Olivia de Haviland Turns 100

 Olivia de Haviland

This screen legend turns 100 this July 1. Her birth in 1916 actually took place in Tokyo Japan to British parents. Her mother Lilian Augusta Ruse a former actress and her father Augusta de Haviland who was an English professor and patent attorney. Although her parents divorced when Olivia was just 3 years old it was in High School that the “acting bug” infected her when she was cast in the Shakespeare play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Hardly a coincidence she played in the role again on the stage and then later reprised it in the Warner Brothers screen version.  

Signed to a 7 year contract, as was the norm back then Olivia made 3 films in 1935,  “The Irish in Us”, “Alibi Ike” and the first with the co-star that she would be most closely associated with Errol Flynn, in “Captain Blood”. She would make a total of 8 films with her heartthrob. Although later in life Olivia claimed they never consummated their love affair their ardor was nonetheless very real. 

It was 1939 however, that David O. Selznick would tap her to play the very likable role of Melanie Hamilton in the 1939 blockbuster “Gone With the Wind” in which she would receive her first Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress which would later go to her other co-star Hattie McDaniel. In 1941 she was nominated again only this time to lose to her sister Joan Fontaine for best actress in the role opposite Cary Grant in “Suspicion”.  

As her successes continue to mount Olivia balked at the roles she was receiving from the studio and a court battle ensued. For 6 years as the suit continued Olivia was kept off the silver screen but in the end the court ruled in her favor and no longer could actors be held to contracts longer than 7 years. Performers could no longer be ‘property’ as studios contended they were. The decision became known as the “de Haviland decision”. 

Eventually she won her best actor Oscar in 1946 in  “To Each His Own”. Olivia now lives quietly in Paris France. She is also the subject of TCM’s star of the month in view of her Centennial birthday this month alongside a written tribute from her friend and the venerable TCM host and film historian Robert Osborne. This month the classic movie channel in honor of her birthday will feature 39 of her films some of them memorable and some not so memorable. All nonetheless worthy viewing of one of the last remaining living legends of the silver screen Olivia de Haviland.  There’s still one more turning 100 this year can you guess who it is?