Remembering Olivia de Havilland

Olivia de Havilland, one of the very few classic-era actresses still with us, has died at age 104.

Her passing will probably only merit two paragraphs in celebrity magazines this week, probably under the title “Gone with the Wind Actress Dies”—a title that makes me, as it would her, wince.

Olivia de Havilland played sweet, doomed Melanie in Gone with the Wind, and ironically was the last to die of the principals of the film. But that is hardly the only film she should be remembered for. Olivia won two Oscars (for  1947’s To Each His Own and 1949’s The Heiress) and was nominated a total of five times–including her Best Supporting nomination for GWTW–the other two being for 1942’s Hold Back the Dawn and 1949’s The Snake Pit.

Olivia was indeed a living legend, a term I think is thrown around too much these days. Need proof?….

Her sister was Oscar winner Joan Fontaine, her mother, Lillian Fontaine, was a renowned stage actress.

Besides GWTW, Olivia was probably best known for starring with Errol Flynn in nine films. She admitted having a crush on him.

Olivia co-starred with Bette Davis in four films and they were close friends. She considered Bette a consummate professional.

The long list of film legends that Olivia had the pleasure of working with is absolutely mind boggling: Joan Crawford, David Niven, Henry Fonda, Basil Rathbone, Rosalind Russell,  Dick Powell,  Jane Wyman, Lionel Atwill, Mickey Rooney,  Ronald Reagan, Van Heflin, Frederic March, Claude Rains, Brian Aherne, George Brent, Jack Carson, Rita Hayworth, James Cagney, Paulette Goddard, Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino, Dirk Bogarde, Sydney Greenstreet, Montgomery Clift, Ray Milland, Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum and Frank Sinatra, to name a few!

In 1940, Olivia was the envy of many fangirls when she dated Jimmy Stewart seriously for several months, and the fan magazines held their breath for a marriage, although that didn’t happen.

And of course, I couldn’t close this out without a quote Olivia made about Clark Gable:

“Clark Gable was highly professional. He was a bigger star than we can create today. I was just a mini-star when we did Gone with the Wind. I was afraid to talk to him. People can’t understand it now, but we were in awe. Clark Gable didn’t open supermarkets.

“Clark always underrated himself as an actor. I think his Rhett Butler will live forever as one of the screen’s classic performances.”

Rest in Peace, dear Olivia.

I give you, Olivia de Havilland: A Scrapbook: