Leland Hayward
Who was Margaret Sullavan 's spouse from Nov 1936 to 1947?
Margaret Sullavan Margaret Brooke Sullavan ( May 16 , 1909 – January 1 , 1960 ) was an American actress of stage and film . Sullavan began her career onstage in 1929 . In 1933 , she caught the attention of movie director John M . Stahl and had her debut on the screen that same year in Only Yesterday . Sullavan preferred working on the stage and made only 16 movies , four of which were opposite James Stewart in a popular partnership that included The Mortal Storm and The Shop Around the Corner . She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Three Comrades ( 1938 ) . She retired from the screen in the early 1940s , but returned in 1950 to make her last film , No Sad Songs for Me , in which she played a woman who was dying of cancer . For the rest of her career , she appeared only on the stage . Sullavan experienced increasing hearing problems , depression , and mental frailty in the 1950s . She died of an overdose of barbiturates , which was ruled accidental , on January 1 , 1960 at the age of 50 . Early life . Sullavan was born in Norfolk , Virginia , the daughter of a wealthy stockbroker , Cornelius Sullavan , and his wife , Garland Councill Sullavan . She had a younger brother , Cornelius , and a half-sister , Louise Gregory . The first years of her childhood were spent isolated from other children . She suffered from a painful muscular weakness in the legs that prevented her from walking , so that she was unable to socialize with other children until the age of six . After her recovery she emerged as an adventurous and tomboyish child who preferred playing with the children from the poorer neighborhood , much to the disapproval of her class-conscious parents . She attended boarding school at Chatham Episcopal Institute ( now Chatham Hall ) , where she was president of the student body and delivered the salutatory oration in 1927 . She moved to Boston and lived with her half-sister , Weedie , while she studied dance at the Boston Denishawn studio and ( against her parents wishes ) drama at the Copley Theatre . When her parents cut her allowance to a minimum , Sullavan defiantly paid her way by working as a clerk in the Harvard Cooperative Bookstore ( The Coop ) , located in Harvard Square , Cambridge . Career . Early years . Sullavan succeeded in getting a chorus part in the Harvard Dramatic Society 1929 spring production Close Up , a musical written by Harvard senior Bernard Hanighen , who was later a composer for Broadway and Hollywood . The President of the Harvard Dramatic Society , Charles Leatherbee , along with the President of Princetons Theatre Intime , Bretaigne Windust , who together had established the University Players on Cape Cod the summer before , persuaded Sullavan to join them for their second summer season . Another member of the University Players was Henry Fonda , who had the comic lead in Close Up . In the summer of 1929 Sullavan appeared opposite Fonda in The Devil in the Cheese , her debut on the professional stage . She returned for most of the University Players 1930 season . In 1931 , she squeezed in one production with the University Players between the closing of the Broadway production of A Modern Virgin in July and its tour in September . She rejoined the University Players for most of their 18-week 1930–31 winter season in Baltimore . Sullavans parents did not approve of her choice of career . She played the lead in Strictly Dishonorable ( 1930 ) by Preston Sturges , which her parents attended . Confronted with her evident talent , their objections ceased . To my deep relief , Sullavan later recalled . I thought Id have to put up with their yappings on the subject forever . A Shubert scout saw her in that play as well and eventually she met Lee Shubert himself . At the time , Sullavan was suffering from a bad case of laryngitis and her voice was huskier than usual . Shubert loved it . In subsequent years Sullavan would joke that she cultivated that laryngitis into a permanent hoarseness by standing in every available draft . Sullavan made her debut on Broadway in A Modern Virgin ( a comedy by Elmer Harris ) on May 20 , 1931 . At one point in 1932 , she starred in four Broadway flops in a row ( If Love Were All , Happy Landing , Chrysalis ( with Humphrey Bogart ) and Bad Manners ) , but the critics praised Sullavan for her performances in all of them . In March 1933 , Sullavan replaced another actor in Dinner at Eight in New York . Movie director John M . Stahl happened to be watching the play and was intrigued by Sullavan . He decided she would be perfect for a picture he was planning , Only Yesterday . At that time Sullavan had already turned down offers for five-year contracts from Paramount and Columbia . Sullavan was offered a three-year , two-pictures-per-year contract at $1,200 per week . She accepted it and had a clause put in her contract that allowed her to return to the stage on occasion . Later in her career , Sullavan signed only short-term contracts because she did not want to be owned by any studio . Hollywood . Sullavan arrived in Hollywood on May 16 , 1933 , her 24th birthday . Her film debut came that same year in Only Yesterday . She chose her scripts carefully . She was dissatisfied with her performance in Only Yesterday . When she saw herself in the early rushes , she was so appalled that she tried to buy out her contract for $2,500 , but Universal refused . In his November 10 , 1933 , review in The New York Herald Tribune , Richard Watts , Jr . wrote that Sullavan plays the tragic and lovelorn heroine of this shrewdly sentimental orgy with such forthright sympathy , wise reticence and honest feeling that she establishes herself with some definiteness as one of the cinema people to be watched . She followed that role with one in Little Man , What Now ? ( 1934 ) , about a couple struggling to survive in impoverished post–World War I Germany . Originally , Universal was reluctant to make a movie about unemployment , starvation and homelessness , but Little Man was an important project to Sullavan . After Only Yesterday she wanted to try the real thing . She later said that it was one of the few things she did in Hollywood that gave her a great measure of satisfaction . The Good Fairy ( 1935 ) was a comedy that Sullavan chose to illustrate her versatility . During the production , she married its director , William Wyler . King Vidors So Red the Rose ( 1935 ) dealt with people in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War . It preceded by one year the publication of Margaret Mitchells bestselling novel Gone With the Wind , and the novels film adaptation by four years ; the latter became a blockbuster . Sullavan played a childish Southern belle who matures into a responsible woman . The film also dealt with the situation of characters who were freed black slaves . In Next Time We Love ( 1936 ) , Sullavan plays opposite the then-unknown James Stewart . She had been campaigning for Stewart to be her leading man , and the studio complied for fear that she would stage a threatened strike . The film dealt with a married couple who had grown apart over the years . The plot was unconvincing and simple , but the gentle interplay between Sullavan and Stewart saves the movie from being a soapy and sappy experience . Next Time We Love was the first of four films made by Sullavan and Stewart . In the comedy The Moons Our Home ( 1936 ) , Sullavan played opposite her ex-husband Henry Fonda . The original script was rather pallid , and Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell were brought in to punch up the dialogue , reportedly at Sullavans insistence . Sullavan and Fonda play a newly married couple , and the movie is a cavalcade of insults and quips . Her seventh film , Three Comrades ( 1938 ) , is a drama set in post–World War I Germany . Three returning German soldiers meet Sullavan who joins them and eventually marries one of them . She gained an Oscar nomination for her role and was named the years best actress by the New York Film Critics Circle . Sullavan reunited with Stewart in The Shopworn Angel ( 1938 ) . Stewart played a sweet , naive Texan soldier on his way to Europe ( World War I ) who marries Sullavan on the way . Her ninth film was the rather soapy The Shining Hour ( 1938 ) , playing the suicidal sister-in-law to Joan Crawford . In The Shop Around the Corner ( 1940 ) , Sullavan and Stewart worked together again , playing colleagues who do not get along at work , but have both responded to a lonely-hearts ad and are ( without knowing it ) exchanging letters with each other . The Mortal Storm ( 1940 ) was the last movie Sullavan and Stewart did together . Sullavan played a young German girl engaged in 1933 to a confirmed Nazi ( Robert Young ) . When she realizes the true nature of his political views , she breaks the engagement and turns her attention to anti-Nazi Stewart . Later , trying to flee the Nazi regime , Sullavan and Stewart attempt to ski across the border to safety in Austria . Sullavan is gunned down by the Nazis ( under orders from her ex-fiancé ) . Stewart , at her request , picks up the dying Sullavan and takes her by skis into Austria , so she can die in what was still a free country . Back Street ( 1941 ) was lauded as one of the best performances of Sullavans Hollywood career . She wanted Charles Boyer to play opposite her so much that she agreed to surrender top billing to him . Boyer plays a selfish and married banker and Sullavan his long-suffering mistress . Although he loves Sullavan , he is unwilling to leave his wife and family in favour of her . So Ends Our Night ( 1941 ) was another wartime drama . Sullavan ( on loan for a one-picture deal from Universal ) plays a Jewish girl perpetually on the move with falsified passport and identification papers and always fearing that the officials will discover her . On her way across Europe , she meets up with a young Jewish man ( Glenn Ford ) and the two fall in love . A 1940 court decision obligated Sullavan to fulfill her original 1933 agreement with Universal , requiring her to make two more films for them . Back Street ( 1941 ) came first . The light comedy , Appointment for Love ( 1941 ) , was Sullavans last picture with that company . In the film , Sullavan appeared with Boyer again . Boyers character marries Sullavan , who tells him that his past affairs mean nothing to her . She insists that each must have an apartment in the same building and that they meet only once a day , at seven oclock in the morning . Cry Havoc ( 1943 ) is a World War II drama and a rare all-female film . Sullavan played the strong mother figure who keeps a crew of nurses in line in a dugout in Bataan , while they are awaiting the advance of Japanese soldiers who are about to take over . It was the last film Sullavan made with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . After its completion , she was free of all film commitments . She had often referred to MGM and Universal as jails . When her husband , Leland Hayward , tried to read her the good reviews of Cry Havoc , she responded with usual bluntness : You read them , use them for toilet paper . I had enough hell with that damned picture while making it – I dont want to read about it now ! Films with James Stewart . Sullavans co-starring roles with James Stewart are among the highlights of their early careers . In 1935 , Sullavan had decided on doing Next Time We Love . She had strong reservations about the story , but had to work off the damned contract . The script contained a role she thought might be ideal for Stewart , who was best friends with Sullavans first husband , actor Henry Fonda . Years earlier , during a casual conversation with some fellow actors on Broadway , Sullavan predicted Stewart would become a major Hollywood star . By 1936 , Stewart was a contract player at MGM but getting only small parts in B-movies . At that time Sullavan worked for Universal and when she brought up Stewarts name , they were puzzled . The Universal casting people had never heard of him . At Sullavans suggestion Universal agreed to test him for her leading man and eventually he was borrowed from a willing MGM to star with Sullavan in Next Time We Love . Stewart had been nervous and unsure of himself during the early stages of production . At that time he had only had two minor MGM parts which had not given him much camera experience . The director , Edward H . Griffith , began bullying Stewart . Maggie , hes wet behind the ears , Griffith told Sullavan . Hes going to make a mess of things . She believed in Stewart and spent evenings coaching him and helping him scale down his awkward mannerisms and hesitant speech that were soon to be famous around the world . It was Margaret Sullavan who made James Stewart a star , director Griffith later said . And she did , too , Bill Grady from MGM agreed . That boy came back from Universal so changed I hardly recognized him . Gossip in Hollywood at that time ( 1935–36 ) was that William Wyler , Sullavans then-husband , was suspicious about his wifes and Stewarts private rehearsing together . When Sullavan divorced Wyler in 1936 and married Leland Hayward that same year , they moved to a colonial house just a block down from Stewart . Stewarts frequent visits to the Sullavan/Hayward home soon restoked the rumors of his romantic feelings for Sullavan . Sullavan and Stewarts second movie together was The Shopworn Angel ( 1938 ) . Why , theyre red-hot when they get in front of a camera , Louis B . Mayer said about their onscreen chemistry . I dont know what the hell it is , but it sure jumps off the screen . Walter Pidgeon , who was part of the triangle in The Shopworn Angel later recalled : I really felt like the odd-man-out in that one . It was really all Jimmy and Maggie .. . It was so obvious he was in love with her . He came absolutely alive in his scenes with her , playing with a conviction and a sincerity I never knew him to summon away from her . Eventually the duo made four movies together between 1936 and 1940 ( Next Time We Love , The Shopworn Angel , The Shop Around the Corner , and The Mortal Storm ) . Later years . Sullavan took a break from films from 1943 to 1950 . Throughout her career , Sullavan seemed to prefer the stage to the movies . She felt that only on the stage could she improve her skills as an actor . When I really learn to act , I may take what I have learned back to Hollywood and display it on the screen , she said in an interview in October 1936 ( when she was doing Stage Door on Broadway between movies ) . But as long as the flesh-and-blood theatre will have me , it is to the flesh-and-blood theatre Ill belong . I really am stage-struck . And if that be treason , Hollywood will have to make the most of it . Another reason for her early retirement from the screen ( 1943 ) was that she wanted to spend more time with her children , Brooke , Bridget and Bill ( then 6 , 4 and 2 years old ) . She felt that she had been neglecting them and felt guilty about it . Sullavan still did stage work on occasion . From 1943 to 1944 , she played the sexually inexperienced but curious Sally Middleton in The Voice of the Turtle ( by John Van Druten ) on Broadway and later in London ( 1947 ) . After her short return to the screen in 1950 with No Sad Songs for Me , she did not return to the stage until 1952 . Her choice then was as the suicidal Hester Collyer , who meets fellow sufferer Mr . Miller ( played by Herbert Berghof ) , in Terence Rattigans The Deep Blue Sea . In 1953 , she agreed to appear in Sabrina Fair by Samuel Taylor . She came back to the screen in 1950 to do one last picture , No Sad Songs for Me . She played a suburban housewife and mother who learns that she will die of cancer within a year and who then determines to find a second wife for her soon-to-be-widower husband ( Wendell Corey ) . Natalie Wood , then 11 , plays their daughter . After No Sad Songs for Me and its favorable reviews , Sullavan had a number of offers for other films , but she decided to concentrate on the stage for the rest of her career . In 1955–1956 , Sullavan appeared in Janus , a comedy by playwright Carolyn Green . Sullavan played the part of Jessica who writes under the pen name Janus , and Robert Preston played her husband . The play ran for 251 performances from November 1955 to June 1956 . In the late 1950s , Sullavans hearing and depression were getting worse . However , in 1959 she agreed to do Sweet Love Remembered by playwright Ruth Goetz . It was to be Sullavans first Broadway appearance in four years . Rehearsals began on December 1 , 1959 . She had mixed emotions about a return to acting and her depression soon became clear to everyone : I loathe acting , she said on the day she started rehearsals . I loathe what it does to my life . It cancels you out . You cannot live while you are working . You are a person surrounded by an unbreachable wall . On December 18 , 1955 , Sullavan appeared as the mystery guest on the TV panel show Whats My Line? . Personal life . Sullavan had a reputation for being both temperamental and straightforward . On one occasion , Henry Fonda had decided to take a collection for a 4th of July fireworks display . After Sullavan refused to make a contribution , Fonda complained loudly to a fellow actor . Then Sullavan rose from her seat and doused Fonda from head to foot with a pitcher of ice water . Fonda made a stately exit , and Sullavan , composed and unconcerned , returned to her table and ate heartily . Another of her blowups almost killed Sam Wood , who was a keen anti-Communist . He dropped dead from a heart attack shortly after a raging argument with Sullavan , who had refused to fire a writer on a proposed film on account of his right-wing views . Louis B . Mayer always seemed wary and nervous in her presence . She was the only player who outbullied Mayer , Eddie Mannix of MGM later said of Sullavan . She gave him the willies . Marriages and family . Sullavan was married four times . She married actor Henry Fonda on December 25 , 1931 while both were performing with the University Players in its 18-week winter season in Baltimore at the Congress Hotel Ballroom on West Franklin Street near North Howard St . Sullavan and Fonda separated after two months and divorced in 1933 . After separating from Fonda , Sullavan began a relationship with Broadway producer Jed Harris . She later began a relationship with William Wyler , the director of her next movie The Good Fairy ( 1935 ) . They married in November 1934 and divorced in March 1936 . Sullavans third marriage was to agent and producer Leland Hayward , Sullavans agent since 1931 . At the time of the marriage on November 15 , 1936 , Sullavan was pregnant with the couples first child . Their daughter , Brooke , was born in 1937 and later became an actress . The couple had two more children , Bridget ( 1939 – October 17 , 1960 ) and William III Bill ( 1941–2008 ) , who became a film producer and attorney . In 1947 , Sullavan filed for divorce after discovering that Hayward was having an affair with socialite Slim Keith . Their divorce became final on April 20 , 1948 . In 1950 , Sullavan married for a fourth and final time to English investment banker Kenneth Wagg . They remained married until her death in 1960 . Sullavan’s children , in particular Bridget and Bill , often proved rebellious and contrary . As a result of the divorce from Hayward , the family fell apart . Sullavan felt that Hayward was trying to alienate their children from her . When the children went to California to visit their father , they were so spoiled with expensive gifts that , when they returned to their mother in Connecticut , they were deeply discontented with what they saw as a staid lifestyle . Mental breakdown . By 1955 , when Sullavans two younger children told their mother that they preferred to stay with their father permanently , she suffered a nervous breakdown . Sullavans eldest daughter , Brooke , later wrote about the breakdown in her 1977 autobiography Haywire : Sullavan had humiliated herself by begging her son to stay with her . He remained adamant , and his mother had started to cry . This time she couldnt stop . Even from my room the sound was so painful I went into my bathroom and put my hands on my ears . In another scene from the book , a friend of the family ( Millicent Osborne ) had been alarmed by the sound of whimpering from the bedroom : She walked in and found mother under the bed , huddled in a fetal position . Kenneth was trying to get her out . The more authoritative his tone of voice , the farther under she crawled . Millicent Osborne took him aside and urged him to speak gently , to let her stay there until she came out of her own accord . Eventually Sullavan agreed to spend some time ( two and a half months ) in a private mental institution . Her two younger children , Bridget and Bill , also spent time in various institutions . Bridget died of a drug overdose in October 1960 , while Bill died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in March 2008 . Hearing loss . Sullavan suffered from the congenital hearing defect otosclerosis that worsened as she aged , making her more and more hearing impaired . Her voice had developed a throatiness because she could hear low tones better than high ones . From early 1957 , Sullavans hearing declined so much that she was becoming depressed and sleepless and often wandered about all night . She often stayed in bed for days , her only words : Just let me be , please . Sullavan had kept her hearing problem largely hidden . On January 8 , 1960 ( one week after Sullavans death ) , The New York Post reporter Nancy Seely wrote : The thunderous applause of a delighted audience—was it only a dim murmur over the years to Margaret Sullavan ? Did the poised and confident mien of the beautiful actress mask a sick fear , night after night , that shed miss an important cue ? Death . On January 1 , 1960 , at about 5:30 p.m. , Sullavan was found in bed , barely alive and unconscious , in a hotel room in New Haven , Connecticut . Her copy of the script to Sweet Love Remembered , in which she was then starring during its tryout in New Haven , was found open beside her . Sullavan was rushed to Grace New Haven Hospital , but shortly after 6:00 p.m . she was pronounced dead on arrival . She was 50 years old . No note was found to indicate suicide , and no conclusion was reached as to whether her death was the result of a deliberate or an accidental overdose of barbiturates . The county coroner officially ruled Sullavans death an accidental overdose . After a private memorial service was held in Greenwich , Connecticut , Sullavan was interred at Saint Marys Whitechapel Episcopal Churchyard in Lancaster , Virginia . For her contribution to the motion picture industry , Margaret Sullavan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1751 Vine Street . She was inducted , posthumously , into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981 . In popular culture . Sullavans eldest daughter , actress Brooke Hayward , wrote Haywire , a best-selling memoir about her family , that was adapted into the miniseries Haywire starring Lee Remick as Margaret Sullavan and Jason Robards as Leland Hayward .