Martha Hyer

Martha Hyer was an actress during the golden age of cinema, starring in over 70 films between 1946 and 1971 alongside some of the true greats of Hollywood including Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn, John Wayne, and Cary Grant. The daughter of a prominent judge, Hyer studied speech and drama at Northwestern University in Illinois. She moved to California, first working as a stage actress before signing with RKO. Her first screen role was an uncredited appearance in "The Locket" (1946) followed by a run of smaller roles before making her TV debut in 1950 on "The Lone Ranger" (ABC, 1949-1957). By 1951's "Oriental Evil" she was playing the lead; she also met her husband, producer/writer/director C. Ray Stahl, while filming in Japan. After making two more films together, "Geisha Girl" (1952) and "The Scarlet Spear" (1954), the couple divorced. Now a popular actress on TV and the big screen, Hyer co-starred in the clasic romantic comedy "Sabrina" (1954) alongside Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart; "Houseboat" (1958) with Grant and Sophia Loren; and opposite Frank Sinatra in "Some Came Running" (1958), which saw Hyer nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 1959 Academy Awards. Hyer was reportedly almost cast as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960) before losing the role to Janet Leigh; however, she did appear twice on the director's anthology series "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" (NBC 1962-65), including a starring role on the show's first episode. She continued to feature on the big screen in the likes of soapy romance "The Carpetbaggers" (1964), alongside low-budget features such as "Pyro" (1964) and "Bikini Beach" (1964). In 1966, she married producer Hal Wallis and scaled back on her acting commitments; her final film was "The Day of the Wolves" (1971), while her last TV appearance was a guest spot on the police series "McCloud" (NBC 1970-77) in 1974. Despite being retired, Hyer continued to live a lavish lifestyle, and unbeknownst to Wallis got herself into debt with loan sharks to cover her many expenses. She recounted this story and many others in her autobiography Finding My Way: A Hollywood Memoir in 1990. Martha Hyer died in 2014 at the age of 89.