FAREWELL TO SCREEN LEGEND
Hollywood pays tribute as Gone With The Wind star Olivia de Havilland dies aged 104
HER name was synonymous with Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Now tributes have flooded in for Dame Olivia de Havilland – best remembered for playing Melanie Wilkes in the 1939 film Gone With The Wind – after her death at the age of 104.
The actress died at home in Paris, her representative confirmed yesterday. A statement said: “Last night, the world lost an international treasure, and I lost a dear friend and beloved client. She died peacefully in Paris.”
The estate of fellow Hollywood great Humphrey Bogart, the Oscars, Golden Globes and SAG-AFTRA actors union were among those who paid tribute.
The Bogart estate, led by the late actor’s son, described Dame Olivia as a “true classic Hollywood icon” in a statement. It said: “We have lost a true classic Hollywood icon. The legendary Olivia de Havilland has died in Paris at age 104.
“The two-time Oscar winner and Gone With The Wind star successfully fought the studio system in the 1940s.”
The Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences, which hosts the Oscars, said in a statement: “To Each His Own, The Heiress, Gone With
The Wind and so many others.
“A two-time Best Actress Oscar winner, Olivia de Havilland was a mainstay of Hollywood’s Golden Age and an immeasurable talent. Here’s to a true legend of our industry.”
The Golden Globe Awards, where Dame Olivia was nominated on three occasions and won twice, shared a short tribute.
It said: “Olivia de Havilland, legendary Golden Age Hollywood star, has died at age 104. Rest in Peace.”
William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek, tweeted: “Not a good weekend: the great Olivia de Havilland has passed.”
Actor Stephen Mangan, star of Green Wing and I’m Alan Partridge, said: “Ah. Olivia De Havilland has died. A link with the past gone.
Starred in Captain Blood with Errol Flynn in 1935 for goodness sake.
She was a mainstay of Hollywood’s Golden Age
“And of course Gone With The Wind. RIP.”
Comedian Loni Love added: “’Playing good girls in the 1930s was difficult when the fad was to play bad girls,’ [De Havilland] once said. ‘Actually, I think playing bad girls is a bore; I have always had more luck with good girl roles because they require more from an actress.’ RIP.”
Dame Olivia won two best actress Oscars for her roles in 1946’s The Each His Own and 1949’s The Heiress.
She was born to British parents in Tokyo on July 1, 1916 – the first day of the Battle of the Somme – but moved to California when she was young.
She first appeared on the big screen in 1935 as Dolly Stevens in Alibi Ike.
Soon she became known for her onscreen partnership with Hollywood heartthrob Errol Flynn on films including The Charge Of The Light Brigade (1936) and The Adventures Of
Robin Hood (1938), although they never began a romantic relationship.
After leaving Hollywood in the 1950s, the actress moved to Paris with her second husband.
She made a number of television appearances and often worked on several movie titles a year until her last TV movie role as Aunt Bessie Merryman in The Woman He Loved in 1988.
Her younger sister, Joan Fontaine, with whom she had a famous rivalry, followed in her acting footsteps, winning an Oscar for her role in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1941 thriller Suspicion.
In 2017, she was made a dame for services to drama.
She said in a statement at the time: “I am extremely proud that the Queen has appointed me a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
“To receive this honour as my 101st birthday approaches is the most gratifying of birthday presents.”
Dame Olivia was also responsible for the so-called “De Havilland Law”, a landmark 1944 ruling that ended the tight grip studios had on contract actors.
In 2019 she lost her lawsuit over a television series she claimed depicted her falsely and unfairly.
FX’S anthology series Feud: Bette And Joan, about the lives of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, features Catherine Zeta Jones in the role of Dame Olivia. She claimed producers were guilty of “unauthorised and false use” of her “name and reputation”.
She is survived by one daughter, Gisele Galante.