Olivia de Havilland, 100, becomes oldest ever Dame : The Last Surviving Legend of the Golden Age of Films

[SirLinksALot]

SOURCE: THE DAILY MAIL

URL : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4612154/Olivia-Havilland-100-oldest-Dame.html


She’s one of the last surviving legends of Hollywood’s golden age.

Her beauty and enigmatic smile saw Olivia de Havilland play alongside the biggest names of the silver screen – Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift.
Off screen she was romanced by the likes of Jimmy Stewart, John Huston and Howard Hughes – and reportedly turned down the advances of John F Kennedy. She won two best actress Oscars in a career spanning six decades and 49 feature films – many of them considered to be classics.

But it is only now – two weeks before her 101st birthday – that the Gone With The Wind actress has been given a damehood for services to drama. It makes her the oldest woman ever to receive the honour. In a statement, she called it ‘the most gratifying of birthday presents’.

For all her talent in front of the cameras, Dame Olivia – born to British parents in Tokyo – is also famous for the feud with her younger sister starlet Joan Fontaine, who took the surname of their mother’s second husband.

Both sisters refused to speak for 38 years up to Miss Fontaine’s death, aged 96, in 2013.

To this day, Dame Olivia and Miss Fontaine, who won a best actress Oscar for her role in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1941 thriller Suspicion, remain the only siblings to have won major Oscars.
Dame Olivia hit gold early in her career, with a role alongside Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939).

The actress, then 23, picked up her first Oscar nomination for her performance as Melanie Hamilton, sister-in-law of protagonist Scarlett O’Hara played by Miss Leigh. She was also celebrated for her work with Errol Flynn on films including The Charge Of The Light Brigade (1936) and The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938), with the pair hailed as a perfect on-screen match.

Later, she won her two best actress Oscars for romantic drama To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949).

The double Oscar winner is responsible for the so-called ‘De Havilland Law’, a landmark 1944 ruling that ended the tight grip studios had on contract actors and was widely seen as the beginning of the end for the old Hollywood studio system.

It came after Dame Olivia sued Warner Brothers in 1940 when the studio extended her seven-year contract, to account for time she had spent on ‘suspension’ for rejecting roles that executives wanted her to play.

(EXCERPT) CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST....

[SirLinksALot]

OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND WITH ERROL FLYNN

OLIVIA IN GONE WITH THE WIND


Dame Olivia pictured in Paris in 2011

[jmyrlefuller]

Dame Olivia de Havilland is also responsible for a crucial legal precedent: when your contract says years, it literally means calendar years, not elapsed time working. So if you sign a seven-year contract, they can't claim you only worked 40 hours a week and stretch it out to 29 calendar years, like they did before de Havilland called them out on it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Law

[skeeter]

de Havilland is a bit of a local celebrity here in Los Gatos - she went to our local high school for awhile in the 30s. She even made the trip from France to give the commencement address a few years back.

[catfish1957]

Dame Olivia hit gold early in her career, with a role alongside Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939).

The actress, then 23, picked up her first Oscar nomination for her performance as Melanie Hamilton, sister-in-law of protagonist Scarlett O’Hara played by Miss Leigh.

Watched Gone with the Wind for about the 12th time a few weeks ago. Fell in love with Melanie Hamilton for the 12th time too. ^-^

[jpsb]

She is one of my favorites, quite attractive and always classy.

[catfish1957]

She is one of my favorites, quite attractive and always classy.

Wow, that's quite risqué for the early '30's.  .....and quite Hawt I'd say.

[Frank Cannon]

She was only in one of the finest cinematic triumphs ever......

[Emjay]

Watched Gone with the Wind for about the 12th time a few weeks ago. Fell in love with Melanie Hamilton for the 12th time too. ^-^

I watched it four times in a row early on.  But when I tried to watch it again, I just couldn't stand Scarlett O'Hara to the point that I couldn't watch it.

But Yahoo just said this is the summer dress that everyone should have. 

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Smokin Joe]

Watched Gone with the Wind for about the 12th time a few weeks ago. Fell in love with Melanie Hamilton for the 12th time too. ^-^

Yeah.....Scarlet was so overrated. (Not that Vivian Leigh wasn't a dish, too!)

[Smokin Joe]

I watched it four times in a row early on.  But when I tried to watch it again, I just couldn't stand Scarlett O'Hara to the point that I couldn't watch it.

But Yahoo just said this is the summer dress that everyone should have.

If I need to reupholster the cabana....maybe.  That 'O-pressed' suit might not catch on so well, though.

[catfish1957]

If I need to reupholster the cabana....maybe.  That 'O-pressed' suit might not catch on so well, though.

I think almost all of us dated at least one Scarlett O in our youth.  That special one that knew how to put the "B" in B____.

[Smokin Joe]

I think almost all of us dated at least one Scarlett O in our youth.  That special one that knew how to put the "B" in B____.

I can think of a couple. One had a future in personnel management--had 5 of us on a string for a while and none knew the others were involved until we all sat down to lunch and started talking about our girlfriends....make that girlfriend. We were bemused, to say the least. Her last name was Hunt, and after that we had meetings of 'The Hunt Club' fairly regularly for about a year, just to drink and BS. After all, we were a pretty decent bunch (she had good taste, apparently). 

[catfish1957]

I can think of a couple. One had a future in personnel management--had 5 of us on a string for a while and none knew the others were involved until we all sat down to lunch and started talking about our girlfriends....make that girlfriend. We were bemused, to say the least. Her last name was Hunt, and after that we had meetings of 'The Hunt Club' fairly regularly for about a year, just to drink and BS. After all, we were a pretty decent bunch (she had good taste, apparently). 

Mine that comes most to mind was a rebound college relationship with a hot Venezuelan coed.  Given my redneck upbringing and '70's SE Texas timeframe, this was scandalous family wise.  Soon however I determined she had Dom Perignon tastes that weren't being satisfied with my Lone Star Beer Budget.  Eventually, a few well timed calls from friends alerted me that she had started sampling local Texas cuisine.  That was the end of that.

A funny side note though.   Until then my father had a running joke every time he heard I was dating someone new.  It was always prefaced....   "Is she a white girl?"   Noticed after her he stopped doing that. 

[Smokin Joe]

Mine that comes most to mind was a rebound college relationship with a hot Venezuelan coed.  Given my redneck upbringing and '70's SE Texas timeframe, this was scandalous family wise.  Soon however I determined she had Dom Perignon tastes that weren't being satisfied with my Lone Star Beer Budget.  Eventually, a few well timed calls from friends alerted me that she had started sampling local Texas cuisine.  That was the end of that.

A funny side note though.   Until then my father had a running joke every time he heard I was dating someone new.  It was always prefaced....   "Is she a white girl?"   Noticed after her he stopped doing that.

Our family goes way back in MD, and some of the folks down there have a highfalutin' idea about pedigrees and all that. I reckon if you have one, you just don't worry about it so much. (We always saw them as acting like nouveau riche folks anyway.) When Mrs Joe and I got engaged, I told my mother, "Mom, I found a girl from an older family!" (My wife is Chippewa.)

[mountaineer]

Olivia in her "senior" years is a very classy and elegant lady. Loved her in GWTW. It's hard to watch Scarlett without thinking about what a whackjob Vivien Leigh was. I love the movie, though.

[Free Vulcan]

I think almost all of us dated at least one Scarlett O in our youth.  That special one that knew how to put the "B" in B____.

Yeah that and a couple that put the "C" in C_____

[NavyCanDo]

She is one of my favorites, quite attractive and always classy.

Yes she was, they all were. Unlike my wife who has a whole list of today's Hollywood hunks she is enamoured with, all of my Hollywood sweeties are dead or over 90. There are none that compare in todays Hollywood.

[mountaineer]

Yes she was, they all were. Unlike my wife who has a whole list of today's Hollywood hunks she is enamoured with, all of my Hollywood sweeties are dead or over 90. There are none that compare in todays Hollywood.

I can't think of any current male "stars" for whom I'd cross the street. They're just not good looking anymore, in my opinion. 

[Smokin Joe]

Yes she was, they all were. Unlike my wife who has a whole list of today's Hollywood hunks she is enamoured with, all of my Hollywood sweeties are dead or over 90. There are none that compare in todays Hollywood.

It was a different era, where women in Hollywood were expected to act like ladies in public and keep scandal to a minimum Not that there were no 'scandals', but with few exceptions they were not considered to be good for a career. Marilyn changed that with one picture, and things went down hill from there. Now, it seems to be a contest to see who can be the skankiest, trashiest, girl you'd never bring home to the family type.

I prefer the 'Ivory girl' image, myself. (On GIlligan's Island, I'd have been cozying up to MaryAnn, not Ginger.)

[musiclady]

I watched it four times in a row early on.  But when I tried to watch it again, I just couldn't stand Scarlett O'Hara to the point that I couldn't watch it.

I hear you.   One of the worst characters in literature, IMO.

But I think we may be alone in that opinion......

[musiclady]

I can't think of any current male "stars" for whom I'd cross the street. They're just not good looking anymore, in my opinion. 

Two guys named Chris are.........  Pine and Hemsworth.

I don't think any women acting today have the beauty of stars like Maureen O'Hara, Jeannette MacDonald, Vera Miles, Grace Kelly, or a slew of others.

Classic beauty must not sell these days.

[berdie]

I hear you.   One of the worst characters in literature, IMO.

But I think we may be alone in that opinion......

Nah...you aren't alone. But Scarlett is a survivor you have to admit.

[musiclady]

Nah...you aren't alone. But Scarlett is a survivor you have to admit.

Indeed.

And most of what she survived was of her own making.


Well............ I guess not the war part.  :dx1:

[berdie]

@musiclady

I guess the war played a pretty big part of her personality. If there is ever a GWTW thread and I miss it, could you give me a ping? I've probably read the book about 5 thousand times. ^-^

I even thought about writing a book about all that might have happened o the minor characters. And I might do that when I retire. If I ever get to retire...