She Collected Art—And Secrets
As the daughter of a Hollywood actress and super-agent, Brooke Hayward was born amidst the stars. From her home at 1712 North Crescent Heights Boulevard in Los Angeles, she collected star studded experiences and bohemian pop art. But, even more intriguingly, she collected the secrets of the rich and famous. But it all came at a terrible cost.
1. She Made A Hollywood Entrance
Brooke Hayward made her grand debut on July 5, 1937. As the daughter of screen siren Margaret Sullavan of The Shop Around the Corner and Three Comrades fame, she was destined to be Hollywood royalty herself. And if her mother didn’t make her a star, her father would.
2. She Was Born To Represent Stardom
Hayward’s mother might have been a star—but her father was a star-maker. Her dad was none other than Leland Hayward, a dashing Broadway producer and Hollywood super-agent whose client list doubled as a who’s who of the Golden Age of entertainment: Judy Garland, Greta Garbo, Ernest Hemingway—you get the picture.
Together, her parents made quite the pair—though not necessarily in a good way.
3. Her Life Was A Roller Coaster—Actually
With two parents at the tippy-top of the entertainment world, Hayward’s childhood was going to be a topsy-turvy roller coaster. Quite literally. Hayward later described her parents as being “loopy”. Reportedly, they were so loopy, that her mother did something pretty crazy the night before her birth. Namely, she rode roller coasters at the Santa Monica Pier before going into labor the very next day,
But, interestingly enough, the star energy coursing through her veins didn't start with her high power parents.
4. Her Family Tree Was A National Archive
Hayward wasn’t just Hollywood royalty—she was basically American aristocracy. Her great-grandfather was a US Senator-elect while her grandfather led the famed, all-African American 369th “Harlem Hellfighters” in WWI. You might say she was born to make history, and in more ways than one...
5. Her Roots Went Back To Plymouth Rock
Hayward’s family made their name and fortune on the sunny West Coast. But they had come a long way to do so. Hayward could trace her lineage all the way back to the first settlers who arrived on the Mayflower. In other words, there was a lot of pressure on her to make her own history—and she would.
6. Her Childhood Had Star Power
Thankfully, Hayward didn’t have to shoulder her family’s legacy all alone. She had two younger siblings; a sister, Bridget, and a brother, Bill. Their early years unfolded like a black-and-white MGM dream sequence: sunshine, swimming pools, and a supporting cast of Hollywood titans. She just didn’t yet know it was all a set up for a great tragedy.
7. She Met Her First Love
Hayward spent her childhood at the homes of superstars like Laurence Olivier and titans of entertainment like David O Selznick. So, it wasn’t surprising to anyone when she developed a childhood crush on Olivier’s son, Tarquin. As far as we know, their relationship never evolved beyond puppy love. Not that she had a shortage of famous men in her life...
8. She Had Jimmy Stewart In Her Bedroom
The Oliviers and Selznicks weren’t the Hollywood heavyweights kicking around the Hayward home. Hayward herself lovingly recalled having her uncle roll her up in a bedspread like a human burrito, perch her on his knee, and tell her stories. Of course, it helped that her “uncle” was Jimmy Stewart.
With so many stars around, she needed a space of her own.
9. She Grew Up In Controlled Chaos
Even by Hollywood standards, Hayward and her siblings led charmed lives. In fact, they had their own house before they were old enough to drive. Hayward’s mother gave her and her siblings a separate residence on their sprawling property dubbed “The Barn”. There, she hosted countless parties and honed her skills as the “hostess with the mostest”.
Mostest secrets, that is.
10. She Was In And Out Of School
In the Hayward household, schooling was optional. But etiquette was mandatory. Hayward’s mother pulled her and siblings in and out of school at will, disrupting their education. However, at the dinner table, her mother expected her to carry on in dazzling conversations all while maintaining impeccable posture, and a healthy appetite.
Her storybook-childhood was already coming apart.
11. Her Mother Was “Eccentric”
Sometime before her eighth birthday, Hayward and her family traded the glitter and glam of Los Angeles for the quiet and quaint charm of a Connecticut farm. There, however, things took a turn for the worse. Having given up her Hollywood career for a time, Hayward’s mother became increasingly “eccentric, dogmatic, and high-strung”.
To escape their mother, Hayward and her siblings forged a strong bond.
12. She Loved From A Distance
In her memoir, Haywire, Hayward shed light on the closeness between herself and her siblings. She wrote that her siblings were the two people she loved most in the world, but that it was “an odd kind of love”. As they grew older, they spent less and less time together—though not necessarily by choice.
13. She Had Hollywood Step-Siblings
Hayward’s biological siblings weren’t her only ones. Hayward’s mother had previously been married to the screen legend, Henry Fonda. As the two remained close after their divorce, Hayward was practically step-siblings with none other than Jane and Peter Fonda. She and Jane had quite the time together.
14. She Was A Bad Brownie
Even after their parents remarried (several times), Hayward and Jane Fonda remained friends—best friends. But they weren’t exactly good influences on each other. Both brilliant and wildly defiant, the girls managed to get themselves kicked out of the Brownies. They would rather have run away to New York to open a bawdy house.
And like all good sister do, Hayward kept all of Fonda’s childhood secrets.
15. She Was Just Spitballing
According to Hayward, she and Fonda were masters of chaos in their youth and regularly disrupted classes with spitballs.“Pages of wadded-up semi-masticated notebook paper” became a daily arsenal for ambushing unsuspecting teachers and fellow students. Her aim was good—too good.
16. She Caused Heart Attacks
Together, Hayward and Fonda stirred up so much trouble that they gave their teachers heart attacks. Actual heart attacks. Allegedly, Hayward and Fonda sent one of their teachers into cardiac arrest and another one into a nervous episode with their antics.
But beneath the theatrics, both girls harbored deep wells of sadness.
17. She Kept Her Friend’s Secret
Just like Hayward, Fonda had come from a fractured family with dark secrets. Secrets that Hayward tried to keep from Fonda. However, one day, while flipping through a magazine in high school with her best friend, a tragic truth came out. There would be nothing Hayward could do to protect her friend from the truth.
18. She Couldn’t Protect Fonda From The Facts
In the magazine, Hayward stumbled upon an article that revealed a devastating truth: Fonda’s mother hadn’t simply “passed on” as she’d been told—she had taken her own life. While Hayward raced to flip the page, it was already too late. In silence, Fonda flipped the page back and read the tragic reality of what had happened to her mother.
For her part, Hayward never dared to bring it up again. She had her own family secrets to deal with.
19. Her Family Split Into Pieces
Hayward’s parents’ marriage had been on the rocks for years, but in 1948, it crashed against the California cliffs and shattered. The result was emotional wreckage. Her father remarried twice—first to Slim Keith, then to Pamela Harriman—while her mother wed producer Kenneth Wagg.
Hayward could only watch as her family fell to pieces.
20. She Saw The Cracks Beneath The Glamour
While Hayward felt the impact of her parents’ divorce, her younger sister, Bridget, took it particularly hard. She once summed up the family fractures with haunting clarity: “I sometimes think,” Bridget said, “there is only one way for me to resolve my struggle with Mother and that is to go down to Greenwich, push her in the river and then jump in after her to drown”.
But Hayward’s family tragedy was just beginning.
21. She Became A New York It-Girl
By the mid-1950s, Hayward was trying to put her family drama behind her by starting her own family. She traded the Connecticut farm for Vassar and the Actors Studio. Broadway roles, a Vogue cover and a marriage to Michael M Thomas along with two sons soon followed. But her family’s tragic curse followed her.
22. She Needed Encouragement—And Got Something Else
Just as Hayward’s own stage acting career was taking off, things took a turn for the worse. On New Year’s Day in 1960, Hayward phoned her mother and stepfather, Wagg. She was hoping that they would give her some encouragement before her performance. Instead, they gave her shocking news that turned her world upside down.
23. Her Mother’s Star Dimmed
Instead of her mother, Hayward’s stepfather answered the phone—and he had nothing encouraging to tell her. With a heavy heart, Wagg informed Hayward that the light from her once-megastar mother had faded. It wasn’t until later that Hayward learned the tragic circumstances: an accidental overdose earlier that day.
Her reaction to the news was even more shocking.
24. Her Show Still Went On
Rather than crumble at the news of her mother’s demise, Hayward made an astonishing choice. Convinced that her mother would have insisted that the show must go on, Hayward got up on stage and delivered the performance of a lifetime. However, someone was trying to hog her spotlight.
25. Her Stepmother Made A Callous Entrance
As Hayward stood in front of the theater, still reeling from the news of her mother’s tragic passing, she suffered another blow. Her father’s new partner, Pamela Churchill, arrived at the theater draped in furs like an evil stepmother. She then basically forced Hayward to go to her father's home.
Hayward’s dark days had only just begun.
26. Her Sister Followed In Her Mother’s Footsteps
Just ten months later, tragedy struck Hayward again with a chilling echo. Hayward’s younger sister, Bridget—emotionally fragile and recently discharged from a psychiatric hospital—followed in their mother’s footsteps…right into the grave. Just like her mother, Hayward’s sister overdosed.
That wasn’t even the bad part.
27. She Missed Her Last Chance
Hayward had only missed her mother’s final moments by mere hours. Similarly, the day Bridget passed, Hayward had planned to see her. But when her sister didn’t answer the door, Hayward—distracted and impatient—left. It’s a regret she would carry forever.
28. She Never Forgave Herself
Looking back on that fateful decision to walk away from the door, Hayward didn’t spare herself. “I would never be able to forget this,” she wrote in her memoirs. “I almost literally would have held in the palm of my hand the singular and now irretrievable opportunity to save my sister’s life”.
She didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.
29. She Was Left With Nothing But Questions
Though Hayward knew that her sister struggled with mental illness, she didn’t know how profound it was until the end. The only thing Bridget had left behind for Hayward was an “incoherent” note that Hayward kept private. But she did shed some light on her family’s apparent curse.
30. She Turned Her Pain Into Prose
In her searing 1977 memoir Haywire, Hayward explained the tragedy that her family experienced. “My parents failed, as they succeeded—on a massive scale,” she wrote. “And they left behind them a legacy, vested in their children, that put the odds against survival ineluctably high”.
Circumstances aside, pretty soon, the choice about whether she would beat the odds or be beaten by them would be hers alone...
31. She Had To Make A Choice
With her mother and sister both falling prey to their family demons in quick succession, all eyes turned to Hayward. Then, at her sister’s funeral, the legendary screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz laid it all bare. “Either you’ve got to open the window right now and jump out,” he said, “or say, ‘I’m going to live'”.
Hayward chose the latter—but her tragedies were far from over.
32. She Made A Bold Move—And A Bold Marriage
After losing her marriage, her mother, and her sister all within a year, Hayward thought she would never find happiness again—until an unexpected romance changed everything. She met rising star Dennis Hopper during a Broadway run of Mandingo. By August 1961, the two were married—despite her father’s stern objections. It wasn’t exactly wedded bliss.
33. She Had Heaven And Hell At Home
Looking back at the early 1960s, Hayward didn’t mince words about her marriage. Life with Hopper was, as she recalled, “the most wonderful and awful” experience she’d ever had. Whatever their troubles, they shared a passion for one thing above all: art.
34. She Was “New Hollywood”
Hayward might have been the child of “Old Hollywood”, but she was a pioneer in the new generation of stars. From their perch at 1712 North Crescent Heights Boulevard, high in the hills above the Sunset Strip, Hayward and Hopper’s home became the unofficial headquarters for an avant-garde group of artists.
And, unbeknownst to her at the time, her house guests would all be future A-listers.
35. She Hosted All The Stars
On any given night, Hayward and Hopper filled their home with a collection of bohemians intent on redefining what it meant to be cool. Whether she was toasting with Paul Newman, dancing with Jack Nicholson, or sharing the latest gossip with Andy Warhol, Hayward’s salon was where stars were made.
Even so, her real collection was about art, not artists.
36. She Had An Eye For Icons
Before most collectors knew his name, Hayward had Warhol on her walls. In fact, she was the first person to buy his infamous “soup can” art. Alongside Hopper, she became one of the earliest pop art patrons in America. From Liechtenstein to Rauschenberg, if it was bold and brash, it hung in their living room.
And with her place established in the world of new Hollywood, Hayward resolved not to live he life like her parents did—though it didn't always make for the best outcome.
37. She Produced More Than Parties
Hayward had a few minor roles in films and television shows, however she never embraced the spotlight like her mother had. However, she knew the business better than most—including her husband. While Hopper rose to unparalleled prominence after directing Easy Rider, he had Hayward and her contacts to thank. Her brother, Bill, co-produced the film along with their childhood friends, Peter Fonda.
Their art only bred anarchy.
38. She Fled For Her Own Safety
Behind the film premieres and avant-garde art shows, not everything was going well in the Hayward-Hopper household. In fact, unbeknownst to the public, Hopper struggled with a terrible addiction that made his behavior erratic—and dangerous. Hayward, fearing for her safety, escaped with their children to Chateau Marmont.
Their marriage only deteriorated from there.
39. She Drew A Line In The Sand
Hayward had helped pioneer the transgressive bohemian movement. But, by the late 1960s, the movement had moved past her. Allegedly, one night, Hopper burst into her bedroom with her childhood best friend, Jane Fonda and her husband Roger Vadim, in tow. To Hayward’s shock and horror, the three then proposed that they all engaged in a foursome.
That seems to have been the final straw.
40. She Finally Walked Away
By 1969, Hayward had had all she could take of the bohemian scene she had helped to create. So, after nearly a decade of marriage, she called it quits with Hopper. At least one person was happy about it. After hearing about her divorce, her father glibly commented, “Congratulations on the first smart move you’ve made in six years”. Ultimately, it proved a
41. She Found Harmony—Eventually
Following her divorce from Hopper, Hayward retreated from her Hollywood circles. It would take her years to find her rhythm once again. But, in 1985, that’s exactly what she did when she married Peter Duchin, a society bandleader and musician. It seemed like she had found her forever—for a while, anyway.
42. Her Marriage Fell Apart
For a while, it seemed like Hayward had finally found a little peace. But drama followed her. After more than two decades of marriage to Duchin, Hayward pulled off her wedding ring one last time. It’s not clear what caused the couple’s 2011 divorce, but a family curse might have had something to do with it.
43. Her Family’s Curse Claimed Another
Three years prior to her divorce, Hayward endured another devastating loss. This time, it was her younger brother, Bill. In 2008, crippled once again by the family curse, Bill had ended his own life, leaving Hayward as the sole survivor of a family haunted with unknown horrors, burdened by privilege.
But, through it all, she still had one person to count on.
44. She Got One Last Call
In 2009, out of the blue, Hayward heard from her ex-husband, Dennis Hopper. Faced with a terminal illness, he asked her to visit him at his home in Venice, California. While they hadn’t spoken in decades, she couldn’t deny her feelings for him. Plus, there was something “urgent” about Hopper’s call.
45. She Visited An Old Friend
Hayward traveled to Hopper’s bedside in January 2010, unsure of what to expect. Once she ascended the stairs in his home, however, she understood the urgency of the matter. Propped up on his bed was a frail, fading Hopper—a shell of his former self. At 73, in his condition, he knew he didn’t have long.
And there was something he had to tell Hayward.
46. She Never Stopped Loving Hopper
As Hayward stepped into the room, Hopper sat up and looked at her. The two reminisced over their years together, prompting an emotional question from Hopper: “Brooke,” he asked, “do you still love me?” Hayward didn’t even need to pause. “Yes Dennis,” she replied, “of course”.
His reply stayed with her for the rest of her life...
47. She Was Still Hopper’s Favorite
Just like Hayward, Hopper had had multiple marriages. But, with this life flashing before his eyes, he made a shocking confession. “You’re the only woman I ever loved,” he said to Hayward. Whether it was a confession, an apology, or just the truth, Hayward carried those words with her out of the room—and into her next and final chapter.
48. She Lost Her Closest Friend
As if to underscore just how much she had endured, Hayward also lost her lifelong friend, Jane Fonda. And she didn’t even have to bury her to lose her. Though neither gave a reason for the end of their friendship, Fonda confirmed it in 2017: “Unfortunately, we are no longer friends, which makes me sad”.
Not as sad as Hayward, though.
49. She Wrote Through The Pain
In her haunting memoir Haywire, Hayward summed up her family’s tragic story in one devastating passage: “We had let such extraordinary care be subverted into such extraordinary carelessness. We’d been careless with the best of our many resources: each other”.
50. She Lived With Her Ghosts
Hayward’s tell-all memoir became a best-seller. But she knew that her mother wouldn’t have approved of it, and that her father would have been “horrified”. Nevertheless, she felt that her family’s tragedy could serve as a lesson for others. “We were drowned in privilege, yet it ended in all this hideous tragedy,” she wrote. “The moral of my book is that you pay for everything”.
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