Norah Helene Hayden (September 29, 1930 – August 10, 2013) was an American actress, and as Naura Hayden an author, who worked in entertainment also as Nora Hayden and in modeling as Helene Hayden.

Biography

Hayden was the daughter of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' reporter John Hayden and his wife (née Bussens). An aunt was

Phyllis McGinley Phyllis McGinley (March 21, 1905 – February 22, 1978) was an American author of children's books and poetry. Her poetry was in the style of light verse, specializing in humor, satiric tone and the positive aspects of suburban life. She won a Pu ...

Hayden. She was a long-time resident of New York City. She was noticed as a photo model at age 19 when featured in the December 1949 issue of ''Glamorous Models'' magazine. In 1955, she toured 68 cities to promote Mercury automobiles and attract tourists to the Southeastern United States, and in 1958, columnist Earl Wilson dubbed her his "perfect Wilson girl". That year, under contract to Sidney W. Pink, she joined a Canadian musical cast of ''

Li'l Abner ''Li'l Abner'' was a satirical American comic strip that appeared in multiple newspapers in the United States, Canada, and Europe. It featured a fictional clan of hillbillies living in the impoverished fictional mountain village of Dogpatch, ...

'' and began appearing on television. Her best-known

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

was promoting

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

Color TV in the early 1960s. Hayden appeared in television shows such as ''

77 Sunset Strip ''77 Sunset Strip'' is an American private detective crime drama television series created by Roy Huggins and starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Roger Smith, Richard Long (from 1960 to 1961) and Edd Byrnes (billed as Edward Byrnes). Each epis ...

'' (1958),''

The Real McCoys ''The Real McCoys'' is an American sitcom starring Walter Brennan, Richard Crenna, and Kathleen Nolan. Co-produced by Danny Thomas's Marterto Productions in association with Walter Brennan and Irving Pincus's Westgate Company, it was br ...

'' (1958), and ''

Bonanza ''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running Western, the second-longest-running Western series on ...

'' (1961), and the presentation of the

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

s (1962), where she carried the ''"Miss Emmy" torch'' for host

Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson is a cultural phenomenon and w ...

. She appeared in ''

Gunsmoke ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centered on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central charact ...

'', episode "Lacey" in 1966. She had substantial parts in several motion pictures and authored a number of books, such as ''Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About Energy, But Were Too Weak to Ask'' and her best-seller, ''How to Satisfy a Woman Every Time'' which had sold over a half a million copies by 1992. Her career also included the radio show ''Naura's Good News'' on WMCA (1982), record albums ''And then She Wrote'' (1976) and ''Equal Time'' (1979), appearances as a singer at the

Round Table The Round Table (; ; ; ) is King Arthur's famed table (furniture), table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status, unlike co ...

and managing Manhattan restaurants ''Opera Espresso'' at the Empire Hotel in Manhattan. and ''Our Place''. She starred in the

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

musical ''Be Kind to People Week'' in 1975. Her best-known film appearance is a starring role in the 1959 science-fiction film ''

The Angry Red Planet ''The Angry Red Planet'' (also called ''Invasion of Mars'' and ''Journey to Planet Four'') is a 1959 American science-fiction film directed by Ib Melchior and starring Gerald Mohr. Melchior reportedly had an initial production budget of only $ ...

'', written by Sidney W. Pink and directed by

Ib Melchior Ib Jørgen Melchior (September 17, 1917 – March 14, 2015) was a Danish-American novelist, short-story writer, film producer, film director, and screenwriter of low-budget American science fiction movies, most of them released by American I ...

. Hayden was married (1964) to

restaurateur A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspe ...

John Harrison, (1969–1973) to television executive Gary Stevens and to attorney Theodore Geiser (1975).People
1977-05-30

References

External links

*
Books by Hayden
as listed by

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

Grammophone records
as listed by

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

* includes sources {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayden, Naura American television actresses Female models from California 20th-century American actresses 2013 deaths 1930 births American film actresses Actresses from Los Angeles Writers from Los Angeles American musical theatre actresses 20th-century American writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women