Hayden's screen debut was in
Hills of Old Wyoming (1937), a
Hopalong Cassidy film. he played Lucky Jenkins, one of a trio of heroes in the Cassidy
Westerns starring
William Boyd. In 1941
Columbia Pictures hired Hayden to appear with its leading cowboy star
Charles Starrett in eight Westerns. After this apprenticeship, Columbia gave Hayden his own series of starring Westerns. In 1946, he joined
Robert L. Lippert's
Screen Guild Productions, and played a country parson in the
harness racing drama
Rolling Home. He played both the main hero and villain in the film
Trail of the Mounties. In 1948 Hayden teamed with another Hopalong Cassidy alumnus,
James Ellison (as "Lucky" and "Shamrock") in a series of Western features for Lippert. In 1950, Hayden appeared as "Marshal #1" in several episodes of the live-broadcast and short-lived
ABC series
The Marshal of Gunsight Pass. In the 1952–1953 season, Hayden teamed with former child star
Jackie Coogan in the 39-episode
syndicated series
Cowboy G-Men. In the late 1950s, Hayden produced and directed through his Quintet Productions two syndicated Western series,
26 Men,
black-and-white program starring
Tristram Coffin, and
Judge Roy Bean, a
color production, with
Edgar Buchanan,
Jack Buetel, and
Jackie Loughery. Hayden also appeared himself as Steve, a
Texas Ranger, in twelve episodes of
Judge Roy Bean, a family-oriented program considered at odds with the real
Roy Bean. Hayden and fellow Western actor
Dick Curtis helped to develop
Pioneertown, a Western movie set near Palm Springs, which has been used in Western films and television episodes. ==Marriages, death, and burial==