<P> Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich, and starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead and Mary Astor in her final film role . </P> <P> The movie was adapted for the screen by Henry Farrell and Lukas Heller, from Farrell's unpublished short story, "What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?" It received seven Academy Award nominations . </P> <P> In 1927, young Southern belle Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis) and her married lover, John Mayhew (Bruce Dern), plan to elope during a party at the Hollis family's antebellum mansion in Ascension Parish, Louisiana . Charlotte's father confronts John over the affair and intimidates him with the news that John's wife, Jewel, visited the day before and revealed the affair . John pretends he no longer loves Charlotte and tells her they must part . </P> <P> John is then brutally murdered and decapitated in the summerhouse with a cleaver, with one hand severed . Charlotte discovers his body . She returns traumatized to the party in a bloody dress, and most of the guests assume Charlotte is the murderer . </P>

Who played john in hush hush sweet charlotte