James Hayden

play American Buffalo, co-starring with his close friend Al Pacino. At 4:30 AM, he was speaking to his estranged wife, on the telephone, when his voice suddenly ceased. Mrs. Hayden immediately called Hayden's physician, and the physician called the 911 emergency number over to Hayden's Manhattan apartment at 69th Street and Broadway. Police discovered James Hayden slumped over the kitchen sink, telephone still in hand. On the floor of the kitchen, police had found a hypodermic needle and several glassine envelopes believed to contain heroin. He was pronounced dead at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center. Just six hours before his death, he had received a standing ovation for his performance. In 1984, during the making of The Pope of Greenwich Village, Mickey Rourke dedicated his performance to the memory of Hayden.