[razorback-bert]

Sterling HaydenBiography
A handsome, virile star of the late 1940s and 50s, Sterling Hayden spent several years at sea before signing with Paramount in 1940, appearing in two films with future wife Madeleine Carroll. Variously touted by the studio publicity machine as "The Most Beautiful Man in Movies" or "The Beautiful Blond Viking God", the actor broke his contract in 1941 to join the Marines. During WWII, he assisted the Yugoslavian partisans fight against the Germans and briefly joined the Communist Party in 1946 (resigning after six months) before resuming his acting career the following year. Shortly after his superb performance in "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950), Hayden was gray-listed and was unable to work in Hollywood for six months. He then privately called on the FBI to make a statement concerning his former Communist affiliations, but was subpoenaed by HUAC in 1951 and obliged to testify in public, naming his fellow believers.

[JohnGalt]

Fascinating and thanks for the addition.

[JohnGalt]

Dalton Trumbo, a Communist Hollywood writer, wrote one of the great anti-war novels in American literature, Johnny Got His Gun, in the mid-30s. When Germany invade Russia in '41, suddenly he became an advocate for American entry into the war to defeat fascism-- you can see the begining of the Good War myth.

Eventually, Trumbo was black listed but wrote Oscar winning screenplays including Spartacus-- the most blatantly Communist film of the era. Trumbo came full circle and worked on a project with the Red-Brown anti-Semetic Liberty Lobby called Executive Decision (I think it was) on the military industrial complex (an Eisenhower phrase BTW) assassination of JFK.

[whinecountry]

Hayden tough-guy bump. Even after many viewings, he still is intimidating as all get-out as the corrupt police chief in The Godfather.