OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND
Name: Olivia Mary de Havilland
Born: 1 July 1916 Tokyo, Japan
Olivia Mary de Havilland (born July 1, 1916) is a two-time Academy Award-winning
actress. She is the sister of Academy Award winning actress Joan Fontaine.
De Havilland was born in Tokyo, Japan, and is the elder daughter of Walter de
Havilland (1872-1968), a British patent attorney with a practice in Japan, and
the former Lilian Augusta Ruse (1886-1975), an actress known by her stage name
of Lilian Fontaine, whom he married in 1914. They divorced when Olivia was three.
Her paternal cousin is Sir Geoffrey de Havilland (1882-1965).
Her younger sister is the actress Joan Fontaine (b. 1917), from whom she has
been estranged for many decades, not speaking at all since 1975.
De Havilland's family moved from Tokyo when she was two years old, settling in
Saratoga, California. She attended school at Los Gatos High School and at the
Notre Dame Convent Catholic girls' school in Belmont, California. An acting
award at Los Gatos is named after her.
De Havilland's career began co-starring with Joe E. Brown in Alibi Ike in 1935.
She appeared as Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, her first stage production,
at the Hollywood Bowl. The stage production was later turned into a 1935 movie.
Although the stage cast was largely replaced with Warner Bros. contract players,
Olivia was hired to reprise her role as Hermia. De Havilland played opposite
Errol Flynn in such highly popular films as Captain Blood and The Charge of the
Light Brigade (1936), and as Maid Marian to Flynn's Robin Hood in The Adventures
of Robin Hood (1938). She starred opposite Flynn in eight films.
She played Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939) and was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance, but Hattie
McDaniel, who played Mammy, received that award instead. She played the only one
of the four main characters of Gone with the Wind to die in the film but
outlived all the others (Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard) in real
life.
In 1941, de Havilland became a naturalized citizen of the United States and was
becoming increasingly frustrated by the roles being assigned to her. She felt
that she had proven herself to be 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 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 until that time 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 court's ruling came to be known, and is still
known to this day, as the "de Havilland law".
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 Studios. 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 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, and de Havilland was
lauded for her willingness to play a role that was completely devoid of glamour
and that confronted such controversial subject matter. She won the New York Film
Critics Award 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 was
reported to have declined the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire,
citing the unsavoury nature of some elements of the script and saying there were
certain lines she could not allow herself to speak. The role eventually went to
her former Gone with the Wind co-star, Vivien Leigh, who won her second Academy
Award for her role. De Havilland continued acting on film until the late 1970s,
afterwards continuing her career on television until the late 80s, which
included her winning a Golden Globe for her performance as the Dowager Empress
Maria in the 1986 miniseries Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna.
Name: Olivia Mary de Havilland
Born: 1 July 1916 Tokyo, Japan
Olivia Mary de Havilland (born July 1, 1916) is a two-time Academy Award-winning
actress. She is the sister of Academy Award winning actress Joan Fontaine.
De Havilland was born in Tokyo, Japan, and is the elder daughter of Walter de
Havilland (1872-1968), a British patent attorney with a practice in Japan, and
the former Lilian Augusta Ruse (1886-1975), an actress known by her stage name
of Lilian Fontaine, whom he married in 1914. They divorced when Olivia was three.
Her paternal cousin is Sir Geoffrey de Havilland (1882-1965).
Her younger sister is the actress Joan Fontaine (b. 1917), from whom she has
been estranged for many decades, not speaking at all since 1975.
De Havilland's family moved from Tokyo when she was two years old, settling in
Saratoga, California. She attended school at Los Gatos High School and at the
Notre Dame Convent Catholic girls' school in Belmont, California. An acting
award at Los Gatos is named after her.
De Havilland's career began co-starring with Joe E. Brown in Alibi Ike in 1935.
She appeared as Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, her first stage production,
at the Hollywood Bowl. The stage production was later turned into a 1935 movie.
Although the stage cast was largely replaced with Warner Bros. contract players,
Olivia was hired to reprise her role as Hermia. De Havilland played opposite
Errol Flynn in such highly popular films as Captain Blood and The Charge of the
Light Brigade (1936), and as Maid Marian to Flynn's Robin Hood in The Adventures
of Robin Hood (1938). She starred opposite Flynn in eight films.
She played Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939) and was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance, but Hattie
McDaniel, who played Mammy, received that award instead. She played the only one
of the four main characters of Gone with the Wind to die in the film but
outlived all the others (Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard) in real
life.
In 1941, de Havilland became a naturalized citizen of the United States and was
becoming increasingly frustrated by the roles being assigned to her. She felt
that she had proven herself to be 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 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 until that time 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 court's ruling came to be known, and is still
known to this day, as the "de Havilland law".
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 Studios. 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 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, and de Havilland was
lauded for her willingness to play a role that was completely devoid of glamour
and that confronted such controversial subject matter. She won the New York Film
Critics Award 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 was
reported to have declined the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire,
citing the unsavoury nature of some elements of the script and saying there were
certain lines she could not allow herself to speak. The role eventually went to
her former Gone with the Wind co-star, Vivien Leigh, who won her second Academy
Award for her role. De Havilland continued acting on film until the late 1970s,
afterwards continuing her career on television until the late 80s, which
included her winning a Golden Globe for her performance as the Dowager Empress
Maria in the 1986 miniseries Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna.