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Olivia de Havilland

Olivia de Havilland

Overview
Olivia Mary de Havilland (born July 1, 1916) is an actress. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine is a British American actress. She became an American citizen in April 1943. She is the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland, also an Academy Award winner. Along with Luise Rainer, Gloria Stuart, Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin and Olivia de Havilland, Fontaine is one of the...

. De Havilland is one of the last surviving female stars from 1930s Hollywood. She is also the last living lead from Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American drama romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name and directed by Victor Fleming...

.

De Havilland was born in Tokyo
Tokyo
, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and is located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, totaling over 8 million people....

, Japan
Japan
is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of 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...

. Her mother, Lilian Augusta Ruse (1886-1975), was an actress known by her stage name Lilian Fontaine, and her father, Walter Augustus de Havilland (1872-1968), was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...

 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
is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of 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...

.
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Encyclopedia
Olivia Mary de Havilland (born July 1, 1916) is an actress. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine is a British American actress. She became an American citizen in April 1943. She is the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland, also an Academy Award winner. Along with Luise Rainer, Gloria Stuart, Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin and Olivia de Havilland, Fontaine is one of the...

. De Havilland is one of the last surviving female stars from 1930s Hollywood. She is also the last living lead from Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American drama romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name and directed by Victor Fleming...

.

Early life


De Havilland was born in Tokyo
Tokyo
, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and is located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, totaling over 8 million people....

, Japan
Japan
is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of 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...

. Her mother, Lilian Augusta Ruse (1886-1975), was an actress known by her stage name Lilian Fontaine, and her father, Walter Augustus de Havilland (1872-1968), was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...

 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
is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of 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...

. Her parents married in 1914 and divorced when Olivia was three. Her younger sister is actress Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine is a British American actress. She became an American citizen in April 1943. She is the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland, also an Academy Award winner. Along with Luise Rainer, Gloria Stuart, Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin and Olivia de Havilland, Fontaine is one of the...

 (born 1917), from whom she has been estranged for many decades, not speaking at all since 1975. 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...

, designer of the famous de Havilland Mosquito
De Havilland Mosquito
The de Havilland Mosquito was a British combat aircraft that excelled in versatility during the Second World War. Originally conceived as an unarmed fast bomber, the Mosquito adapted to many other roles in during the air war in both the Pacific theatre of Operations and the European theatre,...

 airplane.

The de Havilland family moved from Tokyo when she was two years old, settling in Saratoga, California
Saratoga, California
Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California, USA. It is located on the west side of the Santa Clara Valley, directly west of San Jose, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 30,318 at the 2007 census....

. She attended school at 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 at the Notre Dame Convent Catholic
Catholic
The word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22...

 girls' school in Belmont
Belmont, California
Belmont is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. It is in the San Francisco Bay Area, located half-way down the San Francisco Peninsula between San Mateo and San Carlos. It was originally part of the Rancho de las Pulgas, for which one of its main roads, the Alameda de las Pulgas,...

, California
California
California is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...

. An acting award at Los Gatos is named after her.

Career



De Havilland's career began co-starring with Joe E. Brown
Joe E. Brown (comedian)
Joseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian. In 1902 at the age of 10, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvellous Astons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville circuits. He gradually added comedy into his act and transformed himself into a...

 in Alibi Ike in 1935. She appeared as Hermia
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....

 in A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare. It was suggested by "The Knight's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and written around 1594 to 1596...

, her first stage production, at the Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a famous modern amphitheatre in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, USA, 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 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...

. Although the stage cast was largely replaced with Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Warner Bros. Pictures, or simply Warner Bros.—the shortened form of the former official, sometimes still used, formal corporate name: Warner Brothers
 contract players, she was hired to reprise her role as Hermia. After this, de Havilland played opposite Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian film actor, known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Background and 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 usually named Lady Marian Fitzwalter of Leaford , is the female companion to the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. Stemming from another, older tradition, she became associated with Robin Hood only in the sixteenth century.-History:The earliest Medieval Robin Hood stories gave him...

 to Flynn's Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a hero in English folklore, a highly-skilled archer and outlaw. In particular, he is known for "stealing from the rich and giving to the poor," assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men"...

 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.
She played 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
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American drama romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name and directed by Victor Fleming...

 (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
Typecast or typecasting may mean:* Typecasting , the process by which an actor is strongly identified with a specific character, role, or trait...

 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 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 theatre. 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. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Warner Bros. Pictures, or simply Warner Bros.—the shortened form of the former official, sometimes still used, formal corporate name: Warner Brothers
 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 courage in mounting such a challenge, and her subsequent victory, won her the respect and admiration of her peers, among them her 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". It imposes a 7 year limit on contracts for service unless the employee agrees to an extension beyond that term.

Following the release of Devotion
Devotion (film)
Devotion is a 1946 highly-fictionalized biographical film account of the lives of the Brontë sisters. This was Montagu Love's last role. He died before the film's release.-Cast:*Ida Lupino as Emily Bronte*Paul Henreid as Reverend Arthur Nicholls...

, a Hollywood biography of the Brontë sisters
Brontë
The Brontë sisters , Charlotte , Emily and Anne , were English writers of the 1840s and 1850s...

 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 a Worldwide American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is the world's oldest existing American film studio; it is also the last...

. 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 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 film directed by Mitchell Leisen, which tells the story of Jody Norris , who falls in love with a pilot . He goes off to fight in World War I, leaving Jody to give birth to their son...

 (1946) and The Heiress
The Heiress
The Heiress is a 1949 drama film 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 Olivia de Havilland as Catherine Sloper, Montgomery Clift as Morris Townsend,...

 (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 film which tells the story of a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum and cannot remember how she got there. It stars Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Beulah Bondi and Lee Patrick....

 (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 that occurs in an individual and is thought to cause distress or disability that is not expected as part of normal development or culture. The recognition and understanding of mental disorders has changed over time and...

, 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.

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 eventually went to her Gone with the Wind co-star, Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won two Best Actress Academy Awards for playing "southern belles": Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind and Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she had also played on stage in London's West End.She was a...

, who won her second Academy Award
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...

 for her role. 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
The 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 , Grammy Awards and Tony Awards .They 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 Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning 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...

.

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 Congress of the United States 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...

.

Relationships


De Havilland and Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian film actor, known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Background and early life:...

 were known as one of Hollywood's most exciting on-screen couples, appearing in eight films together, but never had a romantic life off-screen. The films in which they co-starred included Captain Blood
Captain Blood
Captain Blood may mean:* Thomas Blood, an Irish Colonel and rogue prevalent in 17th century Britain and Ireland* Captain Blood , by Rafael Sabatini inspired in part by Thomas Blood* Any of three films based on the novel by Sabatini:...

 (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade
The charge of the light brigade
The Charge of the Light Brigade may refer to the following:* Charge of the Light Brigade, a military action in the Crimean War* The Charge of the Light Brigade, a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson* The Charge of the Light Brigade, a 1936 film...

 (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood is the title of:* The Adventures of Robin Hood , a 1938 film starring Errol Flynn* The Adventures of Robin Hood , a 1950s television series starring Richard Greene...

 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 romantic drama film 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. First used in 1821 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).

In an interview with Gregory Speck, 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-American actress who had appeared in 33 movies between 1922 and 1937.-Early life and education:...

.

De Havilland was romantically involved with John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He was known for directing the films The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge The Misfits , The Man Who Would Be...

, James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart was an American film and stage actor, best known for his self-effacing persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...

 and Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American aviator, engineer, industrialist, film producer, film director, philanthropist, and one of the wealthiest people in the world. He gained fame in the late 1920s as a maverick film producer, making big budget and often controversial films like Hell's Angels,...

 in the early 1940s. She married novelist Marcus Goodrich in 1946 and they divorce
Divorce
Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the final termination of a marriage, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between two persons...

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, also known as Hodgkin's disease, is a type of lymphoma...

.

She was married to French journalist and Paris Match editor Pierre Galante between 1955 until 1979. Their daughter, Giselle (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.

De Havilland was good friends with Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theatre. 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...

 and has remained a close friend of Gloria Stuart
Gloria Stuart
Gloria Frances Stewart , also known as Gloria Stuart, is an American actress. Over a Hollywood career that spans more than 70 years, Stuart appeared on stage, in television and film, and is best known as for her roles as Claude Rains' sweetheart in The Invisible Man and as the 100-year-old Rose in...

. 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 having played heroic roles, such as Moses in The Ten Commandments, Colonel George Taylor in Planet of the Apes, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in El Cid, and Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy...

 and was a surprise guest at the Academy Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theatre. 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...

.

Sibling rivalry


Of the two sisters, Olivia was the first to become an actress; when Joan tried to follow her lead, their mother, who allegedly favored Olivia, refused to let her use the family name, so Joan was forced to invent a name, taking first Joan Burfield, and later Joan Fontaine, utilizing the last name of their stepfather, GM Fontaine.

Biographer Charles Higham
Charles Higham (biographer)
Charles Higham is an author 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 Olivia would rip up the clothes Joan had to wear as hand-me-downs, forcing Joan to sew them back together. A lot of the feud and resentment between the sisters allegedly stems from Joan's perception of Olivia being their mother's favorite child.

Both Olivia and Joan 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. Joan won first for her role in Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom 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...

 (1941) over Olivia'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 Joan "felt guilty about winning given her lack of obsessive career drive...". Higham has described the events of the awards ceremony, stating that as Joan stepped forward to collect her award, she pointedly rejected Olivia's attempts at congratulating her and that Olivia was both offended and embarrassed by her behavior. Several years later, Olivia would remember the slight and exact her own revenge by brushing past Joan, who was waiting with her hand extended, because Olivia had allegedly taken offense at a comment Joan had made about Olivia's then-husband.

Olivia's relationship with Joan continued to deteriorate after the two incidents. Charles Higham has stated that this was the near final straw for what would become a lifelong feud, but the sisters did not completely stop speaking to each other until 1975. According to Joan, Olivia did not invite her to a memorial service for their mother, who had recently died. Olivia claims she told Joan, but that Joan had brushed her off, claiming that she was too busy to attend.

Charles Higham records that Joan has an estranged relationship with her own daughters as well, possibly because she discovered that they were secretly maintaining a relationship with their aunt Olivia.

Both sisters have refused to comment publicly about their feud and dysfunctional family relationships.

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 is working on an autobiography and hopes to have a first draft by September 2009.

She appeared as a presenter at the 75th Annual Academy Awards in 2003. In June 2006, she made appearances at tributes for her 90th birthday at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences and the Los Angeles County Art Museum. In 2004, Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a cable television channel 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 drama romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name and directed by Victor Fleming...

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 film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can...

 can be seen on the Gone with the Wind four-disc special collector's edition.

In 2008, she was a surprise guest at a Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theatre. 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...

.

On November 17, 2008, at the age of 92, she received the National Medal for the Arts from President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....

.

Features

Year Film Role Notes
1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .* Six year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Mutiny on the Bounty - MGM*Best Actor: Victor McLaglen - The Informer...

 Alibi Ike
Alibi Ike
Alibi Ike is a series of short stories 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
The Irish in Us Lucille Jackson
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935 film)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 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...

 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
Captain Blood Arabella Bishop
1936
1936 in film
The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*nov 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon*February 15 - first Republic serial, Darkest Africa, released*September 28 - The Marx Brothers' Harpo Marx marries actress Susan Fleming...

 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...

 Angela Giuseppe
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...

 Elsa Campbell as Olivia De Havilland
1937
1937 in film
The year 1937 in film involved some significant events.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.*May 7 - Shall We Dance premieres in the US.-Top grossing films:#Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs#Maytime#Saratoga...

 Call It a Day Catherine 'Cath' Hilton
It's Love I'm After
It's Love I'm After
It's Love I'm After is a 1937 American screwball comedy film directed by Archie Mayo. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the story Gentlemen After Midnight by Maurice Hanline...

 Marcia West
The Great Garrick
The Great Garrick
The Great Garrick is a motion picture directed by James Whale and starring Brian Aherne and Olivia de Havilland. It also features Lionel Atwill, Edward Everett Horton, and Melville Cooper; a young Lana Turner has a bit part...

 Germaine de la Corbe
1938
1938 in film
The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...

 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
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:...

 Lady Marian Fitzwalter
Maid Marian
Maid Marian usually named Lady Marian Fitzwalter of Leaford , is the female companion to the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. Stemming from another, older tradition, she became associated with Robin Hood only in the sixteenth century.-History:The earliest Medieval Robin Hood stories gave him...
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
Hard to Get Margaret Richards as Olivia De Havilland
1939
1939 in film
The year 1939 in film involved some significant events.- Events :Movie historians and film buffs often look back on 1939 as "the greatest year in film history"...

 Wings of the Navy Irene Dale
Dodge City
Dodge City (1939 film)
Dodge City is a Technicolor western movie starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Directed by Hungarian-turned-Hollywood filmmaker Michael Curtiz and based on a story by Robert Buckner, it was filmed in early Technicolor...

 Abbie Irving
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a romantic drama film based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Bette Davis, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn...

 Lady Penelope Gray
Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American drama romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name and directed by Victor Fleming...

 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...
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. In fact, Sidney Howard wrote the screenplay for both this movie and the 1930 film of the same name. F. Scott Fitzgerald may...

 Gwen Manders
1940
1940 in film
The year 1940 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released.* February 20 - Tom and Jerry make their debut in the animated cartoon Puss Gets the Boot....

 My Love Came Back Amelia Cornell
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. Despite glaring historical inaccuracies and racist overtones, the film was one of the top-grossing films of the year, being the seventh Flynn-de Havilland collaboration...

 Kit Carson Holliday
1941
1941 in film
The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...

 The Strawberry Blonde
The Strawberry Blonde
The Strawberry Blonde was a 1941 Warner Brothers feature film starring James Cagney and Olivia de Havilland. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1941 for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. The film features songs such as "Bill Bailey", "Meet Me in St...

 Amy Lind Grimes
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...
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
1942 in film
The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, Casablanca..-Events:...

 The Male Animal
The Male Animal
The Male Animal is a 1942 Warner Brothers film starring Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Leslie.Fonda plays an English teacher at football crazed Midwestern University in this comedy-drama...

 Ellen Turner
In This Our Life
In This Our Life
In This Our Life is a 1942 film about two sisters, Stanley and Roy Timberlake. Stanley runs off with Roy's husband. Soon, she drives him to suicide and so, she returns home, only to find that her sister, Roy, fell in love with her ex-fiancè, Craig...

 Roy Timberlake
1943
1943 in film
The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :-16th Academy Awards:*Background to Danger, by Raoul Walsh with Peter Lorre*Bataan*Bombardier, starring Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, and Anne Shirley...

 Thank Your Lucky Stars
Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943 film)
Thank Your Lucky Stars is a 1943 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
Princess O'Rourke
Princess O'Rourke
Princess O'Rourke is a 1943 romantic comedy film 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
1944 in film
The year 1944 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released.*September 6 - Double Indemnity is released.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:...

 Government Girl Elizabeth 'Smokey' Allard
1946
1946 in film
The year 1946 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*November 21 - William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York featuring an ensemble cast including Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell.*December 20 - Frank Capra's It's a...

 To Each His Own
To Each His Own (film)
To Each His Own is a 1946 film directed by Mitchell Leisen, which tells the story of Jody Norris , who falls in love with a pilot . He goes off to fight in World War I, leaving Jody to give birth to their son...

 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...
Devotion Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters whose novels are English literature standards...
The Well-Groomed Bride Margie Dawson
The Dark Mirror Terry/Ruth Collins
1948
1948 in film
The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue
...

 The Snake Pit
The Snake Pit
The Snake Pit is a 1948 film which tells the story of a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum and cannot remember how she got there. It stars Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Beulah Bondi and Lee Patrick....

 Virginia Stuart Cunningham Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Award for Best Actress in a Foreign Film
Nastro d'Argento
Nastro d'Argento is a movie award assigned each year, since 1947 for cinematic performances and production by Sindacato Nazionale dei Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani, the association of Italian film critics...


National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Award for Best Actress is one of the annual film awards given by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.- 1940s :...


New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:...


Volpi Cup
Volpi Cup
The Volpi Cups are awards given to actors at the Venice Film Festival. Awards for best actor and best actress have been given since 1935. In the mid-1990s awards were also given to supporting actors and actresses, and in 1993 an award was given to an entire cast...


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...
1949
1949 in film
The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :source: http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1949.shtml- Awards :Academy Awards:*Adam's Rib*The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr...

 The Heiress
The Heiress
The Heiress is a 1949 drama film 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 Olivia de Havilland as Catherine Sloper, Montgomery Clift as Morris Townsend,...

 Catherine Sloper 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...


Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:...
1952
1952 in film
The year 1952 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 10 - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City....

 My Cousin Rachel Rachel Sangalletti Ashley Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1955
1955 in film
The year 1955 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 3 - The musical Guys and Dolls, starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, debuts.* June 27 - The last ever Republic serial, King of the Carnival, is released....

 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
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
1956 in film
The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* August 4 - The last film serial, Blazing the Overland Trail from Columbia Pictures, is released.* November 15 - Elvis Presley's first film, Love Me Tender, opens....

 The Ambassador's Daughter Joan Fisk
1958
1958 in film
The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date...

 The Proud Rebel
The Proud Rebel
The Proud Rebel is a 1958 American film directed by Michael Curtiz with a screenplay by Lillie Hayward that is based on a story by James Edward Grant. The movie is about a former confederate soldier who is falsely accused of starting a brawl in a small town. A local woman comes to his aid, but she...

 Linnett Moore
1959
1959 in film
The year 1959 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bullfighters.*September 18 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx marries his second wife, Barbara Blakely....

 Libel
Libel (film)
Libel is a 1959 British drama film which 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 play of the same name by Edward Wooll, and it was directed by Anthony...

 Lady Margaret Loddon
1962
1962 in film
The year 1962 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Dr. No launches the James Bond film series, the second longest-running motion picture franchise of all time , running more than 40 years.-Top grossing films :...

 Light in the Piazza
The Light in the Piazza (novel)
The Light in the Piazza is a 1960 novella by Mississippi writer Elizabeth Spencer.At its core are Margaret Johnson and her daughter Clara, on vacation in Italy, where Clara becomes enamored with local Florentine Fabrizio...

 Meg Johnson
1964
1964 in film
The year 1964 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 29 - The film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is released....

 Lady in a Cage
Lady in a Cage
Lady in a Cage is a 1964 American film directed by Walter Grauman, and written and produced by Luther Davis. It starred Olivia de Havilland and featured James Caan in his first substantial film role.-Plot:...

 Mrs. Cornelia Hilyard
Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a 1964 American horror film directed by Robert Aldrich, and starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, and Agnes Moorehead.-Plot synopsis:...

 Miriam Deering as Olivia deHavilland
1970
1970 in film
The year 1970 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 11 - The film The Magic Christian, starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr premieres in New York City...

 The Adventurers Deborah Hadley as Olivia De Havilland
1972
1972 in film
The year 1972 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :source: http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1972.shtml- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ben*The Big Bird Cage*Blacula*Bone...

 Pope Joan
Pope Joan
Pope Joan is the name of a legendary female Pope who supposedly reigned for less than three years in the 850s, between the Papacies of Leo IV and Benedict III . She is known primarily from a legend that circulated in the Middle Ages...

 Mother Superior
1977
1977 in film
The year 1977 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*In the Academy Awards, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight win Best Actor and Actress and Supporting Actress awards for Network....

 Airport '77
Airport '77
Airport '77 is a 1977 disaster film and second sequel in the Airport franchise.The film starred 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...

 Emily Livingston
1978
1978 in film
The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California....

 The Swarm Maureen Schuster as Olivia De Havilland
1979
1979 in film
The year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major Events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released....

 The Fifth Musketeer
The Fifth Musketeer
The Fifth Musketeer is a 1979 film adaptation of the last section of the novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, père, which is itself based on the French legend of the Man in the Iron Mask....

 Queen (Mary) Mother

Short subjects

Year Film Role Notes
1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .* Six year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Mutiny on the Bounty - MGM*Best Actor: Victor McLaglen - The Informer...

 A Dream Comes True Herself (uncredited) About the making of A Midsummer Night's Dream
1936
1936 in film
The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*nov 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon*February 15 - first Republic serial, Darkest Africa, released*September 28 - The Marx Brothers' Harpo Marx marries actress Susan Fleming...

 The Making of a Great Motion Picture Herself (uncredited) About the making of Anthony Adverse
1937
1937 in film
The year 1937 in film involved some significant events.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.*May 7 - Shall We Dance premieres in the US.-Top grossing films:#Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs#Maytime#Saratoga...

 A Day at Santa Anita Herself (uncredited) Stars attended a horse race at the famed racetrack
Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 10 Herself Stars and their pets attend a swim meet
1943
1943 in film
The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :-16th Academy Awards:*Background to Danger, by Raoul Walsh with Peter Lorre*Bataan*Bombardier, starring Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, and Anne Shirley...

 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 act of futile murder which...

 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 The Screaming Woman 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. It features her recurring detective, Superintendent Battle...

 Honoria Waynflete as Olivia De Havilland
The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother
1986 North and South II
North and South (TV miniseries)
North and South is an American television miniseries set before, during, and immediately after the American Civil War. It was based on the 1980s trilogy of novels North and South by John Jakes and follows its general storyline, despite some deviations...

 Mrs. Neal miniseries
Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna
Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna
Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna is a 1986 Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning 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...

 Dowager Empress Maria Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1988 The Woman He Loved 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 Davis
    Bette Davis
    Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theatre. 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...

    .

External links