Olivia de Havilland

Biography

Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland DBE (July 1, 1916 - July 25, 2020) was a British-American actress, whose career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films, and was one of the leading movie stars during the golden age of Classical Hollywood. She is best known for her early screen performances in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Gone with the Wind (1939), and her later award-winning performances in To Each His Own (1946), The Snake Pit (1948), and The Heiress (1949). Born in Tokyo to British parents, de Havilland and her younger sister, actress Joan Fontaine, moved with their mother to California in 1919. They were brought up by their mother Lilian, a former stage actress who taught them drama, music, and elocution. Olivia de Havilland made her screen debut in Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1935. During her career, she often played demure ingénues opposite popular leading men, including Errol Flynn, with whom she made nine films. They became one of Hollywood's most popular romantic on-screen pairings. She achieved her initial popularity in romantic comedy films, such as The Great Garrick (1937), and in Westerns, such as Dodge City (1939). Her natural beauty and refined acting style made her particularly effective in historical period dramas, such as Anthony Adverse (1936), and romantic dramas, such as Hold Back the Dawn (1941). In her later career, she was most successful in dramas, such as Light in the Piazza (1962), and unglamorous roles in psychological dramas including Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). In addition to her film career, de Havilland continued her work in the theatre, appearing three times on Broadway. She also worked in television, appearing in the successful miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations (1979), and television feature films, such as Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. During her film career, de Havilland won two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two New York Film Critics Circle Awards, the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress, and the Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup. For her contributions to the motion picture industry, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. For her lifetime contribution to the arts, she received the National Medal of Arts from President George W. Bush, and was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. De Havilland and Joan Fontaine are the only siblings to have won Academy Awards in a lead acting category. A lifelong rivalry between the two actresses resulted in an estrangement that lasted over three decades. De Havilland lived in Paris since 1956, and celebrated her 100th birthday on July 1, 2016. In June 2017, two weeks before her 101st birthday, de Havilland was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to drama. She was the oldest woman ever to receive the honour. In a statement, she called it "the most gratifying of birthday presents".

Known For

Melanie Hamilton

Gone with the Wind

Kit Carson Holliday

Santa Fe Trail

Miriam Deering

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Anne d'Autriche

The Fifth Musketeer

Maid Marian

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Honoria Waynflete

Murder Is Easy

Emily Livingston

Airport '77

Princess Maria

Princess O'Rourke

Catherine Sloper

The Heiress

Mrs. Cornelia Hilyard

Lady in a Cage

Self

Thank Your Lucky Stars

Roy Timberlake

In This Our Life

Angela Guiseppe

Anthony Adverse

Virginia Stuart Cunningham

The Snake Pit

Elsa Campbell

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Terry Collins / Ruth Collins

The Dark Mirror

Meg Johnson

Light in the Piazza

Lady Penelope Gray

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

Arabella Bishop

Captain Blood

Elizabeth Bacon

They Died with Their Boots On

Lorri Dillingwell

Four's a Crowd

Maureen Schuester

The Swarm

Abbie Irving

Dodge City

Hermia

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Emmy Brown

Hold Back the Dawn

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage

Elizabeth 'Smokey' Allard

Government Girl

Charlotte Brontë

Devotion

Miss Josephine 'Jody' Norris

To Each His Own

Ellen Turner

The Male Animal

Amy Lind

The Strawberry Blonde

Kristina Hedvigson / Kristina Marsh

Not as a Stranger

Rachel Sangalletti Ashley

My Cousin Rachel

Lady Margaret Anne Loddon

Libel

Linnett Moore

The Proud Rebel

Joan Fisk

The Ambassador's Daughter

Deborah Hadley

The Adventurers

Marcia West

It's Love I'm After

Irene Dale

Wings of the Navy

Self - Actress (also archive footage)

The Adventures of Errol Flynn

Serena Ferris (archive footage)

Out Where the Stars Begin

Self

Inside 'the Swarm'

Dolly Stevens

Alibi Ike

Germaine de la Corbe

The Great Garrick

Laura Wynant

The Screaming Woman

Catherine 'Cath' Hilton

Call It a Day

Ana de Mendoza

That Lady

Gwen

Raffles

Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother

The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana

Lucille Jackson

The Irish in Us

Amelia Cornell

My Love Came Back

Serena Ferris

Gold Is Where You Find It

Margaret "Maggie" Richards

Hard to Get

Self

The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies

Aunt Bessie Merryman

The Woman He Loved

Margie Dawson

The Well Groomed Bride

Herself

Melanie Remembers: Reflections by Olivia de Havilland

Ellie Thompson

Noon Wine

Self

Night of 100 Stars II

Mother Superior

Pope Joan

Self

Errol Flynn: Portrait of a Swashbuckler

Herself (uncredited)

A Dream Comes True

Olivia de Havilland (uncredited)

A Day at Santa Anita

Self

Breakdowns of 1944

Self

Show-Business at War

Self

Cavalcade of the Academy Awards

The Making of a Great Motion Picture

Self - Cast Member in 'Gone with the Wind' (archive footage)

The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind

Self

Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)

Self (archive footage)

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year

Self

Bette Davis: The Benevolent Volcano

Stars on Horseback

Self

Breakdowns of 1942

Self - Actress

Olivia de Havilland, l'insoumise

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

The Extraordinary Seaman