Olivia de Havilland, actress and activist, dies at 104
Print Edition
Olivia de Havilland, the doe-eyed actress beloved to millions as the sainted Melanie Wilkes of 鈥淕one With the Wind鈥 but also a two-time Oscar winner and an off-screen fighter who challenged and unchained Hollywood鈥檚 contract system, died on Sunday at her home in Paris. She was 104.
De Havilland, the sister of fellow Oscar winner Joan Fontaine, died peacefully of natural causes, said New York-based publicist Lisa Goldberg.
She was among the last of the top screen performers from the studio era, and the last surviving lead from 鈥淕one With the Wind,鈥 an irony, she once noted, since the fragile, self-sacrificing Melanie Wilkes was the only major character to die in the film. The 1939 epic, based on Margaret Mitchell鈥檚 best-selling Civil War novel and winner of 10 Academy Awards, is often ranked as Hollywood鈥檚 box office champion, although it is now widely criticized for its glorified portrait of slavery and pre-war life.
The pinnacle of producer David O Selznick鈥檚 career, the movie had a troubled off-screen story.
Three directors worked on the film, stars Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable were far more connected on screen than off and the fourth featured performer, Leslie Howard, was indifferent to the role of Ashley Wilkes, Melanie鈥檚 husband. But de Havilland remembered the movie as 鈥渙ne of the happiest experiences I鈥檝e ever had in my life. It was doing something I wanted to do, playing a character I loved and liked.鈥
During a career that spanned six decades, de Havilland also took on roles ranging from an unwed mother to a psychiatric inmate in 鈥淭he Snake Pit,鈥 a personal favorite.
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