GONE WITH THE WIND
THE BELOVED FILM’S SURVIVING CAST MEMBERS SHARE BEHIND-THE-SCENES STORIES FROM THE SET
The film’s only living cast members, Olivia de Havilland and Mickey Kuhn, recall what it was like making the beloved classic.
When Gone With the
Wind went into wide release in January 1940, it drew huge crowds excited to see how Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling novel of love, loss and redemption in the Civil War era played out on the big screen. It became the movie event of the era, with Variety hailing
GWTW as “one of the truly great films,” although there were those who criticized its nearly four-hour running time. “I was 7 years old when I first saw the movie,” Mickey Kuhn, 87, who played the oldest version of Beau Wilkes, tells Closer. “I thought it was quite long and I fell asleep when my parents took me to see it.”
Eighty years later, Mickey and Olivia de Havilland, 103, who played his mother, Melanie Wilkes, are the film’s last remaining living cast members. “I call her Mama Melanie,” confides Mickey, adding he sends the actress a greeting every year around her July 1 birthday. “I said, there’s only two of us left now. She said, ‘Yes, it is rather unique that the Wilkes are the survivors!’ ”
A GRAND UNDERTAKING
Mickey remembers the GWTW set as a well-oiled machine dedicated to making first-rate entertainment. Producer David O. Selznick chose to film in Technicolor, a new technology at the time, which required strict attention to color and lighting. “They used three cameras, and that was very expensive,” recalls Mickey, who admits he felt pressure to get his scenes right.
“Vivien was an exquisite creature. She had
very beautiful manners.”
— Olivia de Havilland
“The entire cast felt the same way.”
In the role of Beau, Mickey jokes that he “only cost them money” by missing his line in one scene with the film’s leading man, Clark Gable. “My line was, ‘Hello, Uncle Rhett,’ but three times I kept saying, ‘Hello, Uncle Clark,’ ” he remembers.
The veteran actor noted the youngster’s frustration and took him aside. “I really thought he was going to kick me off the set,” says Mickey. “He said, ‘You’re right, my name is Clark, but here my name is Rhett.’ He didn’t belittle me because I was a kid. We did the scene again and, of course, it was OK.”
Clark and Vivien Leigh spent a lot of time together discussing their characters, Rhett Butler and Scarlet O’Hara. “The whole world had a very definite idea of Rhett. [Clark] was terrified of not fulfilling their notion of the character,” recalls Olivia. Vivien seemed anxious, too. “It was her American debut and she wanted to do an excellent job,” notes Mickey.
Once the two actors began a scene, they became Rhett and Scarlett. “You could see it when they were rehearsing. There was a spark,” Mickey says. Despite the passion they brought to their roles, there was no hanky-panky on the set. Both were newlyweds — Clark wed Carole Lombard in March 1939, while Vivien and Laurence Olivier were married in August 1940. Says Mickey, “It was a mutual respect between two great actors.”
Although Olivia played Mickey’s mother in GWTW, he shared no screen time with her. “She was behind the door dying when I did my big scene,” recalls Mickey. “I’m the little boy being carried out by Leslie Howard crying, ‘Where is my mother going?’ ”
Unfortunately, Leslie, who played his father, Ashley Wilkes, didn’t have a lot of patience for children — including Mickey. “When [the scene] was over, I was still crying. Leslie said, ‘Now what do I do with him?’ ” remembers Mickey with laugh. “He was a great actor, but he just wanted to do the job and be done with it.”
Leslie may have had more than just movie-making on his mind. Olivia felt that the British actor, who was active in antiGerman propaganda, was preoccupied by the events in the news leading up to World War II. “When we were filming, he seemed in a distressed, melancholy state of mind,” she recalls. “[Leslie] met his death as a British intelligence officer [a few years later] during the war.”
Although his link to British intelligence has never been confirmed, Leslie was flying in a civilian aircraft which was shot down by a German military plane in 1943, killing all aboard.
A LASTING LEGACY
A great number of iconic movies competed at the 1940 Academy Awards, including Wuthering Heights, Mr. Smith Goes
to Washington and The Wizard of Oz, but GWTW set a record by capturing eight trophies out of 13 nominations. Vivien, producer Selznick and director Victor Fleming all won honors and Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy, became the first African-American to win the best supporting actress award.
Mickey left Hollywood in the 1950s after a long career as a child actor. Over the years he has frequently appeared at GWTW events to share his experience with fans. “I have very good memories of it,” he says.
Just don’t ask him to sit and watch the entire movie again. “I’ve seen it once,” Mickey says. “That’s enough.”