1949), Call Me Madam (1950), Gypsy (1959) and The Sound of Music (1959). For the latter, he and the other producers received the Tony Award in 1960 in the Best Musical category . Several times he worked with Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein .

In the 1950s he also turned to film production.

In 1956 he was for Mister Roberts , his first feature film as a producer, in the category film Best for the Oscar nominated. Five more film productions followed up to and including 1967.

Hayward was married five times in his life. From 1937 to 1947 he was married to the actress Margaret Sullavan and they had three children. One of the children killed herself. The daughter Brooke Hayward worked on the family history with the book Haywire , which was also produced as a television film in 1980.

Filmography (selection)

• 1955: No time for heroism (Mister Roberts)
• 1957: Lindbergh - My flight over the ocean (The Spirit of St. Louis)
• 1958: The Old Man and the Sea (The Old Man and the Sea)

Web links

• Leland Hayward in the Internet Movie Database (English)