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Among the couple hundred thousand OSS documents declassified today are those revealing that Sterling Hayden (and Julia Child) were spies. I couldn't find anything online but on the news they mentioned that he was involved in some kind of assassination plot. I'm sure more information will be forthcoming. In my mind, between this and his performance in Strangelove, any "naming of names" that may have occurred can totally be forgiven.

Doctor Sunshine wrote:Among the couple hundred thousand OSS documents declassified today are those revealing that Sterling Hayden (and Julie Child) were spies. I couldn't find anything online but on the news they mentioned that he was involved in some kind of assassination plot. I'm sure more information will be forthcoming. In my mind, between this and his performance in Strangelove, any "naming of names" that may have occurred can totally be forgiven.

Wasn't his performance in Ray's Johnny Guitar always meant as a kind of atonement for the sin of naming names to HUAC?

Hayden was a hell of an interesting man - spy, actor, Commie-turned-rat, seafarer, novelist, pothead...not to mention a way diverse filmmography, working with directors like Huston, Sirk, De Toth, Ray, Kubrick (twice), Joseph H. Lewis, Coppola, and Altman.

The correct title for this thread should be: Sterling Hayden - International Man of Mystery

Via_Chicago wrote:The correct title for this thread should be: Sterling Hayden - International Man of Mystery

That was my first instinct, actually, but I was hoping to mildly confuse people. (Moderators, at your discretion.)

Sterling Hayden wrote about his service in the OSS in his memoir Wanderer which is available on-line at Google Books.

Huston said Hayden always regretted it. That's pretty much enough for me.

The grotesque, bullheaded pride Kazan always insisted that he took in it, (even though he was likely, at best, only lying to himself), was what always really made me hate him.