- Feb 5, 2002
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A ROSS HUNTER- CARRALTON PRODUCT | Collection ChristopheL via AFP
No problem was too big — if she believed.
Susan Hayward won her Best Actress Oscar for portraying unjustly accused and executed Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (1958).
She could relate — coming as she did from the same gritty world and possessed of the same volatile temperament, a product of both nurture and nature. But unlike Graham, she was determined to overcome bruising poverty, debilitating handicap, and searing personal problems through hard work, chutzpa, and faith:
No problem seemed too big — if she “believed.” But, as her problems mounted, she drifted from that childhood certitude only to rediscover her faith on the cusp of her Oscar-winning performance — in a clearer and surer way. God was there every step of the way.“As long as you believe,” her father always told her, “an angel sits on your shoulder and protects you.”
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