A little bit of Sterling Hayden lives in all of us. The defiant actor who eschewed a court order and threw caution to the wind by loading his family aboard his topsail schooner Wanderer and sailed for the South Pacific, did as he pleased and lived large.
There is a chance now to rediscover a bit of Hayden’s life at a Boston University exhibit this fall. Tempest Tossed, The Life of Sterling Hayden, Author, Adventurer, Actor, opens on Sept. 11 and runs through May 2002. Included in the exhibit are numerous photographs of the Adonis-like Hayden, portions of the manuscript of his magnificent books Wanderer (recently republished by Sheridan House) and Voyage, his ship’s bell and the stern board - depicting a carved wooden eagle.
Sterling Hayden showed his fallibility in the 1950s by naming names during the McCarthy hearings, an act he lived to regret deeply the rest of his life. Nonetheless, Hayden was an inspiration to many for his lucid writing and bombastic spirit.
