Born in Johannesburg, Louis Hayward lived in South Africa and was educated in France and England, including Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, London.

[4] The play, described as one of Coward's worst and poorly received critically and popularly, only ran for six weeks and was considered a failure, but Hayward won the Donaldson award, a precursor to the Tonys and as a consequence signed a four-picture contract with MGM.

Hayward's career started to gain momentum when he was cast in the prologue of Warner Bros.' expensive blockbuster Anthony Adverse (1936), playing the father of the title character.

[8] At Universal, he was the male lead in The Luckiest Girl in the World (1936) with Jane Wyatt, then he went to RKO to support Paul Muni and Miriam Hopkins in The Woman I Love (1937).

In 1938 Hayward starred in The Duke of West Point (1938) for producer Edward Small, who signed him to make three films over the next five years, meaning he was unable to reprise his part as the Saint.

However, Small started building Hayward into a star, casting him in a dual role in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) under the direction of James Whale, co-starring with Joan Bennett.

[13] While off-duty in New Zealand, he "went under the name of 'Captain Richards' to avoid the rush of the ladies" as recalled by a waiter at the Green Parrot, a Wellington restaurant.

After Fritz Lang cast him in the lead of House by the River (1950) for Republic Pictures, he did some adventure films for Columbia: Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950) and Dick Turpin's Ride (1951)--whose title for U.S. release was The Lady and the Bandit.

For Allied Artists, he starred in and helped produce Storm Over Africa (1953), then he reprised his role as Simon Templar in The Saint's Return (1954), shot in Britain.

("A Promise to Murder"), TV Reader's Digest ("The Voyage of Captain Tom Jones, Pirate"), Lux Video Theatre ("So Evil My Love", "Suspicion"), The O Henry Playhouse ("Hearts and Hands"), Studio One in Hollywood ("Balance of Terror"), Schlitz Playhouse ("A Contest of Ladies"), The Highwayman, and Decision ("Stand and Deliver").

Hayward's work onstage included Noël Coward's Conversation Piece and, in the early 1960s, the national tour of Camelot in which he appeared as King Arthur.

For his contributions to the motion picture and television industries, Hayward was honored in 1960 with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 and 1680 Vine Street, respectively.

[16][17] Hayward married actress/director Ida Lupino on 17 November 1938 in a quiet civil ceremony held in the historic courthouse in Santa Barbara, California.