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Harry Hayden

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Harry Hayden
Born(1882-11-08)8 November 1882
Nova Scotia, Canada
Died24 July 1955(1955-07-24) (aged 72)
West Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1936–1955
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1924; died 1955)​
Children2

Harry Hayden (8 November 1882[1] – 24 July 1955) was a Canadian-American actor. He was a highly prolific actor, with more than 280 screen credits.

Career

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Hayden was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, on 8 November 1882. [1] He is best known to modern audiences as middle-aged, greying at the temples, and wearing glasses, assaying small-town store proprietors, hotel managers, city attorneys, bankers and minor bureaucrats, often warm-hearted, but frequently officious or snooping.[2]

In the early 1920s Hayden was recruited from David Belasco's The Boomerang to perform in vaudeville. He and his company headed the bill with The Love Game in 1922.[3]

Hayden worked both onstage and in films, and with his wife, actress Lela Bliss, to whom he was married from 1924 until his death, he ran the Bliss-Hayden miniature theatre in Beverly Hills, whose alumni include Veronica Lake, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, and Marilyn Monroe.[2] He staged and produced the Broadway play Thirsty Soil, which ran for 13 performances in February 1937.[4]

Hayden began appearing in films in 1936, when he was seen in Foolproof, a crime drama short,[citation needed] and worked consistently and steadily until 1954. At the peak of his career in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he appeared in a dozen or two films a year. Often his work went uncredited, but he was notable in Laurel and Hardy's Saps at Sea in 1940 as Mr. Sharp, the horn factory owner, and as Farley Granger's boss in 1951's O. Henry's Full House.[2] In the 1940s, Hayden was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in six films written and directed by Sturges.[5]

Hayden did a handful of episodic television shows from 1951 to 1955. In 1952, he played Stephen Wilson, the father of Margie's boyfriend in the episode "Vern's Chums", in "My Little Margie", he also had a recurring role as "Harry Johnson" on The Stu Erwin Show, also known as The Trouble With Father, although he went uncredited when the show went to syndication.[2] In 1954, he appeared in his final film, The Desperado.

Personal life

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Hayden was married to actress Lela Bliss, and they had a son, Don Hayden.[6] He died on 24 July 1955 in West Los Angeles, California, at the age of 71.[7]

Partial filmography

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References

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  1. 1 2 "Harry Hayden". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on 3 May 2019. Retrieved 17 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Erickson, Hal Biography (Allmovie) Archived 26 April 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ "Harry Hayden Heads New Vaudeville at the Academy". Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch. 21 January 1921. p. 6. Retrieved 17 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "Thirsty Soil". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database. Archived from the original on 6 December 2019.
  5. ↑ Hayden appeared in The Great McGinty, Christmas in July, The Palm Beach Story, Hail the Conquering Hero, The Great Moment and The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, Sturges' last American film.
  6. ↑ Howard, Edwin (23 March 1949). "Husband and Wife in Faulkner Film Are Teaching Team in Real Life". Memphis Press-Scimitar. p. 19. Retrieved 17 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Harry Hayden". The New York Times. Associated Press. 25 July 1955. p. 19. Retrieved 17 August 2026.
  8. ↑ Great Movie Musicals on DVD - A Classic Movie Fan's Guide by John Howard Reid - Google search with book preview
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