Sterling Hayden Sterling Walter Hayden ( born Sterling Relyea Walter ; March 26 , 1916 – May 23 , 1986 ) was an American actor and author . For most of his career as a leading man , he specialized in westerns and film noir , such as " Johnny Guitar " , " The Asphalt Jungle " and " The Killing " . Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen . Jack D . Ripper in " Dr . Strangelove or : How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb " ( 1964 ) . He also played the Irish - American policeman , Captain McCluskey , in Francis Ford Coppola ' s " The Godfather " in 1972 , and the novelist Roger Wade in 1973 ' s " The Long Goodbye " . He played the role of Leo Dalcò in Bernardo Bertolucci ' s " 1900 " in 1976 . At six feet five inches ( 196 cm ) , he was taller than most actors . Biography . Early life , education . He was born in Montclair , New Jersey , to George and Frances Walter , who named him Sterling Relyea Walter . After his father died , he was adopted at the age of nine by James Hayden and renamed Sterling Walter Hayden . He grew up in coastal towns of New England , and as a child lived in New Hampshire , Massachusetts , Pennsylvania , Washington , D . C . , and Maine , where he attended Wassookeag School in Dexter , Maine . Hayden was a genuine adventurer and man of action , not dissimilar from many of his movie parts . He 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 eleven 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 schooner " Yankee " . After serving as sailor and fireman on larger vessels and sailing around the world several times , he was awarded his first command aged 22 , skippering the square rigger " Florence C . Robinson " 7 , 700 miles from Gloucester , Massachusetts , to Tahiti in 1938 . Hollywood years and military service . Hayden became a print model and later signed a contract with Paramount Pictures , who dubbed the 6 ' 5 " ( 1 . 96 m ) actor " The Most Beautiful Man in the Movies " and " The Beautiful Blond Viking God " . His first film , " Virginia " ( 1941 ) , starred Madeleine Carroll , with whom he fell in love and married . After two film roles , he left Hollywood and joined the Marines as a private , under the name " John Hamilton " ( a pseudonym Hayden only used in the military ) . While at Parris Island he was recommended for Officer Candidate School . After graduation , he was commissioned a second lieutenant and was transferred to service as an undercover agent with William J . Donovan ' s COI office . He remained there after it became the OSS . As OSS agent John Hamilton , his World War II service included sailing with supplies from Italy to Yugoslav partisans and parachuting into fascist Croatia . Hayden , who also participated in the Naples - Foggia campaign and established air crew rescue teams in enemy - occupied territory , became a first lieutenant on September 13 , 1944 , and a captain on February 14 , 1945 . He received the Silver Star ( for gallantry in action in the Balkans and Mediterranean ; " " 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 Marshal Tito . He left active duty on December 24 , 1945 . His great admiration for the bravery of the Communist partisans led to a brief membership in the Communist Party . He was apparently active in supporting an effort by the Communist - controlled motion picture painters ' union to absorb other film industry unions . As the Red Scare deepened in U . S . , he cooperated with the House Un - American Activities Committee , confessing his brief Communist ties and " naming names . " His wife at that time , Betty de Noon , insisted that the ' names ' her ex - husband provided were already in the hands of the Committee , which had a copy of the Communist Party ' s membership list . In any event , Hayden subsequently repudiated his cooperation with the Committee , stating in his autobiography " I don ' t think you have the foggiest notion of the contempt I have had for myself since the day I did that thing . " Personal life . Sterling Hayden often professed distaste for film acting , claiming he did it mainly to pay for his ships and voyages . In 1958 , after a bitter divorce , he was awarded custody of his children . He defied a court order and sailed to Tahiti with all four children , Christian , Dana , Gretchen and Matthew . The crew sailed from San Francisco Bay to Tahiti , where Hayden had planned to film a movie . Hayden also invited well known photographer Dody Weston Thompson along to document the trip and to help shoot location choices . Her South Seas folio is replete with fascinating photographs of the Hayden ' s ship " The Wanderer " , on - deck photos of life aboard the ship , colorful prints of his children , Tahitian women and children , and of unique artifacts on shore . The film did not materialize , however , and according to Dody ' s notes U . S . Camera printed these photographs of paradise in 1961 . Marin County Superior Court Judge Harold Haley would later order Hayden to repay Republic Pictures , who financed the trip with two promissory notes , nearly $ 50 , 000 for defaulting on an agreement to repay the debt . In 1960 , he married Catherine Devine McConnell . They had two sons , Andrew and David , and were married until his death in 1986 . McConnell also had a son from her first marriage , to journalist Scott McConnell . In the early 1960s , Hayden rented one of the pilot houses of the retired ferryboat " Berkeley " , docked in Sausalito , California where he resided while writing his autobiography " Wanderer " , which was first published in 1963 . In it , he reminisces about turning points in his life : In the 1970s , after his appearance in " The Godfather " , he appeared several times on NBC ' s " Tomorrow Show " with Tom Snyder , where he talked about his career resurgence and how it had funded his travels and adventures around the world . Hayden bought a canal barge in the Netherlands in 1969 , eventually moving it to the heart of Paris and living on it part of the time . He also shared a home in Wilton , Connecticut with his family and had an apartment in Sausalito . Hayden wrote two acclaimed books : an autobiography , " Wanderer " ( 1962 ) , and a novel " Voyage " ( 1976 ) . Sterling Hayden died of prostate cancer in Sausalito in 1986 , age 70 . References in popular culture . In the film " Three Days of the Condor " ( Sydney Pollack , 1975 ) , two veteran CIA officers were reminiscing about their past . Higgins ( Cliff Robertson ) asked Mr . Wabash , " You served with Col . Donovan in the OSS , didn ' t you , sir ? " Wabash ( John Houseman ) replies , " I sailed the Adriatic with a movie star at the helm . It doesn ' t seem like much of a war now , but it was . " In 2011 the American singer - songwriter Tom Russell released the song " Sterling Hayden " on his album " Mesabi " . Hayden , under his nom de guerre Lieutenant John Hamilton , and his role as an OSS agent play a secondary part in the 2012 novel " Deaths Door : A Billy Boyle World War II mystery " by author James R . Benn . Hayden / Hamilton assists in getting protagonist Billy Boyle through German - occupied Italy .