Slender and smart screen siren
UNLIKE many leading actresses of the time, Olivia de Havilland did not audition for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in 1939 film epic Gone With The Wind.
She opted for the saintly Melanie Hamilton instead, the mildmannered love rival ofVivien Leigh’s emotional firecracker.
“Melanie was a good woman but also an intelligent woman and a tough woman,” she recalled for an interview in 2009.
She could have been speaking about herself. One of the last greats of Hollywood’s golden era, De Havilland was a smart operator whose emotional maturity enabled her to set her own path amid the oppressive reign of studio titans.
She took onWarner Bros in court and won after it tried to impose an additional six months to her seven-year agreement.
The “De Havilland decision”, as her victory became known, changed the way studios held power over actors and their contracts thereafter. De Havilland was born in Tokyo, Japan. Her mother Lillian (née Ruse) left her fatherWalter amid his constant philandering when her younger sister Joan Fontaine was two. The pair had a famous sibling rivalry throughout their lives.
De Havilland made her screen debut aged 18 forWarner Bros in 1935’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream. She came to prominence as Errol Flynn’s leading lady in Captain Blood in 1935, followed by The Adventures Of Robin Hood in 1938. She brought softness to
her parts but she was not afraid to challenge herself as she did in 1946’s thriller The Dark Mirror and The Snake Pit two years later.
She won her second Oscar for The Heiress the year after that.
She was made a dame in 2017 and is survived by her daughter, her son having predeceased her.