The legendary actress won Academy Awards for her performances in “Gone With the Wind” and “The Heiress.”
Sad news from the City of Lights: Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving superstars from the Golden Age of Hollywood, passed away Sunday at her home in Paris. She was 104.
During an acting career that spanned five decades, de Havilland earned a place of honor in the pantheon of film legends with her compelling portrayal of the kindhearted Melanie Hamilton Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939), and her Oscar-winning performances in To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949).
C&I readers also will remember her stellar work opposite Errol Flynn — her swashbuckling co-star in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1939) — in three classic westerns: Michael Cutiz’s Dodge City (1939) and Santa Fe Trail (1940), and Raoul Walsh’s They Died With Their Boots On (1941). In 1958, she appeared opposite Alan Ladd in another western directed by Curtiz, The Proud Rebel.
De Havilland’s other noteworthy film credits include The Dark Mirror (1946), a cult-fave film noir thriller that cast her in dual roles as twin sisters; The Snake Pit (1948), in which she gave an Oscar-nominated performance as a young woman committed to a mental institution; and My Cousin Rachel (1952), in which she gave a Golden Globe-nominated performance opposite then-newcomer Richard Burton as a possibly murderous woman of mystery.
