Margaret Sullavan
Who was Leland Hayward 's spouse from Nov 1936 to 1947?
Leland Hayward Leland Hayward ( September 13 , 1902 – March 18 , 1971 ) was a Hollywood and Broadway agent and theatrical producer . He produced the original Broadway stage productions of Rodgers and Hammersteins South Pacific and The Sound of Music . Life and career . Hayward was born in Nebraska City , Nebraska , the grandson of Monroe Leland Hayward , a United States Senator from Nebraska . His father , Colonel William Hayward , was a celebrated hero of the First World War who commanded the 369th Infantry Regiment , the Harlem Hellfighters . Haywards father and mother , Sarah Coe Ireland , divorced when he was nine . Haywards father subsequently remarried , to Maisie Manwaring Plant , one of the wealthiest women in America at the time , who later traded her Fifth Avenue mansion to Cartier for a perfectly matched strand of pearls . Hayward attended The Hotchkiss School and then studied at Princeton University , but dropped out . He took on a number of jobs including newspaper reporter and press agent , but eventually became a talent agent in Hollywood . In the early 1940s , he handled about 150 artists , including Fred Astaire who had been his first client , James Stewart , Ernest Hemingway , Boris Karloff , Judy Garland , Ginger Rogers , as well as the two former husbands of his second wife Margaret Sullavan , Henry Fonda and William Wyler . He dated some of his female clients , including Greta Garbo and Katharine Hepburn . Hepburn refused to marry him , despite a three-year relationship , because she was too focused on her career . In 1945 , Hayward sold his talent agency and became a producer . His 1949 production of South Pacific was a great success . He produced both the 1948 play Mister Roberts and the 1955 film version . Other noteworthy film productions included The Spirit of St . Louis ( 1957 ) , and The Old Man and the Sea ( 1958 ) . He was a co-producer ( with David Merrick ) of the 1959 show . His biggest success , however , was The Sound of Music that opened the same year . Haywards forays into television were similarly notable . He produced The Ford 50th Anniversary Show on June 15 , 1953 , a live two-hour simulcast on CBS and NBC that looked back on the history of the United States and the world up to 1953 . The program featuring a memorable extended duet by Ethel Merman and Mary Martin . In 1953 , Hayward conceived Producers Showcase ( 1954–1956 ) , a series of 90-minute color spectaculars to be broadcast monthly on NBC . Illness forced Hayward to withdraw from the project shortly before the first broadcast , and production was assumed by his attorneys , Saul and Henry Jaffe . Hayward later produced That Was The Week That Was , a groundbreaking American adaptation of a British television show , from 1963–1965 . Haywards interest in aviation led to his co-founding , in 1941 , Southwest Airways , with financial help from his Hollywood friends . Hayward was an eccentric in his food habits . He ate only white foods such as potatoes , chicken hash , lamb chops , eggs , custard and vanilla ice cream . After suffering several strokes , Hayward died at his home , Haywire , in Yorktown Heights , New York , on March 18 , 1971 . Marriages and family . Hayward was married five times . 1 . In 1921 , aged 19 , Hayward married the debutante Lola Gibbs.They divorced one year later , remarried and divorced again in 1934 . They had no children . 2 . On 15 November 1936 , Hayward married the stage and screen actress Margaret Sullavan , who was pregnant with his child . He thus became the third of Sullavans four husbands . Her previous husbands had been Henry Fonda and William Wyler , and after being divorced from Hayward in 1948 , she would go on to marry British investment banker Kenneth Wagg . Hayward and Sullavan had three children , two of whom died by suicide . Margaret Sullavan herself died of an overdose of Barbiturates in 1960 . Their children were : - Brooke , born 5 July 1937 . She married twice , firstly to writer Michael Thomas and secondly to actor Dennis Hopper ( 1961–69 ) . Her 1977 memoir , Haywire , recounts in detail the familys dysfunctional life . Her children were : - William Thomas - Jeffrey Thomas - Marin Hopper - Bridget ( 1939–1960 ) , who died by suicide from a Barbiturate overdose in October 1960 , aged 21 , less than a year after her mothers death from exactly the same cause , and only a few months after her fathers fourth marriage . - William , born 1941 , who died by suicide on 20 March 2008 , by shooting himself in the heart . By his marriage to Rita Marie Rosate , he had two children : - Leland William Hayward - Bridget Pamela Hayward 3 . In 1950 , Hayward married Slim Hawks . He had met her in Havana at a time when she was legally married to film director Howard Hawks but was staying with writer Ernest Hemingway and his latest wife Mary . Among her other previous relationships had been one with Clark Gable . Hayward and Slim divorced their respective spouses by 1949 and were married the following year ; they had already been living together for some time . The marriage became strained after Slim had a one-night stand with Frank Sinatra and a longer affair with Peter Viertel . They were divorced in 1960 . 4 . In 1960 , Hayward married Pamela Churchill , former wife of Randolph Churchill . At the time Hayward was introduced to her in 1958 Pamela was the mistress of Elie de Rothschild . The couple was wed on 4 May 1960 , in Carson City , Nevada , only hours after Haywards divorce from Hawks was final . They remained nominally married until Haywards death in 1971 , but on the very day of his funeral , Pamela renewed her relationship with a former lover , W . Averell Harriman , and she married him later the same year . In her 1977 memoir , Haywire , Haywards daughter Brooke recounts in detail the familys thoroughly dysfunctional dynamics . Haywards great-grandchildren include William Leland Hayward V , Amelia James Hayward , Anna and Cooper Thomas , Violet Hayward Goldstone , Jack Munn , Cooper Hayward , and Ryan Hayward . External links . - Leland Hayward papers , 1920-1995 , held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division , New York Public Library for the Performing Arts - Hayward Family Tree