The Wanderer, Sterling Hayden, OSS Officer, Marine, Actor, With a Racy Past

Sterling Hayden  Joined Marines under pseudonym “John Hamilton,”  eventually running guns and supplies to Yugoslav partisans through the German blockade of the Adriatic, as well as parachuting into Croatia for guerrilla activities.  He briefly flirted with Communist Party membership due to friendship with Yugoslav Communists. He returned to film work, which he despised, in order to pay for a succession of sailing vessels.

Sterling attended OCS, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. He served as an undercover agent in the OSS in Croatia and Italy and was awarded the Silver Star among other medals. He left active duty in 1946 as a Captain.  (as told by together we served page, created/owned by PFC Peter Ruvolo (WW2) to remember Marine Capt Sterling Hayden).

Sterling Hayden had spend several years at sea before signing with Paramount in 1940, appearing in two films with future wife Madeleine Carroll. Variously touted by the studio publicity machine as “The Most Beautiful Man in Movies” or “The Beautiful Blond Viking God,” the actor broke his contract in 1941 to join the Marines. During WWII, he assisted the Yugoslavian partisans fight against the Germans and briefly joined the Communist Party in 1946 (resigning after six months) before resuming his acting career the following year. Shortly after his superb performance in “The Asphalt Jungle” (1950), Hayden was gray-listed and was unable to work in Hollywood for six months. He then privately called on the FBI to make a statement concerning his former Communist affiliations, but was subpoenaed by HUAC in 1951 and obliged to testify in public, naming his fellow believers.

While excelling in boot camp after joining the Marines, he was selected for Officer’s Candidate School. After his commissioning, General Donovan somehow found out who 2LT Hamilton really was and had him assigned back to OSS. After lounging around Cairo waiting for an assignment, he was sent to Bari, Italy, Specialoperations.com weaves an intriguing  tale, including the OSS letter below.

OSS had set up a smuggling operation using ships to provide food, weapons and other support to partisans fighting in Yugoslavia. Hayden, described that operation as the first time he’d met OSS operatives who were actually doing a job. But the British Navy was hampering operations, something the Americans felt the British were trying to ensure they failed.

After being forced to move their operation further down the coast at Monopoli, the American commander was called to Cairo. Hayden/Hamilton went to Yugoslavia in his place, his motor quit and he paddled back to the mainland. He hooked up with Tito’s Communist partisans.

Hayden recalled “We hooked up with about thirty of the toughest bastards on earth. None of them had had a bath in years. All had been in the thick of the fighting and marching all up and down Bosnia and Croatia. They would only take one cigarette at a time, which they passed around in circles.”

Hayden was allowed to continue working after his Communist scandal, though he expressed his guilt over ‘ratting,” having “named names” in his 1966 autobiography, “Wanderer.”   In Stanley Kubrick’s classic comedy “Dr. Strangelove” (1963), Hayden played the deranged General Jack D. Ripper, whose over-zealous desire to stop the “communist threat” Launched WWIII    TCM bio

A tribute to Sterling Hayden below: