There are very few remaining stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood and one of those left is Olivia De Havilland. The star of Gone with the Wind, The Heiress, The Adventures of Robin Hood and many other classics, celebrates her 99th birthday today.
De Havilland was born on July 1, 1916 to British parents in Tokyo. Her younger sister, Joan, was born in October 1917 and, two years later, the family began to move back to England. However, they ultimately decided to stay in California.
Both de Havilland and Joan, who would take on the last name “Fontaine” professionally, became stars in Hollywood. De Havilland signed a contract with Warner Bros. and made her debut in 1935’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while Joan went to RKO. The sisters had a professional rivalry and the two outlived all their male co-stars. Joan died in December 2013 at age 96.
Today, de Havilland is best known for the part of Melanie in Gone With The Wind, but to audiences in the ‘30s and ‘40s, she was best known as Errol Flynn’s leading lady. The two made nine films together, including the beloved Technicolor epic The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938. In 1939, the same year she made GWTW, de Havilland starred in Flynn’s first western, the classic Dodge City.
One of de Havilland’s greatest successes didn’t even have to do with her work on screen. She successfully sued Warner Bros. when the studio extended her seven-year contract, even though it was over in 1943. The fight resulted in a law that is still called the “De Havilland Law.”
While de Havilland didn’t beat her sister to an Oscar, she did ultimately win one more than Joan. She won her first for 1946’s To Each His Own, which still isn’t available on DVD for some reason. In 1949, she won again for her performance in William Wyler’s classic The Heiress. If you need some kind of proof of her greatness as an actress, seek that film out.
De Havilland stopped acting regularly in the 1970s and moved to Paris in the 1950s after marrying her second husband. While she doesn’t travel any longer, she did do an email interview with Entertainment Weekly earlier this year.
“Oh, I can’t wait for it,” she said of hitting 100 in 2016. “I’m certainly relishing the idea of living a century. Can you imagine that? What an achievement.”
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