Martha Hyer

The Price of Texan Sophistication

Martha Hyer was born in Fort Worth in 1924 and grew up convinced that movies were a vehicle for reaching an aristocratic lifestyle. She had no interest in gritty realism or the raw performances of the New York school. She preferred the perfect frame and haute couture wardrobes.

Her training at Northwestern University and her time at the Pasadena Playhouse gave her the necessary technical tools. But it was her cold, refined image that convinced RKO Pictures to offer her her first professional contract in 1946.

And the strategy of elegance paid off.

In 1954, she played Elizabeth Tyson in Sabrina under the direction of Billy Wilder. That role as the fiancée of Humphrey Bogart put her on the map of major productions. Hyer realized her niche was the upper-class woman, distant and almost unreachable for the average moviegoer.

Her moment of technical glory came in 1958 with Some Came Running. She played a repressed teacher who attracted the interest of Frank Sinatra. That role earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1959, although the award ended up going to Wendy Hiller.

Although she didn't win the statuette, her fee skyrocketed. During this period, she made films such as Paris Blues or Flor de mayo, shot in Mexico. But her life off set was becoming more cinematic than her own scripts.

The Ice Queen and the Golden Producer

In 1966, she married Hal B. Wallis, one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood history. He was the man behind Casablanca and the discoverer of Elvis Presley. The union made Hyer one of the most influential hostesses in California.

They lived in a mansion that looked like a museum. She collected paintings by Impressionist masters and spent more than she earned on Cartier jewelry and exotic furs. That obsession with extreme luxury led her to accumulate millions of dollars in debt over the years.

The money vanished as quickly as the contracts.

During the 1960s, she appeared in The Sons of Katie Elder alongside John Wayne and in the ambitious The Human Jungle of 1966. However, the industry was changing, and her society lady image was starting to look outdated next to the new cinema of the 1970s.

In 1971, she made her last big-screen movie, The Day of the Wolves. From then on, her appearances were limited to occasional guest spots on TV series such as McCloud or Vacaciones en el mar.

The Silent Retreat in Santa Fe

The death of Hal Wallis in 1986 marked the end of her time in the front lines of public life. Hyer faced a devastating financial reality and filed for bankruptcy shortly afterward. She had to sell her properties and much of her art collection to settle outstanding debts.

Because the Hollywood she loved no longer existed.

She decided to move to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in search of complete privacy. There she converted to Catholicism and devoted much of her time to painting and writing her memoirs. In 1990, she published her autobiography, titled Finding My Way, in which she detailed her financial excesses and her spiritual quest.

In her final years, she lived in seclusion, turning down interviews and staying away from any nostalgic industry events. Martha Hyer died of natural causes on May 31, 2014, at the age of 89 at her residence in Santa Fe. Her will specified that she did not want any kind of public funeral service.