Sterling hayden I would have also fulfilled a century this year, but it let go thirty years ago. He measured 1,96 and had the perfect features for the roughest black Hollywood. That is why he made some of the most masterpieces of that genre. But it was the antihero of his own life. I, a precocious girl in many ways, have had it in my memory for as long as I can remember.

Hayden he never wanted to be an actor. He loved the sea and was also a writer. This is how he told it in his autobiography, for hikers (Homeless). He also counted his fall into hell during the Witch hunt McCarthyist, his denunciations of good friends and their repentance thus. In addition, he wrote a historical novel, Voyage, a novel of 1896. Both are very good.

Everyone has seen (and if not, is wasting time reading this) some Sterling Hayden movie. That is to say, it is impossible that a cinephile worthy of being called that has not seen The concrete jungle o Perfect heist. O Johnny Guitar or even Prince valiant. Not to mention The Godfather (her presence is my only reason to see her), Red phone ?, we flew to Moscow o Nine hundred. In other words, he worked with the best and more than once, like with Kubrick.

Its unforgettable Dix handley, that thug from the underworld of The concrete jungle, is the character tough and loser par excellence. But he also perfectly embodied the upright policeman and man in love which is his lieutenant Bill Doyle in Crime of passion.

for hikers

There is nothing wrong with being an actor if that is what you want. But there is when you suddenly acquire an exaggerated importance simply because you do well in a photograph and you are able to say a dialogue that others have written. […] I just couldn't take the job.

Why go into it then? And why not go out? Simple. The same flaws in my character that led me to Hollywood prevented me from escaping.

Maybe in that last sentence what Hayden wanted to express in his autobiography, written in 1963, is summarized a bit. repentance for betraying colleagues and friends in the famous witch hunt of the senator McCarthy. for hikers It is dedicated to his best friend, whom he betrayed and who later died in prison.

After that Hayden he was not the same again and he admitted that since then he lived and would always live "full of shit." However, he was also the only one who confessed that repentance and that suffered deeply for having betrayed himself.

About his life

En for hikers we meet a hayden adventurer and man of action. As a teenager he eloped, worked as fisherman and served as sailor.

In the 40s he started working as model. That he was discovered for the cinema was inevitable, so shortly after he signed with Paramount. In his first film he met the actress madeleine carroll, with whom he married. He tells that episode as delicately as he is passionately, just as he laments the jealousy she had. But after a couple of movies and when he still hadn't made it big in Hollywood, he left to fight in the Second World War.

Had a meritorious performance on the European front. He fought with the Yugoslav partisans of Marshal Tito, so at the end of the war they granted him the Silver Star of the Yugoslav Republic. Upon his return, and consistent with that fight, se affiliated with the Communist Party. But then the investigations of the Un-American Activities Committee, which of course put their eye on Hollywood. And as we have said, from glory to nothing.

When he left the movies, he had been married three times and he dedicated himself to living, writing and traveling on his ship, the Who Knows (Who knows). His life style it was never conventional and his fondness for alcohol and drug use such as hashish got him into more than one problem. He did make one-off movies in the 60s and 70s (The Godfather o Nine hundred). He had six children and with his last wife he was already up to his death for cancer in 1986. .

Voyage, a novel of 1876

With more than 700 pages this historical and naval epic it is a tribute to the sea and the life in it that only a sailor can know how to count. Hayden did it like that, big time, maybe a little like he was too. A force of nature that failed the innermost force. And if already critical his autobiography had been good, the ones that this novel received were exceptional.

The story tells the crossing of a four-masted sailboat from New England to San Francisco rounding Cape Horn. The narration is profuse in nautical details that Hayden knew well. But in addition, the characters and the dramatic tension between them are exceptional, especially in the love story of the captain and a passenger. Dialogues, descriptions and moments in which there is no lack of passion and intensity.

Of course, it is only recommended for lovers of this genre of adventure and boats. Say you have touches de Melville, London or Conrad. Be careful, I do not make any comparison. But the epic and the resources are a tribute to those names.

It's a shame that…

... are not published in Spanish. But if you are an unconditional admirer of this actor (like me), of the autobiographies or good literature of the sea, it's worth getting them. Obviously you also have to know English. And without a doubt they come in handy to practice it.

In any case, it will always be worth seeing one of his films. And of course Hayden did some of the best.