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Leland Hayward
Hayward in 1942
Born	(1902-09-13)September 13, 1902 Nebraska City, Nebraska, U.S.
Died	March 18, 1971(1971-03-18) (aged 68) Yorktown Heights, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Agent, producer
Spouses	Inez "Lola" Gibbs ​ ​ (m. 1921; div. 1924)​ ​ ​ (m. 1930; div. 1934)​ Margaret Sullavan ​ ​ (m. 1936; div. 1947)​ Slim Hawks ​ ​ (m. 1949; div. 1960)​ Pamela Harriman ​ (m. 1960)​
Children	3, includingBrooke Hayward
Father	William Hayward
Relatives	Monroe Leland Hayward Descendants of Robert Coe

Leland Hayward (September 13, 1902 – March 18, 1971) was an American talent agent and theatrical producer. He was an agent to about 150 artists inHollywood, and produced the originalBroadway stage productions ofRodgers and Hammerstein'sSouth Pacific andThe Sound of Music.

Hayward was born inNebraska City, Nebraska, the grandson ofMonroe Leland Hayward, aUnited States senator fromNebraska. His father, ColonelWilliam Hayward, was a celebrated hero of theFirst World War who commanded the369th Infantry Regiment, the "Harlem Hellfighters". Hayward's father and mother, Sarah Coe Ireland, divorced when he was nine. Hayward's father subsequently remarried, to Maisie Manwaring Plant, one of the wealthiest women in America at the time,^[1] who later traded her Fifth Avenue mansion toCartier for a perfectly matched strand of pearls.^[1]

Hayward attendedThe Hotchkiss School and then studied atPrinceton University, but dropped out. He took on a number of jobs including newspaper reporter and press agent, but eventually became a talent agent inHollywood. In the early 1940s, he handled about 150 artists, includingFred 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 wifeMargaret Sullavan,Henry Fonda andWilliam Wyler.^[1] He dated some of his female clients, includingGreta Garbo andKatharine Hepburn.^[2] Hepburn refused to marry him, despite a three-year relationship, choosing instead to focus on her career.^{[citation needed]}

In 1945, Hayward sold his talent agency and became a producer. His 1949 production ofSouth Pacific was a great success. He produced both the 1948 playMister Roberts and the1955 film version.

Other noteworthy film productions includedThe Spirit of St. Louis (1957), andThe Old Man and the Sea (1958). He was a co-producer (withDavid Merrick) of the 1959 showGypsy. His biggest success, however, wasThe Sound of Music that opened the same year.

Hayward's forays into television were similarly notable. He producedThe Ford 50th Anniversary Show on June 15, 1953, a live two-hour simulcast onCBS andNBC that looked back on the history of the United States and the world up to 1953. The program featured a memorable extended duet byEthel Merman andMary Martin.^[3] In 1953, Hayward conceivedProducers' Showcase (1954–1956), a series of 90-minute color spectaculars to be broadcast monthly onNBC. Illness forced Hayward to withdraw from the project shortly before the first broadcast, and production was assumed by his attorneys, Saul and Henry Jaffe.^[4] Hayward later producedThat Was The Week That Was, a groundbreaking American adaptation of a British television show, from 1963–1965.

Hayward's interest in aviation led to his co-founding, in 1941,^[5]Southwest Airways, with financial help from his Hollywood friends.^[6]

Hayward was aneccentric in his food habits. He ate only white foods such as potatoes, chicken hash, lamb chops, eggs, custard and vanilla ice cream.^[7]

After suffering several strokes, Hayward died at his home, Haywire, inYorktown Heights, New York, on March 18, 1971.

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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 actressMargaret Sullavan, who was pregnant with his child. He thus became the third of Sullavan's four husbands. Her previous husbands had beenHenry Fonda andWilliam Wyler, and after being divorced from Hayward in 1948, she would go on to marry British investment bankerKenneth Wagg. Hayward and Sullavan had three children, two of whom died by suicide. Margaret Sullavan herself died of anoverdose of barbiturates in 1960. Their children were:
   • Brooke Hayward, born July 5, 1937. She married three times, first to writer Michael Thomas and second to actorDennis Hopper (1961–69). Her third marriage was toPeter Duchin in 1985. Her 1977 memoir,Haywire, recounts in detail the family's dysfunctional life. Her children were:
     • William Thomas
     • Jeffrey Thomas
     • Marin Brooke Hopper
   • Bridget Hayward (1939–1960), who died by suicide from a barbiturate overdose in October 1960, aged 21, less than a year after her mother's death from exactly the same cause, and only a few months after her father's fourth marriage.
   • William Hayward III, born 1941, who committed suicide on March 20, 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 marriedSlim Hawks. He had met her inHavana at a time when she was legally married to film directorHoward Hawks but was staying with writerErnest Hemingway and his latest wife Mary. Among her other previous relationships had been one withClark 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 withFrank Sinatra and a longer affair withPeter Viertel.^[2] They were divorced in 1960.
4. In 1960, Hayward marriedPamela Churchill, former wife ofRandolph Churchill. The couple was wed on 4 May 1960, inCarson City, Nevada, only hours after Hayward's divorce from Hawks was final. They remained nominally married until Hayward's 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, Hayward's daughter Brooke recounts in detail the family's thoroughly dysfunctional dynamics.

• Leland Hayward atIMDb
• Leland Hayward at theInternet Broadway Database
• Leland Hayward papers, 1920-1995, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Hayward Family Tree

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• 1971 deaths
• Hotchkiss School alumni
• American theatre managers and producers
• American talent agents
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• People from Nebraska City, Nebraska
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