Thursday, August 21, 2008

Sterling Hayden, OSS

John Hamilton (Sterling Hayden) - washingtonpost.com: "He left nine years of seafaring and his early Hollywood acting career to join the Marine Corps and the OSS under the assumed name of John Hamilton in 1941. His mastery of the seas -- he was first mate on a schooner voyage around the world in 1936 and captained a ship from Gloucester, Mass., to Tahiti in 1939 -- led OSS officials to have him set up secret shipping operations based in Italy. He was attacked by the Germans and operated behind enemy lines in Croatia."

Link via The Bunburyist.

3 comments:

Graham Powell said...

I knew Hayden made a great on-screen tough guy, but I didn't know he was so tough in real life.

Imagine how JAWS would have been different if he'd gotten the role of Quint.

Anonymous said...

From what I've read previously Hayden was not much interested in acting. The pay was great and gave him the bucks to go sailing whenever he wanted.

Unknown said...

A great gig, all right. I wish someone would pay me that well.