Actress Olivia de Havilland was born 99 years ago today in Tokyo, Japan. With the recent deaths of Olivia’s 96-year-old sister Joan Fontaine and 104-year-old Luise Rainer, de Havilland is one of the very few movie stars from the 1930s who is still with us.
My favorite de Havilland films include The Adventures of Robin Hood, Hold Back the Dawn, The Dark Mirror (in which she played twins, one good, one evil), The Snake Pit, and The Heiress. I also enjoyed her later work in horror films such as the creepy and terrifying Lady in a Cage and Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte. And, of course, she is one of the few surviving stars of Gone With the Wind and was as perfect for the part of Melanie as Leslie Howard was unsuited to play Ashley Wilkes.
Olivia burst on the scene in 1935 when Max Reinhardt discovered her and put her in his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Hollywood Bowl when actress Gloria Stuart suddenly had to bow out of the role of Hermia. He cast Olivia in the film version of that production and she was quickly signed for a long-term contract at Warner Brothers.
From a 1935 article (a whopping 80 years ago!) heralding Olivia’s arrival in Hollywood:
Ever since the movies were weaned away from the old nickelodeons, Cinderella tales have been written about pretty young screen actresses. But never before has there been one which quite equals that of Olivia de Havilland. Here is more than just the story of an extra girl leaping into fame overnight. It’s the story of a girl who left Saratoga, Calif., a village of about 800 population, and grabbed one of Hollywood’s choicest roles the first time she ever stepped in front of the movie camera.
That happened six months ago. And Olivia still is an unknown, unseen quantity as far as the public is concerned. Take my word for it, however, she’s going places.
When Olivia got her break, her mother and 17-year-old sister, Joan, moved to Hollywood. The three share a comfortable apartment in an exclusive quarter here. And now Joan is being tested for a contract at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The mother and two daughters are a remarkable trio, really like sisters, all having the same likes and dislikes.
Although only 18, Olivia already has decided to be an old maid—well, for the next 10 years, anyway. “Romance doesn’t seem to mix with a career in pictures,” she told me. “Our hours of work are so irregular that it frequently is necessary to break dates. Boys don’t like that. So I’m not even going to think about romance until I’m finished in pictures.”
Of all the things which might happen to an aspiring film star, there’s only one that really annoys “Bunny.” That’s to have the taller and blond Joan taken for her older sister. Some day she probably will cheer such an error. But right now she’s awfully proud of her 18 years.
At the risk of enraging my wife and other classic movie fans, I always thought Olivia was a better actress than her sister, Joan, but that Joan was the “prettier” one even though Olivia was certainly beautiful. But it is exactly such stupid and unnecessary comparisons that helped to create the feud between the sisters that lasted for more than half a century until Joan Fontaine’s death in December 2013. Their Oscar night snubs are legendary. Both were nominated for Best Actress in 1941 and when Joan won, she allegedly walked by Olivia without acknowledging her. Olivia returned the favor a few years later when she won. Oy. Some have said that their mother started the rivalry by favoring Olivia and forbidding Joan to use the family name when she became an actress. Who knows — maybe their feud was partly responsible for their longevity as each refused to be the first one to die. (Sorry, Joan — we wish you were still here with us and could be with your sister on her 99th birthday!)
There’s no question that Olivia de Havilland was a great actress. Her parts were very serious and she never hesitated to tackle difficult and unglamorous subjects such as mental illness. But she had another side as well. In honor of her birthday, here’s a clip that represents the more playful aspects of her personality.