Olivia de Havilland, Hollywood's Golden Age Star

Actress Stars in Captain Blood, Robin Hood, Gone With the Wind

Jul 4, 2009

Olivia de Havilland's career spanned Hollywood's Golden Age to the modern cinema's gritty themes. Now 93 and living in Paris, Olivia still enjoys world-wide popularity.

Olivia Mary de Havilland was born July 1, 1916 in Tokyo, Japan. Her father was a British patent attorney, Walter Augustus de Havilland (1872-1968), and her mother was Lilian Augusta Ruse (1888-1975) an actress known as Lilian Fontaine. Her younger sister is Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland, known to movie audiences as Joan Fontaine.

Olivia’s first big movie role was playing Hermia, one of the love-crossed of lovers in William Shakespeare’s comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, produced by Warner Brothers in 1935. She had played this part in a school production and in Max Reinhart’s production at the Hollywood Bowl.

The Sword Movies

Then in 1935, Olivia stepped into Hollywood legend by playing opposite Errol Flynn in Captain Blood. Their screen chemistry enchanted the public, and the movie studio quickly paired them in a series of movies, including The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), where Olivia played the spirited Lady Marian Fitzwalter to Errol’s dashing Robin Hood. In later life both Olivia and Errol confirmed that they had been in love, yet never able to be together as a couple.

In 1939, Warner Brothers lent Olivia to MGM, for David Selznick’s production of Gone with the Wind. Olivia’s portrayal of Melanie, the shy girl with inner strength, served as a gentle foil to Vivian Leigh’s flashing Scarlet O’Hara. Olivia was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Her co-star, Hattie McDaniel playing Mammy, won, being the first black actress to win an Academy Award.

1945 The de Havilland Law, California Labor Code 2855

After returning to Warner Bros., Olivia felt stifled by the ingénue roles assigned to her. She was under a seven year contract, but refused to act in some of the films, and thus was “suspended.” When her contract was up, Warner Bros. maintained that she still owed them the suspended time, and were in a position to extend her contract indefinitely. Olivia filed a lawsuit and won. The superior court’s ruling was upheld at the court of appeals level. This ruling is known as the “de Havilland Law” and ensured that actors could not be held indefinitely at a studio’s whim.

In 1946, now free from Warners, Olivia must have felt gratification to win her first Academy Award, for Best Actress. The film To Each His Own, offered her a challenging role of an unwed mother whose son was raised by another family in town. Mitchell Leisen was the director, who also directed Olivia’s sister Joan in Frenchman’s Creek (1944).

In two of her next films, Olivia further distanced herself from light comedy and ingénue roles by playing characters with mental illness. In The Dark Mirror (1946), Olivia assumed the parts of two twins, one good and one evil. This effort was followed by The Snake Pit (1948), with its realistic view of mental illness and the harmful practices at state institutions.

In 1949, Olivia starred in The Heiress, playing a plain rich girl whose father interferes in her love life. This character won Olivia her second Academy Award, for Best Actress. Her range from innocence to love, to being hurt and turning bitter, still resonates with audiences today.

In 1952 Olivia played the title role in My Cousin Rachel, from a novel by Daphne du Maurier, with newcomer Richard Burton as the young man in love with the older woman. In this Gothic tale, Olivia as Rachel kept all viewers in suspense, not knowing if she was innocent or guilty being a murderess.

Later Films of Thrillers, Suspense, Drama, and Horror

With maturity, Olivia seasoned the transition to more complicated parts in thrillers, suspense, drama, or horror films. While many of these films were panned critically, or forgotten, others continue to impress audiences with Olivia's range of talent.

In this 1964 film starring with Betty Davis, Joseph Cotton, and Agnes Moorehead, Olivia played the conniving cousin of an aging Southern belle, played by Betty Davis. The juxtaposition of the old Southern mansion hearkened back to the scene of Scarlet returning to the damaged Tara, and Olivia used her sweet face that alluded to Melanie, as a jumping point into the mind of a woman consumed with envy and hatred.

In 1964, Olivia appeared with James Caan in Lady in a Cage, a tale of a woman taken prisoner by wayward youths, but who manages to take vengeance on those who tormented her.

These films would influence at least one other artist. In his book On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King remembers seeing both these movies at the cinema in the less affluent section of his hometown.

“I saw Olivia de Havilland put out James Caan’s eyes with makeshift knives in Lady in a Cage, saw Joseph Cotten come back from the dead in Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte…”

Olivia Today

Today, Olivia lives in Paris. Her most recent appearances were at the 2003 Oscars. In 2008, she accepted a National Medal for the Arts.

The copyright of the article Olivia de Havilland, Hollywood's Golden Age Star in Classic Films is owned by Teresa Knudsen. Permission to republish Olivia de Havilland, Hollywood's Golden Age Star in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.