Julie Haydon; Actress Achieved Fame in ‘Glass Menagerie’

Julie Haydon, whose poignant portrayal of the crippled Laura in Tennessee Williams “The Glass Menagerie” turned her into a star and the playwright into an enduring literary presence, has died.

The New York Times reported in its Thursday editions that Miss Haydon--who never again achieved the fame showered on her after Laura--was 84. She died Saturday in La Crosse, Wis., of abdominal cancer, said Patricia Angelin, executor of the estate of George Jean Nathan. Miss Haydon had married the drama critic--28 years her senior--in 1955. He died in 1958.

She had been a stage actress since 1927, appearing with Shakespearean companies and other drama troupes around the country. But it was not until “Menagerie” opened in Chicago in 1944 (it moved to Broadway a year later) that Miss Haydon--daughter of the publisher of a country weekly newspaper and his wife, a music critic--attracted shining notices.

Although the play marked the return to the theater of the famous Laurette Taylor, who portrayed Laura’s dominant mother (a character based on Williams’ own mother), Miss Haydon was singled out for her stage presence as the shy, forlorn Laura. Williams said he patterned her character’s personality on his sister’s.

Miss Haydon had made her film debut in 1931 in “The Great Meadow,” been seen in several early film Westerns and supplied Fay Wray’s horrifying scream in “King Kong.” Another featured role had been as the eldest sister in “Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever” in 1939, one of the early Hardy Family pictures.

Her other stage credits, both on and off Broadway, included the prostitute in William Saroyan’s “The Time of Your Life,” Saroyan’s “Sweeney in the Trees,” “Springboard to Nowhere” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

In 1965-66 she toured the country in “Menagerie,” this time as Amanda, the mother always trying to find her handicapped daughter a “gentleman caller.”

Miss Haydon remained delicate looking and fair-haired, with the earthy gentleness that endured her to audiences, well into old age.

After Nathan’s death she continued her stage career, primarily on college campuses and in community theaters. She published two books based on the writings of the legendary critic and author: “George Jean Nathan, Realm of a Critic” and “Profiles of a Critic.”

She also wrote a book, “Every Dog Has Its Day,” and wrote magazine articles on the actors she had worked with over the years, including Laurette Taylor.

More recently she had been actress in residence at the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minn.

A sister, Miriam Donaldson Ziegler, survives.