Gone With the Wind star Olivia de Havilland, who was considered the last surviving actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood, has died aged 104.
Key points:
- Olivia de Havilland first acted in a movie in a 1935 screen version of A Midsummer Night's Dream
- She was nominated alongside her sister Joan Fontaine for an Oscar but lost
- As well as winning awards for performances, she helped weaken powerful studios' ability to control actors
She died of natural causes at her home in Paris, where she had lived for more than 60 years.
De Havilland's acting career included two Academy Awards, a victory over Hollywood's studio system and a long-running feud with sister Joan Fontaine that was worthy of a screenplay.
She first drew attention by playing opposite swashbuckling Errol Flynn in a series of films starting in the 1930s and made an enduring impression as the demure Southern belle Melanie in Gone With the Wind in 1939.
Later she would have to fight to get more challenging roles — a battle that ended up in court but paid off with Oscars for To Each His Own in 1946 and The Heiress in 1949.
De Havilland, a naturalised American who was born to English parents in Japan, had lived in Paris since 1953.
She made few public appearances after retiring but returned to Hollywood in 2003 to take part in the 75th Academy Awards show.
De Havilland began her movie career in a 1935 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In 1939 she starred in Gone With the Wind and earned the first of her five Oscar nominations.
"I felt very drawn to Melanie," de Havilland later said.
"She was a complex personality compared to the heroines I'd been playing over and over."
Gone With the Wind, which also starred Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, won eight Academy Awards, including best picture.
De Havilland made 50 movies in her career and nine were with Flynn, including Captain Blood, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Adventures of Robin Hood and They Died With Their Boots On.
Other memorable roles included playing both a sweet and evil twin in The Dark Mirror in 1946 and a mental patient in The Snake Pit, which earned her an Oscar nomination in 1948.
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Beating powerful studio in court
The prestige of the Oscar nomination and the popularity of Gone With the Wind did not get de Havilland the types of roles she wanted.
In 1943 de Havilland began a legal battle with Warner Bros over the conditions of her contract.
She won in court, weakening the major studios' dominance over actors.
But challenging a powerful studio had been a risky career move and she did not make a movie for three years.
De Havilland made a triumphant return to the screen in 1946 with the Oscar-winning role of an unwed mother in To Each His Own.
Three years later her portrayal of a spinster brought another Academy Award for The Heiress.
Snubbed sister after Oscar win
The Oscars provided fodder and a venue for de Havilland's rivalry with Fontaine, who was one year younger.
Their relationship had been testy since childhood and the acrimony reached a new level in 1942 when the sisters were both Oscar-nominated — de Havilland for Hold Back the Dawn and Fontaine for Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion.
Fontaine was the winner.
Four years later when de Havilland won for To Each His Own, Fontaine extended a congratulatory hand at the ceremony but de Havilland did not acknowledge her.
The sisters stopped speaking altogether in 1975 after their mother died.
When Fontaine died at age 96 in December 2013, de Havilland issued a statement saying she was "shocked and saddened".
ABC/wires
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2020-07-26 18:50:00Z
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