The first time I saw Susan Hayward in a movie was her powerful performance as party girl and petty
criminal Barbara Graham who may or may not have been wrongly executed in a California gas
chamber in 1955.
It's a gritty performance to say the least.
Nominated four times previously, Hayward won the Academy Award for her portrayal of
Graham in the 1958 movie I Want to Live!Susan Hayward excelled at playing
"boozy" characters.
So often I see actresses acting drunk on the screen, but their performances seem fake, even cringe-worthy. Check
her out in I'll Cry Tomorrow where she portrayed alcoholic singer Lillian Roth or Smash
Up: The Story of a Woman when she plays a nightclub singer battling the bottle.