Martha Hyer

Martha Hyer (August 10, 1924 – May 31, 2014) was an American film actress. She is best remembered as the love interest of Frank Sinatra in Vincente Minnelli's Some Came Running (1958), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Hyer attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority for women. After completing her education, her first film appearance was a brief, uncredited speaking part in The Locket (1946). She appeared in a 1950 episode of The Lone Ranger entitled "The Man Who Came Back". She had roles in So Big (1953), Sabrina (1954), The Delicate Delinquent (1956) (Jerry Lewis' first film without Dean Martin), Houseboat (1958) and Once Upon a Horse, also in 1958 with Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. During these years she was considered (by some) the best replacement for Grace Kelly, who had just retired after marrying Rainier III, Prince of Monaco.

In the 1960s Hyer played in films like The Best of Everything (1959), Ice Palace (1960), Desire in the Dust (1960), The Carpetbaggers (1964), First Men in the Moon (1964), Blood on the Arrow (1964), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), and The Night of the Grizzly (1966), among many others. She co-starred with Keenan Wynn in Bikini Beach (1964), one of the Beach Party movies with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello.

On television Hyer played the part of "Hannah Haley" in the episode "Incident West of Llano" on the Western series Rawhide.

Her most significant role came as the love interest of Frank Sinatra in Some Came Running for director Vincente Minnelli in 1958, for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Hyer was one of the actresses considered for the Janet Leigh role of the doomed Marion Crane in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho. Her last film was Day of the Wolves, in the role of Maggie Anderson in 1971, and her last television appearance was as Peggy Hamilton in the McCloud episode "A Cowboy in Paradise" in 1974.

Hyer married producer Hal B. Wallis in 1966 and the couple remained together until his death in 1986.

Her autobiography, Finding My Way: A Hollywood Memoir, was published in 1990.

Hyer died on May 31, 2014, aged 89.

Selected filmography

• The Locket (1946)
• The Velvet Touch (1948)
• Gun Smugglers (1948)
• Rustlers (1949)
• The Clay Pigeon (1949)
• The Lawless (1950)
• Oriental Evil (1951)
• Yukon Gold (1952)
• So Big (1953)
• Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953)
• Riders to the Stars (1954)
• The Battle of Rogue River (1954)
• Sabrina (1954)
• Lucky Me (1954)
• Wyoming Renegades (1954)
• Francis in the Navy (1955)
• Showdown at Abilene (1956)
• The Delicate Delinquent (1956)
• Red Sundown (1956)
• Mister Cory (1957)
• My Man Godfrey (1957)
• Battle Hymn (1957)
• Houseboat (1958)
• Paris Holiday (1958)
• Some Came Running (1958)
• The Big Fisherman (1959)
• The Best of Everything (1959)
• Ice Palace (1960)
• The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961)
• The Man from the Diner's Club (1963)
• Pyro (1964)
• First Men in the Moon (1964)
• Bikini Beach (1964)
• The Carpetbaggers (1964)
• The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
• The Night of the Grizzly (1966)
• Picture Mommy Dead (1966)
• The House of 1,000 Dolls (1967)
• The Happening (1967)
• Some May Live (1967)
• Catch As Catch Can (1967)
• Crossplot (1969)
• Day of the Wolves (1971)