Louis Charles Hayward (19 March 1909 – 21 February 1985) was a Johannesburg-born, British-American actor. Biography Born in Johannesburg, Louis Hayward lived in South Africa and was educated in France and England, including Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, London. He spent some time managing a night club but wanted to act and bought into a stock company. English career He became a protégé of Noël Coward and began appearing in London in plays such as Dracula and Another Language. He was in the Sir Gerald du Maurier stage play, The Church Mouse. He started being cast in some British films of the early 1930s, such as Self Made Lady (1932) and The Man Outside (1933). He had the lead role in Chelsea Life (1933) and supporting parts in Sorrell and Son (1933), The Thirteenth Candle (1933) and I'll Stick to You (1933). He appeared in a Coward musical Conversation Piece (1934) and had the lead in The Love Test (1935), directed by Michael Powell. Move to United States Hayward went to Broadway in 1935 with a production of Coward's Point Valaine working with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. The play, described as one of Coward's worst and poorly received critically and popularly, only ran for six weeks and was considered a failure, but Hayward won the Donaldson award, a precursor to the Tonys and as a consequence signed a four-picture contract with MGM. U.S. movie career After the stage debacle, however, Hayward received an offer from MGM to play a supporting role in The Flame Within (1935), written and directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Ann Harding. Hayward followed that film with A Feather in Her Hat for Columbia, billed after Basil Rathbone. Back at MGM he had support parts in Absolute Quiet (1935) and Trouble for Two (1936). Hayward's career started to gain momentum when he was cast in the prologue of Warner Bros' expensive blockbuster Anthony Adverse (1936), playing the father of the title character. His profile also was raised by marriage to Ida Lupino. At Universal, he was the male lead in The Luckiest Girl in the World (1936) with Jane Wyatt, then he went to RKO to support Paul Muni and Miriam Hopkins in The Woman I Love (1937). Universal cast him in the lead of Midnight Intruder (1938), directed by Arthur Lubin. He also was the male lead in RKO's Condemned Women (1938). Hayward was