Today is two time Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland’s 91st birthday!
Along with her sister Joan Fontaine (also an Academy Award winner for 1941’s Suspicion), de Havilland is considered one of the last leading ladies from the studio era.
She is probably best known for her role as Melanie Wilkes in Gone With the Wind.
She is the film’s last surviving principal cast member.
Other notable roles include:
Maid Marian in The Adentures of Robin Hood
Emmy Brown in Hold Back the Dawn
Jody Norris in To Each His Own
Virginia Stuart Cunningham in The Snake Pit
Catherine Sloper in The Heiress
Miriam Deering in Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte
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The Heiress is without a doubt my favorite Olivia de Havilland movie. She delivers powerful performance, especially during the final scene when she is walking up the stairs, is AMAZING. There is reason why she won her second Oscar for this role.
De Havilland won her first Oscar in 1946 for To Each His Own
Here is a clip from Hush…Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964), a great movie starring Olivia de Havilland (playing against type) and Bette Davis.
For more information on Olivia de Havilland, visit TCM Movie Database; IMDb; Internet Broadway Database
There is also this 1995 interview with de Havilland from the Screen Actors Guild that’s rather interesting.
Remember when we kind of almost saw her at Beth’s graduation?
Haha…yes!
I’m still holding out that maybe it could happen.