Olivia de Havilland
Encyclopedia
Olivia Mary de Havilland (born 1 July 1916) is a British American
film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress
in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine
. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.
. Her father, Walter Augustus de Havilland (31 August 1872 – 20 May 1968, aged 95), was a patent attorney
with a practice in Japan
, and her mother, Lilian Augusta Ruse (11 June 1886 – 20 February 1975, aged 88) was a stage actress who had left her career after going to Tokyo with her husband - she would return to work after her daughters had already won fame in the 40s, with the stage name of Lillian Fontaine. Her parents married in 1914 and they separated in 1919, when Lilian decided to end the marriage after discovering that her husband used the sexual services of geisha girls, but divorce was not signed until February 1925.
Her younger sister is the actress Joan Fontaine
- stage name of Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (born in 22 October 1917). Her paternal cousin is Sir Geoffrey de Havilland
(1882 – 1965), an aircraft designer, notably of the De Havilland Mosquito
, and founder of the aircraft company which bears his name.
When her mother came from Tokyo, Olivia was two years old, and due to health problems of Joan, who had anemia at the time, they had to go to the United States, by medical recommendation. There, they settled in the town of Saratoga
, California
. Joan's health improved after they emigrated.
Although she left the profession as an actress, her mother did not fail to appreciate the arts, as always read Shakespeare for children, taught them impostação diction and voice. In April 1925 the girls "won" a stepfather because her mother remarried, this time with the owner of a department store named George M. Fontaine, a hard man hated by both girls. It was the surname of his stepfather who, years later, Joan "would capture" to use the stage name after her mother refused to allow her to use the de Havilland name. Her sister Olivia, was already a rising star under the family surname. The girls have never had a good relationship. Olivia, 95 and Joan, 94 years of age, have not spoken since the death of their mother in 1975.
Both sisters attended Los Gatos High School
and de Havilland also attended the Notre Dame High School, Belmont. An acting award at Los Gatos is named after her. She participated in school drama club, and in 1933 made her debut in amateur theater, in the lead role in Alice in Wonderland, a production of the Saratoga Community Players based on the work of Lewis Carroll
. Her talent for art was beginning to be noticed from there.
in A Midsummer Night's Dream
, her first stage production, at the Hollywood Bowl
. The stage production was later turned into a 1935 movie
, her film debut. Although the stage cast was largely replaced with Warner Bros.
contract players, she was hired to reprise her role as Hermia. After appearing with Joe E. Brown
in Alibi Ike
and James Cagney
in The Irish in Us, she played opposite Errol Flynn
in such highly popular films as Captain Blood, The Charge of the Light Brigade
(1936), and as Maid Marian
to Flynn's Robin Hood
in The Adventures of Robin Hood
(1938). Overall, she starred opposite Flynn in eight films.
Allegedly, Joan Fontaine, de Havilland's sister, was approached by George Cukor to audition for Gone with the Wind
. He had just directed her in No More Ladies
. She was excited until she learned he wanted her for the part of Melanie and not Scarlett. She reportedly turned him down flatly by saying, “Why don’t you ask my sister!” Olivia de Havilland went on to play Melanie Hamilton Wilkes
in Gone with the Wind (1939) and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
for her performance.
In 1941, de Havilland became a naturalized citizen of the United States
.
De Havilland was becoming increasingly frustrated by the roles assigned to her. She felt she had proven herself capable of playing more than the demure ingénues and damsels in distress that were quickly typecasting
her, and began to reject scripts that offered her this type of role. When her Warner Bros. contract expired, the studio informed her that six months had been added to it for times she had been on suspension; the law then allowed for studios to suspend contract players for rejecting a role and the period of suspension to be added to the contract period. In theory, this allowed a studio to maintain indefinite control over an uncooperative contractee.
Most accepted this situation, while a few tried to change the system. Bette Davis
had mounted an unsuccessful lawsuit against Warner Bros.
in the 1930s. De Havilland mounted a lawsuit in the 1940s, supported by the Screen Actors Guild
and was successful, thereby reducing the power of the studios and extending greater creative freedom to the performers. The decision was one of the most significant and far-reaching legal rulings in Hollywood. Her victory won her the respect and admiration of her peers, among them her own sister Joan Fontaine
who later commented, "Hollywood owes Olivia a great deal". The studio, however, vowed never to hire her again. The California Court of Appeal's ruling came to be informally known, and is still known to this day, as the De Havilland Law
. The ruling interpreted the already existing California Labor Code Section 2855. That code section imposes a 7-year limit on contracts for service unless the employee agrees to an extension beyond that term.
Following the release of Devotion, a Hollywood biography of the Brontë sisters
filmed in 1943 but withheld from release during the suspension and litigation, de Havilland signed a three picture deal with Paramount Pictures
. The quality and variety of her roles began to improve. James Agee
, in his review for The Dark Mirror (1946), noted the change, and stated that although she had always been "one of the prettiest women in movies", her recent performances had proven her acting ability. He commented that she did not possess "any remarkable talent, but her playing is thoughtful, quiet, detailed, and well sustained, and since it is founded, as some more talented playing is not, in an unusually healthful-seeming and likable temperament, it is an undivided pleasure to see." She won Best Actress Academy Awards for To Each His Own
(1946) and The Heiress
(1949), and was also widely praised for her Academy Award–nominated performance in The Snake Pit
(1948). This was one of the earliest films to attempt a realistic portrayal of mental illness
, an 'historically important Hollywood exposé of the grim conditions in state mental hospitals' and de Havilland was lauded for her willingness to play a role that was completely devoid of glamor and that confronted such controversial subject matter. She won the New York Film Critics Award
for both The Snake Pit and The Heiress.
During this era, de Haviland was also notable as a staunch anti-communist. In 1946 she provoked a highly-publicized row: concerned about reports of Stalinist atrocities, de Havilland removed pro-Communist material from speeches prepared for her by the Independent Citizens' Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions, a group later identified as a communist front organization.
De Havilland appeared sporadically in films after the 1950s and attributed this partly to the growing permissiveness of Hollywood films of the period. She declined the role of Blanche DuBois
in A Streetcar Named Desire, allegedly citing the unsavory nature of some elements of the script and saying there were certain lines she could not allow herself to speak. De Havilland denied this in a 2006 interview, saying she had recently given birth to her son when offered the role, which had been a life altering experience, and was unable to relate to the material. The role went to her Gone with the Wind co-star, Vivien Leigh
, who won her second Academy Award
for her role.
Of her few film appearances in the 1960s chiefly notable are Lady in a Cage
(1964), as a crippled widow trapped in a lift and terrorised by intruders, Robert Aldrich
's Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, and Sam Peckinpah
's TV film of Katherine Anne Porter
's novella Noon Wine
(1966). In 1965, she was the first woman to preside over a Cannes
jury. De Havilland continued acting on film until the late 1970s, afterward continuing her career on television until the late 1980s, highlighted by her winning a Golden Globe and earning a Emmy Award
nomination for her performance as the Dowager Empress Maria in the 1986 miniseries Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna
.
In 2008, de Havilland was awarded the United States National Medal of Arts
.
were known as one of Hollywood's most exciting on-screen couples, appearing in eight films together, but contrary to salacious rumours, were never linked romantically. The eight films in which they co-starred are Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade
(1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood
and Four's a Crowd
(1938), Dodge City and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
(1939), Santa Fe Trail
(1940) and They Died with Their Boots On
(1941).
De Havilland stated, "He never guessed I had a crush on him. And it didn't get better either. In fact, I read in something that he wrote that he was in love with me when we made The Charge of the Light Brigade the next year, in 1936. I was amazed to read that, for it never occurred to me that he was smitten with me, too, even though we did all those pictures together." However, in an interview cited on Turner Classic Movies de Havilland claims she knew the crush was reciprocal and further states that Flynn proposed, though de Havilland turned down the proposal as Flynn was at the time still married to actress Lili Damita
.
d in 1953. Their son, Benjamin (born in 1949) became a mathematician and died in 1991 after a long battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma
. She was married to French journalist and Paris Match
editor Pierre Galante between 1955 until 1979. Their daughter, Giselle (Gisèle in French), who later became a journalist, was born in July 1956 when de Havilland was 40. After the divorce, de Havilland and Galante remained on good terms, and she nursed him through his final illness (lung cancer) in Paris, which was the stated reason for her absence from the 70th anniversary of the Oscars in 1998.
with whom she starred in Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
(1964), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
(1939), It's Love I'm After
(1937), and In This Our Life
(1942). She remained a close friend of actress Gloria Stuart
until Stuart's death in 2010, at the age of 100. In April 2008, she attended the Los Angeles funeral of Charlton Heston
. In 2008, she was a surprise guest at the Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis.
records that the sisters have always had an uneasy relationship, starting in early childhood when de Havilland would rip up the clothes Fontaine had to wear as hand-me-downs, forcing Fontaine to sew them back together. A large part of the resentment between the sisters allegedly stemmed from Fontaine's perception that de Havilland was their mother's favorite child.
Both de Havilland and Fontaine were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
in 1942. Fontaine won that year for her role in Alfred Hitchcock
's Suspicion
over de Havilland's performance in Hold Back the Dawn
. Charles Higham states that Fontaine "felt guilty about winning given her lack of obsessive career drive...". Higham has described the events of the awards ceremony, stating that as Fontaine stepped forward to collect her award, she pointedly rejected de Havilland's attempts at congratulating her and that de Havilland was both offended and embarrassed by her behavior. Several years later, de Havilland remembered the slight and exacted her own revenge by brushing past Fontaine, who was waiting with her hand extended, because de Havilland allegedly took offense at a comment Fontaine had made about de Havilland's husband. De Havilland's relationship with Fontaine continued to deteriorate after the two incidents. Charles Higham has stated that this was the near final straw for what became a lifelong feud, but the sisters did not completely stop speaking to each other until 1975. According to Fontaine, de Havilland did not invite her to a memorial service for their mother, who had recently died. De Havilland claims she informed Fontaine, but Fontaine brushed her off, claiming she was too busy to attend.
Charles Higham records that Fontaine has an estranged relationship with her own daughters as well, possibly because she discovered that they were secretly maintaining a relationship with de Havilland. Both sisters have refused to comment publicly about their feud and dysfunctional family
relationships, though in an interview with John Kobal, Fontaine stated categorically that the so-called rivalry was a pure hoax, cooked up by the studio publicity hounds.
In a 1979 interview, Fontaine says the reason she stopped speaking with her sister was because Olivia wanted their mother (who was suffering from cancer) operated on at the age of 88. Joan also says that when their mother died, Olivia didn't even bother to phone to find out where she could be reached (Fontaine was on tour). Instead, Olivia sent a telegram, but it was mailed to Joan two weeks later at her next stop.
She appeared as a presenter at the 75th Annual Academy Awards in 2003, earning a minute-long standing ovation on her entrance. In June 2006, she made appearances at tributes for her 90th birthday at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Los Angeles County Art Museum.
In 2004, Turner Classic Movies
put together a retrospective piece called Melanie Remembers in which de Havilland was interviewed for the 65th anniversary of Gone with the Wind
s original release. The film's last surviving principal cast member, de Havilland remembered every detail of her casting as well as filming. The 40-minute documentary
can be seen on the Gone with the Wind four-disc special collector's edition.
Four of de Havilland's Gone with the Wind co-stars are alive as of August 2011: Alicia Rhett
(born February 1, 1916), who played Ashley Wilkes' sister India Wilkes, is the oldest surviving cast member. Also surviving are Mary Anderson (film actress) (born April 3, 1920), who played Maybelle Meriweather, and Ann Rutherford
(born November 2, 1920), who played Scarlett O'Hara's younger sister, Carreen O'Hara and Mickey Kuhn (born September 21, 1932) who played Beau Wilkes.
On November 17, 2008, at the age of 92, de Havilland received the National Medal for the Arts.
De Havilland narrated the 2009 documentary, I Remember Better When I Paint
. The film is about the importance of art in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. On March 22, 2011, she presented the film at a special screening in Paris.
On September 9, 2010, at the age of 94, Olivia de Havilland was appointed a Chevalier
of the Légion d'honneur
, a decoration awarded by the President of the French Republic
.
In February 2011, Olivia de Havilland appeared in France at the César Award
. The president of the ceremony, Jodie Foster
, introduced her and de Havilland received a standing ovation.
British American
British Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom . The term is seldom used by people to refer to themselves and is used primarily as a demographic or historical research term...
film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.
Early life
Olivia de Havilland was born in Tokyo, Japan, to parents from the United KingdomUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. Her father, Walter Augustus de Havilland (31 August 1872 – 20 May 1968, aged 95), was a patent attorney
Patent attorney
A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing an opposition...
with a practice in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and her mother, Lilian Augusta Ruse (11 June 1886 – 20 February 1975, aged 88) was a stage actress who had left her career after going to Tokyo with her husband - she would return to work after her daughters had already won fame in the 40s, with the stage name of Lillian Fontaine. Her parents married in 1914 and they separated in 1919, when Lilian decided to end the marriage after discovering that her husband used the sexual services of geisha girls, but divorce was not signed until February 1925.
Her younger sister is the actress Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
- stage name of Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (born in 22 October 1917). Her paternal cousin is Sir Geoffrey de Havilland
Geoffrey de Havilland
Captain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, OM, CBE, AFC, RDI, FRAeS, was a British aviation pioneer and aircraft engineer...
(1882 – 1965), an aircraft designer, notably of the De Havilland Mosquito
De Havilland Mosquito
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito was a British multi-role combat aircraft that served during the Second World War and the postwar era. It was known affectionately as the "Mossie" to its crews and was also nicknamed "The Wooden Wonder"...
, and founder of the aircraft company which bears his name.
When her mother came from Tokyo, Olivia was two years old, and due to health problems of Joan, who had anemia at the time, they had to go to the United States, by medical recommendation. There, they settled in the town of Saratoga
Saratoga
-United States::*Saratoga, California, city in Santa Clara County*Saratoga, former name of Yeomet, California*Saratoga, Indiana, town in Randolph County*Saratoga, Minnesota*Saratoga, Nebraska Territory, boom and bust town now inside of Omaha, Nebraska...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Joan's health improved after they emigrated.
Although she left the profession as an actress, her mother did not fail to appreciate the arts, as always read Shakespeare for children, taught them impostação diction and voice. In April 1925 the girls "won" a stepfather because her mother remarried, this time with the owner of a department store named George M. Fontaine, a hard man hated by both girls. It was the surname of his stepfather who, years later, Joan "would capture" to use the stage name after her mother refused to allow her to use the de Havilland name. Her sister Olivia, was already a rising star under the family surname. The girls have never had a good relationship. Olivia, 95 and Joan, 94 years of age, have not spoken since the death of their mother in 1975.
Both sisters attended Los Gatos High School
Los Gatos High School
Los Gatos High School is a high school in Los Gatos, California, a small town near San Jose in the Silicon Valley. Los Gatos High School was founded in 1908 and is part of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District...
and de Havilland also attended the Notre Dame High School, Belmont. An acting award at Los Gatos is named after her. She participated in school drama club, and in 1933 made her debut in amateur theater, in the lead role in Alice in Wonderland, a production of the Saratoga Community Players based on the work of Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
. Her talent for art was beginning to be noticed from there.
Career
De Havilland appeared as HermiaHermia
Hermia is a science park near Tampere University of Technology . Hermia is located in Hervanta, a suburb of Tampere, Finland. Hermia is also acting as a technology centre for its region....
in A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
, her first stage production, at the Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
. The stage production was later turned into a 1935 movie
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935 film)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1935 film directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, produced by Henry Blanke and Hal Wallis, and adapted by Charles Kenyon and Mary C. McCall Jr...
, her film debut. Although the stage cast was largely replaced with Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
contract players, she was hired to reprise her role as Hermia. After appearing with Joe E. Brown
Joe E. Brown (comedian)
Joseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous smile. In 1902 at the age of nine, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville...
in Alibi Ike
Alibi Ike
Alibi Ike is a short story written by Ring Lardner and first published in the Saturday Evening Post on July 31, 1915. The story is about Frank X. Farrell, a baseball player who continually makes excuses for everything that goes wrong or right...
and James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
in The Irish in Us, she played opposite Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
in such highly popular films as Captain Blood, The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936 film)
The Charge of the Light Brigade is a 1936 historical film made by Warner Bros. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Samuel Bischoff, with Hal B. Wallis as executive producer, from a screenplay by Michael Jacoby and Rowland Leigh, from a story by Michael Jacoby based on the poem The...
(1936), and as Maid Marian
Maid Marian
Maid Marian is the wife of the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. Stemming from another, older tradition, she became associated with Robin Hood only in the 16th century.-History:The earliest medieval Robin Hood stories gave him no female companion...
to Flynn's Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
in The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood (film)
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American swashbuckler film directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. Filmed in Technicolor, the picture stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Rains.-Plot:...
(1938). Overall, she starred opposite Flynn in eight films.
Allegedly, Joan Fontaine, de Havilland's sister, was approached by George Cukor to audition for Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
. He had just directed her in No More Ladies
No More Ladies
No More Ladies is a 1935 film starring Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, and Franchot Tone, directed by Edward H. Griffith and George Cukor. It is based on a play by A.E. Thomas...
. She was excited until she learned he wanted her for the part of Melanie and not Scarlett. She reportedly turned him down flatly by saying, “Why don’t you ask my sister!” Olivia de Havilland went on to play Melanie Hamilton Wilkes
Melanie Wilkes
Melanie Hamilton Wilkes is a fictional character first appearing in the novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. In the 1939 film she was portrayed by Olivia de Havilland...
in Gone with the Wind (1939) and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
for her performance.
In 1941, de Havilland became a naturalized citizen of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
De Havilland was becoming increasingly frustrated by the roles assigned to her. She felt she had proven herself capable of playing more than the demure ingénues and damsels in distress that were quickly typecasting
Typecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
her, and began to reject scripts that offered her this type of role. When her Warner Bros. contract expired, the studio informed her that six months had been added to it for times she had been on suspension; the law then allowed for studios to suspend contract players for rejecting a role and the period of suspension to be added to the contract period. In theory, this allowed a studio to maintain indefinite control over an uncooperative contractee.
Most accepted this situation, while a few tried to change the system. Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
had mounted an unsuccessful lawsuit against Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
in the 1930s. De Havilland mounted a lawsuit in the 1940s, supported by the Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
and was successful, thereby reducing the power of the studios and extending greater creative freedom to the performers. The decision was one of the most significant and far-reaching legal rulings in Hollywood. Her victory won her the respect and admiration of her peers, among them her own sister Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
who later commented, "Hollywood owes Olivia a great deal". The studio, however, vowed never to hire her again. The California Court of Appeal's ruling came to be informally known, and is still known to this day, as the De Havilland Law
De Havilland Law
The De Havilland Law is the informal name of California Labor Code Section 2855, a California law which prevents a court from enforcing specific performance of an exclusive personal services contract beyond the term of seven calendar years from the commencement of service.The section was first...
. The ruling interpreted the already existing California Labor Code Section 2855. That code section imposes a 7-year limit on contracts for service unless the employee agrees to an extension beyond that term.
Following the release of Devotion, a Hollywood biography of the Brontë sisters
Brontë
The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family associated with Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte , Emily , and Anne , are well-known as poets and novelists...
filmed in 1943 but withheld from release during the suspension and litigation, de Havilland signed a three picture deal with Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
. The quality and variety of her roles began to improve. James Agee
James Agee
James Rufus Agee was an American author, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, he was one of the most influential film critics in the U.S...
, in his review for The Dark Mirror (1946), noted the change, and stated that although she had always been "one of the prettiest women in movies", her recent performances had proven her acting ability. He commented that she did not possess "any remarkable talent, but her playing is thoughtful, quiet, detailed, and well sustained, and since it is founded, as some more talented playing is not, in an unusually healthful-seeming and likable temperament, it is an undivided pleasure to see." She won Best Actress Academy Awards for To Each His Own
To Each His Own (film)
To Each His Own is a 1946 American drama film. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen, and stars Olivia de Havilland, Mary Anderson, Roland Culver, and John Lund in his first on-screen appearance, where he played dual roles as father and son. The screenplay was written by Charles Brackett and Jacques...
(1946) and The Heiress
The Heiress
The Heiress is a 1949 American drama film. It was written by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, adapted from their 1947 play of the same title that was based on the 1880 novel Washington Square by Henry James. The film was directed by William Wyler, with starring performances by Olivia de Havilland as...
(1949), and was also widely praised for her Academy Award–nominated performance in The Snake Pit
The Snake Pit
The Snake Pit is a 1948 American drama film directed by Anatole Litvak. The film tells the story of a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum and cannot remember how she got there, and stars Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Beulah Bondi, and Lee Patrick.The film was...
(1948). This was one of the earliest films to attempt a realistic portrayal of mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
, an 'historically important Hollywood exposé of the grim conditions in state mental hospitals' and de Havilland was lauded for her willingness to play a role that was completely devoid of glamor and that confronted such controversial subject matter. She won the New York Film Critics Award
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
New York Film Critics' Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. It is considered one of the most important precursors to the Academy Awards....
for both The Snake Pit and The Heiress.
During this era, de Haviland was also notable as a staunch anti-communist. In 1946 she provoked a highly-publicized row: concerned about reports of Stalinist atrocities, de Havilland removed pro-Communist material from speeches prepared for her by the Independent Citizens' Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions, a group later identified as a communist front organization.
De Havilland appeared sporadically in films after the 1950s and attributed this partly to the growing permissiveness of Hollywood films of the period. She declined the role of Blanche DuBois
Blanche DuBois
Blanche DuBois is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire...
in A Streetcar Named Desire, allegedly citing the unsavory nature of some elements of the script and saying there were certain lines she could not allow herself to speak. De Havilland denied this in a 2006 interview, saying she had recently given birth to her son when offered the role, which had been a life altering experience, and was unable to relate to the material. The role went to her Gone with the Wind co-star, Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...
, who won her second Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for her role.
Of her few film appearances in the 1960s chiefly notable are Lady in a Cage
Lady in a Cage
Lady in a Cage is a 1964 American film directed by Walter Grauman, written and produced by Luther Davis, and released by Paramount Pictures. It stars Olivia de Havilland and features James Caan in his first substantial film role.-Plot:...
(1964), as a crippled widow trapped in a lift and terrorised by intruders, Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich was an American film director, writer and producer, notable for such films as Kiss Me Deadly , The Big Knife , What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte , The Flight of the Phoenix , The Dirty Dozen , and The Longest Yard .-Biography:Robert...
's Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, and Sam Peckinpah
Sam Peckinpah
David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...
's TV film of Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her short stories received much more critical acclaim...
's novella Noon Wine
Noon Wine
Noon Wine is a 1937 short novel written by American author Katherine Anne Porter. It was published in 1939 as part of Pale Horse, Pale Rider , a collection of three short novels by the author, including the title story and "Old Mortality." A dark tragedy about a farmer's futile act of homicide that...
(1966). In 1965, she was the first woman to preside over a Cannes
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
jury. De Havilland continued acting on film until the late 1970s, afterward continuing her career on television until the late 1980s, highlighted by her winning a Golden Globe and earning a Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nomination for her performance as the Dowager Empress Maria in the 1986 miniseries Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna
Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna
Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna is a 1986 TV movie, starring Amy Irving, Olivia de Havilland and Jan Niklas. The film was loosely based on the story of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia and the novel The Riddle of Anna Anderson by Peter Kurth. It was Christian Bale's first film and Rex...
.
In 2008, de Havilland was awarded the United States National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...
.
Relationships
De Havilland and Errol FlynnErrol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
were known as one of Hollywood's most exciting on-screen couples, appearing in eight films together, but contrary to salacious rumours, were never linked romantically. The eight films in which they co-starred are Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936 film)
The Charge of the Light Brigade is a 1936 historical film made by Warner Bros. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Samuel Bischoff, with Hal B. Wallis as executive producer, from a screenplay by Michael Jacoby and Rowland Leigh, from a story by Michael Jacoby based on the poem The...
(1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood (film)
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American swashbuckler film directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. Filmed in Technicolor, the picture stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Rains.-Plot:...
and Four's a Crowd
Four's a Crowd
Four's a Crowd is a romantic comedy directed by Michael Curtiz and released by Warner Brothers.-Cast:* Errol Flynn .... Robert Kensington 'Bob' Lansford* Olivia de Havilland.... Lorri Dillingwell* Rosalind Russell .... Jean Christy...
(1938), Dodge City and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 historical romantic drama film. It is based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...
(1939), Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...
(1940) and They Died with Their Boots On
They Died with Their Boots On
They Died with Their Boots On is a 1941 western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Despite being rife with historical inaccuracies, the film was one of the top-grossing films of the year, being the last of eight Flynn–de Havilland collaborations.Like...
(1941).
De Havilland stated, "He never guessed I had a crush on him. And it didn't get better either. In fact, I read in something that he wrote that he was in love with me when we made The Charge of the Light Brigade the next year, in 1936. I was amazed to read that, for it never occurred to me that he was smitten with me, too, even though we did all those pictures together." However, in an interview cited on Turner Classic Movies de Havilland claims she knew the crush was reciprocal and further states that Flynn proposed, though de Havilland turned down the proposal as Flynn was at the time still married to actress Lili Damita
Lili Damita
Lili Damita was a French actress who appeared in 33 movies between 1922 and 1937.-Early life and education:...
.
Marriages
De Havilland married novelist Marcus Goodrich in 1946 and they divorceDivorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d in 1953. Their son, Benjamin (born in 1949) became a mathematician and died in 1991 after a long battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma
Hodgkin's lymphoma
Hodgkin's lymphoma, previously known as Hodgkin's disease, is a type of lymphoma, which is a cancer originating from white blood cells called lymphocytes...
. She was married to French journalist and Paris Match
Paris Match
Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. It was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost....
editor Pierre Galante between 1955 until 1979. Their daughter, Giselle (Gisèle in French), who later became a journalist, was born in July 1956 when de Havilland was 40. After the divorce, de Havilland and Galante remained on good terms, and she nursed him through his final illness (lung cancer) in Paris, which was the stated reason for her absence from the 70th anniversary of the Oscars in 1998.
Later years
De Havilland was good friends with Bette DavisBette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
with whom she starred in Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a 1964 American thriller film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich, and starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, and Agnes Moorehead....
(1964), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 historical romantic drama film. It is based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...
(1939), It's Love I'm After
It's Love I'm After
It's Love I'm After is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Archie Mayo. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the story Gentlemen After Midnight by Maurice Hanline...
(1937), and In This Our Life
In This Our Life
In This Our Life is a 1942 American drama film, the second to be directed by John Huston. The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Ellen Glasgow. The cast included the established stars Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as sisters and...
(1942). She remained a close friend of actress Gloria Stuart
Gloria Stuart
Gloria Frances Stuart was an American actress, activist, painter, bonsai artist and fine printer. Over a Hollywood career which spanned, with a long break in the middle, from 1932 until 2004, she appeared on stage, television, and film, for which she was best-known...
until Stuart's death in 2010, at the age of 100. In April 2008, she attended the Los Angeles funeral of Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
. In 2008, she was a surprise guest at the Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis.
Sibling rivalry
Of the two sisters, de Havilland was the first to become an actress; when Fontaine tried to follow her lead, their mother, who allegedly favored de Havilland, refused to let her use the family name. Subsequently, Fontaine was forced to invent a name, taking first Joan Burfield, and later Joan Fontaine. Biographer Charles HighamCharles Higham (biographer)
Charles Higham is an author, editor and poet. Higham is a recipient of the Prix des Créateurs of the Académie Française and the Poetry Society of London Prize.-Biography:...
records that the sisters have always had an uneasy relationship, starting in early childhood when de Havilland would rip up the clothes Fontaine had to wear as hand-me-downs, forcing Fontaine to sew them back together. A large part of the resentment between the sisters allegedly stemmed from Fontaine's perception that de Havilland was their mother's favorite child.
Both de Havilland and Fontaine were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
in 1942. Fontaine won that year for her role in Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's Suspicion
Suspicion (film)
Suspicion is a romantic psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as a married couple. It also stars Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Isabel Jeans, Heather Angel, and Leo G...
over de Havilland's performance in Hold Back the Dawn
Hold Back the Dawn
Hold Back the Dawn is a 1941 romantic film in which a Romanian gigolo marries an American woman in Mexico in order to gain entry to the United States, but winds up falling in love with her...
. Charles Higham states that Fontaine "felt guilty about winning given her lack of obsessive career drive...". Higham has described the events of the awards ceremony, stating that as Fontaine stepped forward to collect her award, she pointedly rejected de Havilland's attempts at congratulating her and that de Havilland was both offended and embarrassed by her behavior. Several years later, de Havilland remembered the slight and exacted her own revenge by brushing past Fontaine, who was waiting with her hand extended, because de Havilland allegedly took offense at a comment Fontaine had made about de Havilland's husband. De Havilland's relationship with Fontaine continued to deteriorate after the two incidents. Charles Higham has stated that this was the near final straw for what became a lifelong feud, but the sisters did not completely stop speaking to each other until 1975. According to Fontaine, de Havilland did not invite her to a memorial service for their mother, who had recently died. De Havilland claims she informed Fontaine, but Fontaine brushed her off, claiming she was too busy to attend.
Charles Higham records that Fontaine has an estranged relationship with her own daughters as well, possibly because she discovered that they were secretly maintaining a relationship with de Havilland. Both sisters have refused to comment publicly about their feud and dysfunctional family
Dysfunctional family
A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is...
relationships, though in an interview with John Kobal, Fontaine stated categorically that the so-called rivalry was a pure hoax, cooked up by the studio publicity hounds.
In a 1979 interview, Fontaine says the reason she stopped speaking with her sister was because Olivia wanted their mother (who was suffering from cancer) operated on at the age of 88. Joan also says that when their mother died, Olivia didn't even bother to phone to find out where she could be reached (Fontaine was on tour). Instead, Olivia sent a telegram, but it was mailed to Joan two weeks later at her next stop.
De Havilland today
A resident of Paris since the 1950s, de Havilland rarely makes public appearances. According to John Lichfield in a 14 July 2009 interview published in the Independent, she was working on an autobiography and had hoped to have a first draft by September 2009. The book has not yet appeared.She appeared as a presenter at the 75th Annual Academy Awards in 2003, earning a minute-long standing ovation on her entrance. In June 2006, she made appearances at tributes for her 90th birthday at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Los Angeles County Art Museum.
In 2004, Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
put together a retrospective piece called Melanie Remembers in which de Havilland was interviewed for the 65th anniversary of Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
s original release. The film's last surviving principal cast member, de Havilland remembered every detail of her casting as well as filming. The 40-minute documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
can be seen on the Gone with the Wind four-disc special collector's edition.
Four of de Havilland's Gone with the Wind co-stars are alive as of August 2011: Alicia Rhett
Alicia Rhett
Alicia Rhett is an American portrait painter and actress who is best remembered for her role as India Wilkes in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind. She is the oldest surviving cast member of the movie...
(born February 1, 1916), who played Ashley Wilkes' sister India Wilkes, is the oldest surviving cast member. Also surviving are Mary Anderson (film actress) (born April 3, 1920), who played Maybelle Meriweather, and Ann Rutherford
Ann Rutherford
Ann Rutherford is a Canadian-American actress in film, radio, and television. She has had a long career starring and co-starring in films, playing Polly Benedict on the big screen of the 1930s and 1940s in the Andy Hardy series, and on The Bob Newhart Show as Newhart's character's...
(born November 2, 1920), who played Scarlett O'Hara's younger sister, Carreen O'Hara and Mickey Kuhn (born September 21, 1932) who played Beau Wilkes.
On November 17, 2008, at the age of 92, de Havilland received the National Medal for the Arts.
De Havilland narrated the 2009 documentary, I Remember Better When I Paint
I Remember Better When I Paint
I Remember Better When I Paint is a 2009 feature length international documentary film about the positive impact of art and other creative therapies in people with Alzheimer's disease and how these approaches can change the way the disease is viewed by society...
. The film is about the importance of art in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. On March 22, 2011, she presented the film at a special screening in Paris.
On September 9, 2010, at the age of 94, Olivia de Havilland was appointed a Chevalier
Chevalier
Chevalier is a class of membership in a French Order of Chivalry or order of merit.* a member of the Ordre National du Mérite* a rank in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres* a rank in the Legion d'honneur* a member of the Order of Palmes académiques...
of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
, a decoration awarded by the President of the French Republic
President of the French Republic
The President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State....
.
In February 2011, Olivia de Havilland appeared in France at the César Award
César Award
The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
. The president of the ceremony, Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
, introduced her and de Havilland received a standing ovation.
Memoirs
In 1960, de Havilland published her first memoir called Every Frenchmen Has One. Her second memoir Now Is the Time is awaiting publication.Features
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 | Alibi Ike Alibi Ike Alibi Ike is a short story written by Ring Lardner and first published in the Saturday Evening Post on July 31, 1915. The story is about Frank X. Farrell, a baseball player who continually makes excuses for everything that goes wrong or right... |
Dolly Stevens | |
| 1935 | Lucille Jackson | ||
| 1935 | Hermia, in Love with Lysander Hermia Hermia is a science park near Tampere University of Technology . Hermia is located in Hervanta, a suburb of Tampere, Finland. Hermia is also acting as a technology centre for its region.... |
as Olivia de Haviland (film debut) | |
| 1935 | Captain Blood | Arabella Bishop | |
| 1936 | Anthony Adverse Anthony Adverse Anthony Adverse is a 1936 American drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay by Sheridan Gibney is based on the sprawling 1,224-page novel of the same title by Hervey Allen.-Plot:... |
Angela Giuseppe | |
| 1936 | Elsa Campbell | as Olivia De Havilland | |
| 1937 | Call It a Day | Catherine 'Cath' Hilton | |
| 1937 | It's Love I'm After It's Love I'm After It's Love I'm After is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Archie Mayo. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the story Gentlemen After Midnight by Maurice Hanline... |
Marcia West | |
| 1937 | Germaine de la Corbe | ||
| 1938 | Gold Is Where You Find It Gold Is Where You Find It "Gold is Where You Find It" is a Technicolor feature film, released on February 12, 1938 by Warner Brothers. It has a running time of 91 minutes.-Cast & Credits:* Director: Michael Curtiz* Producers: Jack L. Warner, Hal B... |
Serena 'Sprat' Ferris | |
| 1938 | Lady Marian Fitzwalter Maid Marian Maid Marian is the wife of the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. Stemming from another, older tradition, she became associated with Robin Hood only in the 16th century.-History:The earliest medieval Robin Hood stories gave him no female companion... |
||
| 1938 | Four's a Crowd Four's a Crowd Four's a Crowd is a romantic comedy directed by Michael Curtiz and released by Warner Brothers.-Cast:* Errol Flynn .... Robert Kensington 'Bob' Lansford* Olivia de Havilland.... Lorri Dillingwell* Rosalind Russell .... Jean Christy... |
Lorri Dillingwell | |
| 1938 | Hard to Get | Margaret Richards | as Olivia De Havilland |
| 1939 | Wings of the Navy Wings Of The Navy (film) Wings of the Navy is a 1939 Warner Bros. drama directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring Olivia de Havilland and John Payne. Like many of the Warner Bros. features in the pre-World War II era, it was intended to serve as propaganda for the U.S... |
Irene Dale | |
| 1939 | Dodge City Dodge City (1939 film) Dodge City is a 1939 American Western film starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Bruce Cabot. Directed by Hungarian-turned-Hollywood filmmaker Michael Curtiz and based on a story by Robert Buckner, it was filmed in early Technicolor... |
Abbie Irving | |
| 1939 | Lady Penelope Gray | ||
| 1939 | Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind (film) Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard... |
Melanie Hamilton Wilkes Melanie Wilkes Melanie Hamilton Wilkes is a fictional character first appearing in the novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. In the 1939 film she was portrayed by Olivia de Havilland... |
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the... |
| 1939 | Raffles Raffles (1939 film) Raffles is a 1939 film starring David Niven and Olivia de Havilland. It is one of several film adaptations of an 1899 novel by E. W. Hornung, Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman. Sidney Howard wrote the screenplay for the 1930 version, died in 1939, and was given credit as co-author of the screenplay... |
Gwen Manders | |
| 1940 | My Love Came Back | Amelia Cornell | |
| 1940 | Santa Fe Trail Santa Fe Trail (film) Santa Fe Trail is a 1940 western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The film was one of the top-grossing films of the year, being the seventh Flynn-de Havilland collaboration. The film also has nothing to do with its namesake, the famed Santa Fe Trail... |
Kit Carson Holliday | |
| 1941 | Amy Lind Grimes | ||
| 1941 | Hold Back the Dawn Hold Back the Dawn Hold Back the Dawn is a 1941 romantic film in which a Romanian gigolo marries an American woman in Mexico in order to gain entry to the United States, but winds up falling in love with her... |
Emmy Brown | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
| 1941 | They Died with Their Boots On They Died with Their Boots On They Died with Their Boots On is a 1941 western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Despite being rife with historical inaccuracies, the film was one of the top-grossing films of the year, being the last of eight Flynn–de Havilland collaborations.Like... |
Elizabeth Bacon Custer Elizabeth Bacon Custer Elizabeth Bacon Custer was the wife of General George Armstrong Custer. After his death, she became an outspoken advocate for her husband's legacy through her popular books and lectures... |
|
| 1942 | Ellen Turner | ||
| 1942 | In This Our Life In This Our Life In This Our Life is a 1942 American drama film, the second to be directed by John Huston. The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Ellen Glasgow. The cast included the established stars Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as sisters and... |
Roy Timberlake | |
| 1943 | Thank Your Lucky Stars Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943 film) Thank Your Lucky Stars is a film made by Warner Brothers as a World War II fundraiser. It was directed by David Butler and starred Eddie Cantor, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Edward Everett Horton and S. Z... |
Herself | |
| 1943 | Princess O'Rourke Princess O'Rourke Princess O'Rourke is a 1943 romantic comedy film. It was directed and written by Norman Krasna and starring Olivia de Havilland, Robert Cummings and Charles Coburn... |
Princess Maria – aka Mary Williams | as Olivia DeHavilland |
| 1944 | Government Girl | Elizabeth 'Smokey' Allard | |
| 1946 | To Each His Own To Each His Own (film) To Each His Own is a 1946 American drama film. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen, and stars Olivia de Havilland, Mary Anderson, Roland Culver, and John Lund in his first on-screen appearance, where he played dual roles as father and son. The screenplay was written by Charles Brackett and Jacques... |
Miss Josephine 'Jody' Norris | Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
| 1946 | Devotion | Charlotte Bronte Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards... |
|
| 1946 | Margie Dawson | ||
| 1946 | Terry/Ruth Collins | ||
| 1948 | Virginia Stuart Cunningham | ||
| 1949 | Catherine Sloper | ||
| 1952 | My Cousin Rachel | Rachel Sangalletti Ashley | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama |
| 1955 | That Lady That Lady That Lady is a 1955 film directed by Terence Young. It stars Olivia de Havilland, Gilbert Roland and Paul Scofield.The film is based on the 1946 historical novel by Kate O'Brien, which was published in North America under the title For One Sweet Grape. The novel was also produced as a play in 1949.... |
Ana de Mendoza | |
| 1955 | Not as a Stranger Not as a Stranger Not as a Stranger was a 1954 novel written by Morton Thompson. The romantic melodrama became widely popular, topping that year's list of bestselling novels in the United States. The novel was adapted into a 1955 film of the same name by United Artists Pictures... |
Kristina Hedvigson | |
| 1956 | The Ambassador's Daughter The Ambassador's Daughter (1956 film) The Ambassador's Daughter is a 1956 romantic comedy film starring Olivia de Havilland and John Forsythe. When a visiting American Senator decides to make Paris off-limits to rowdy military personnel, the daughter of the Ambassador to France decides to show him that American servicemen can be... |
Joan Fisk | |
| 1958 | Linnett Moore | ||
| 1959 | Libel Libel (film) Libel is a 1959 British drama film. It stars Olivia de Havilland, Dirk Bogarde, Paul Massie, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Robert Morley. The film's screenplay was written by Anatole de Grunwald and Karl Tunberg from a 1935 play of the same name by Edward Wooll, and it was directed by Anthony Asquith.The... |
Lady Margaret Loddon | |
| 1962 | Meg Johnson | ||
| 1964 | Lady in a Cage Lady in a Cage Lady in a Cage is a 1964 American film directed by Walter Grauman, written and produced by Luther Davis, and released by Paramount Pictures. It stars Olivia de Havilland and features James Caan in his first substantial film role.-Plot:... |
Mrs. Cornelia Hilyard | |
| 1964 | Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a 1964 American thriller film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich, and starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, and Agnes Moorehead.... |
Miriam Deering | as Olivia deHavilland |
| 1970 | Deborah Hadley | as Olivia De Havilland | |
| 1972 | Pope Joan Pope Joan (1972 film) Pope Joan is a 1972 British drama film based on the story of Pope Joan.. It was directed by Michael Anderson and has a cast which includes Liv Ullmann , Olivia de Havilland, Lesley-Anne Down, Franco Nero and Maximillian Schell.... |
Mother Superior | |
| 1977 | Airport '77 Airport '77 Airport '77 is a 1977 disaster film and second sequel in the Airport franchise.The film stars a number of veteran actors, including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Christopher Lee and Olivia de Havilland. Like its predecessors, Airport '77 was a box office hit earning US$30 million and... |
Emily Livingston | |
| 1978 | Maureen Schuster | as Olivia De Havilland | |
| 1979 | Queen (Mary) Mother | ||
| 2009 | I Remember Better When I Paint I Remember Better When I Paint I Remember Better When I Paint is a 2009 feature length international documentary film about the positive impact of art and other creative therapies in people with Alzheimer's disease and how these approaches can change the way the disease is viewed by society... |
Narrator |
Short subjects
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 | Herself (uncredited) | About the making of A Midsummer Night's Dream | |
| 1936 | Herself (uncredited) | About the making of Anthony Adverse | |
| 1937 | Herself (uncredited) | Stars attended a horse race at the famed racetrack | |
| 1937 | Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 10 | Herself | Stars and their pets attend a swim meet |
| 1943 | Show Business at War Show Business at War Show Business at War is a short film made in 1943 to tout the United States film industry's contribution to the war effort. Several studios collaborated on the production and approximately 70 stars, producers, directors and studio executives appeared in it.... |
Herself | newsreel about progress of the Hollywood war effort |
Television work
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Noon Wine Noon Wine Noon Wine is a 1937 short novel written by American author Katherine Anne Porter. It was published in 1939 as part of Pale Horse, Pale Rider , a collection of three short novels by the author, including the title story and "Old Mortality." A dark tragedy about a farmer's futile act of homicide that... |
Ellie Thompson | ABC Stage 67 ABC Stage 67 ABC Stage 67 was the umbrella title for a series of 26 weekly shows that included dramas, variety shows, documentaries, and original musicals.... |
| 1972 | Laura Wynant | ||
| 1979 | Roots: The Next Generations Roots: The Next Generations Roots: The Next Generations is a 1979 television miniseries that continues the story of the family of Alex Haley from the 1880s, and their life in Henning, Tennessee, to the 1960s, with Haley researching his family history and his travels to Africa to learn of his ancestor, Kunta Kinte... |
Mrs. Warner | miniseries |
| 1982 | Murder Is Easy Murder is Easy Murder is Easy is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on June 5, 1939 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in September of the same year under the title of Easy to Kill... |
Honoria Waynflete | as Olivia De Havilland |
| 1982 | Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother | ||
| 1986 | North and South II North and South (TV miniseries) North and South is the title of three American television miniseries broadcast on the ABC network in 1985, 1986, and 1994. Set before, during, and immediately after the American Civil War, they are based on the 1980s trilogy of novels North and South by John Jakes. The 1985 first installment, North... |
Mrs. Neal | miniseries |
| 1986 | Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna is a 1986 TV movie, starring Amy Irving, Olivia de Havilland and Jan Niklas. The film was loosely based on the story of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia and the novel The Riddle of Anna Anderson by Peter Kurth. It was Christian Bale's first film and Rex... |
Dowager Empress Maria | |
| 1988 | Aunt Bessie |
Further reading
- de Havilland, Olivia. Every Frenchman Has One. Random House, 1962, 202 pages. Comic observations on life in Paris; little actual biographical information.
- Fontaine, Joan. No Bed of Roses. Morrow, 1978, 319 pages. Fontaine's autobiography, containing much detail about growing up with her sister.
- Higham, Charles. Sisters: The Story of Olivia De Haviland and Joan Fontaine. Coward McCann, May 1984, 257 pages.
- Lamparski, Richard. Manhattan Diary. BearManor Media, 2006 ISBN 1-59393-054-2
- Shipman, David, The Great Movie Stars, The Golden Years, Bonanza Books, New York, 1970. Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 78-133803
- Thomas, Tony. The Films of Olivia de Havilland. Citadel Press, 1983, 255 pages. Foreword by Bette DavisBette DavisRuth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
.