Reference books can't seem to agree on this guy's birth name. Two of the books we consulted say he was born "John Hamilton." Two more books give his original name as "Sterling Relyea Walter." And still another book on our shelves says he was born "Christian Walter." But once you get past the mystery of his name, all the books agree that his first love was the sea and as a young man his extraordinary good looks enabled him to finance his seagoing adventures. He was a model and then an actor, and after Paramount signed him in the early 1940s he was billed for a time as "The Most Beautiful Man in the Movies." At that time his name was "Stirling Hayden." He soon left movies to serve in the Marines during WWII, only to return as "Sterling Hayden" in 1947. After that he worked continually in movies of the 1950s, cast mostly in tough guy roles. From the 1960s on he turned up in movies rather infrequently, but he became a fine charactor actor and until the end of his career he retained a bit of the odd charisma that had been there from the very beginning.

In a career that lasted just over 40 years, Sterling Hayden was lucky enough to work with many of the most distinguished names in movies, including Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, John Huston, Stanley Kubrick and Bernardo Bertolucci, not to mention Gloria Grahame, Marie Windsor and Dolly Parton. His filmography has something for everybody -- westerns, war movies, crime dramas, even a rare Dorothy Lamour film noir vehicle. However, if we could choose only one Hayden movie to represent Planet Earth in an intergalactic film festival, we'd probably choose 1954's Johnny Guitar, which is not merely one of the most bizarre westerns ever filmed, but also one of the most bizarre Joan Crawford movies ever filmed -- which is saying a lot.

A SAILOR ENTERTAINS: Stirling Hayden, who takes days off from his work in pictures with sea-going backgrounds, such as Paramount's "Bahama Passage," to go to sea, is shown here furnishing nautical entertainment to several of his friends. Yes, there's Brenda Marshall, Kay Aldridge and William Holden. These pictures were taken just after Hayden returned from seven weeks of sea-going with the "Bahama Passage" troupe in the Bahamas.

Stirling rows his friends out to his schooner. Brenda left, Holden center, and Kay right. That's the boat in the background.

(Paramount publicity -- 1941)