PARIS: ‘Gone With the Wind’ star Olivia de Havilland, considered the last surviving actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood, died on Sunday at the age of 104.
She died of natural causes at her home in Paris, where she had lived for more than 60 years. Her acting career included two Academy Awards, a victory over Hollywood’s studio system.
She first drew attention by playing opposite Errol Flynn in a series of films starting in the 1930s and made an impression as Melanie in ‘Gone With the Wind’ in 1939. Later she would have to fight to get more challenging roles for ‘To Each His Own’ in 1946 and ‘The Heiress’ in 1949.
De Havilland was a naturalised American who was born to English parents in Japan and lived in Paris since 1953. She made few public appearances after retiring but returned to Hollywood in 2003 to take part in the 75th Academy Awards show.
De Havilland began her movie career after director Max Reinhardt saw her in a production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and cast her in his 1935 film version of the play.
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Warner Bros. signed the teenager to a seven-year contract. She was loaned to ‘Gone With the Wind’ in 1939 for the role of Melanie which earned her the first of her five Oscar nominations. “I felt very drawn to Melanie,” de Havilland later said. “She was a complex personality compared to the heroines I’d been playing over and over.”
‘Gone With the Wind,’ which also starred Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, won eight Academy Awards, including best picture. The Oscar nomination and the popularity the film did not get her the types of roles she wanted. She often refused roles and was suspended several times.
In 1943, she ended her seven-year deal but the studio said she still owed them six months on suspension. De Havilland won in court but it was a risky career move challenging a powerful studio and she did not make a movie for three years.
De Havilland made a triumphant return to the screen in 1946 with the Oscar-winning role of an unwed mother in ‘To Each His Own.’ Three years later her portrayal of a spinster brought another Academy Award for ‘The Heiress.’
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De Havilland made 50 movies in her career and nine were with Flynn, including ‘Captain Blood’, ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’, ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ and ‘They Died With Their Boots On’.
Other memorable roles included playing both a sweet and evil twin in ‘The Dark Mirror’ in 1946 and a mental patient in ‘The Snake Pit’, which earned her an Oscar nomination in 1948. Later she starred in two well-received suspense films, ‘Lady in a Cage’ and ‘Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte’ with Bette Davis.
De Havilland had a son, Benjamin, with Goodrich and a daughter, Giselle, with her second husband, journalist Pierre Galante.
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