Olivia de Havilland was born 100 years ago today, on July 1, 1916, in Tokyo. The Oscar-winning actress moved to Paris a little over 60 years ago and still resides there today. I wrote her a letter as a kid and was delighted when I received a lovely response sent from her apartment in the City of Lights. De Havilland is now the best known member of the small club of centenarians or those close to it from the golden age of movies including Mary Carlisle (102), Norman Lloyd (101), Patricia Morrison (101), Kirk Douglas (99), Danielle Darrieux (99), and Marsha Hunt (98).
I don’t think there’s a film Olivia de Havilland made during her illustrious career that I wouldn’t go out of my way to see. My favorites include The Adventures of Robin Hood, Hold Back the Dawn, To Each His Own, 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 terrifying Lady in a Cage and Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte with her old Warner Bros. pal, Bette Davis. And, of course, she will always be remembered for her most famous movie, Gone With the Wind. She was as perfect for the part of Melanie Hamilton Wilkes as Leslie Howard was, in my opinion, unsuited to play Ashley Wilkes.
Olivia first burst on the scene in 1935, at the impossibly young age of 18, when director Max Reinhardt cast her as Hermia in his stage production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Hollywood Bowl after actress Gloria Stuart had to bow out at the last minute. Of the stage cast, Reinhardt brought Olivia and Mickey Rooney (who played Puck) over to the film version of that production which led to de Havilland’s first contract at Warner Brothers.
Here’s how a 1935 article in a movie magazine heralded 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.
Film scholars and movie fans are still debating the details of Olivia’s famous rivalry with her sister, Joan Fontaine, which some say lasted until Fontaine’s death in December 2013. Joan Fontaine dismissed the allegations of a feud before her death but Hollywood loved to speculate about the difficult relationship between the talented sisters. The Oscar night snubs between Olivia and Joan are legendary. Both were nominated for Best Actress in 1941 and when Joan won for Suspicion, she allegedly walked by Olivia without acknowledging her. Olivia returned the favor a few years later when she won her first of two Academy Awards for To Each His Own. 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 go. (Sorry, Joan — we wish you were still here with us and could be with your sister on her centennial!)
Olivia de Havilland was the first actress to successfully sue a Hollywood studio for their unfair contract system that made many actors feel like indentured servants. Warner Bros. kept trying to add time to de Havilland’s seven-year contract because of the suspensions she received as a result of turning down roles that she did not want to play. “I wanted to do complex roles, like Melanie for example, and Jack Warner saw me as an ingenue,” Olivia explained years later. “I was really restless to play more developed human beings. Jack never understood this…and he would give me roles that really had no character or quality in them.” On August 23, 1943, Olivia took Warner Bros. to court for the automatic extensions of her contract. The courts ultimately ruled in her favor, and the De Havilland Decision is still an important part of California’s labor laws.
Olivia de Havilland was one of the greatest movie actresses we’ll ever see. She never hesitated to tackle difficult and unglamorous subject matter such as physical and emotional abuse or mental illness. But she also had a funny, mischievous, and playful side. In honor of her landmark birthday, let’s take a look at one of Olivia’s more unusual screen moments.