And so, I say:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND!!!!
She is 90 years old today.
Perfectly photogenic Olivia de Havilland began in films in 1935 and achieved stardom with amazing rapidity. She was only 19 when she won critical and popular attention with lead roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream (she portrayed Hermia) and Captain Blood (beginning a teaming with Errol Flynn that would last several years; notorious womanizer Flynn was deeply in love with Olivia for a significant portion of those years, but she resisted his advances). However, lovely Miss de Havilland was not content with being just a pretty leading lady in costume pictures; she began fighting (taking it all the way to court and winning a landmark legal battle) for better roles, despite studio opposition. I, for one, am glad that she did not immediately succeed in her quest, for her Maid Marian (opposite Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood) is a cinematic treasure. However, she found a solid place in the Hollywood pantheon with her sweetly steely Melanie in Gone With the Wind, earning her first Oscar nomination and her only one in the Supporting Actress category (she lost to costar Hattie McDaniel). Her first Best Actress nom came with Hold Back the Dawn; she lost the award this time to younger sister Joan Fontaine! Olivia had the last laugh, though: she received three more Best Actress nominations, winning two of them, for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949). With the 1950s and cultural changes, film roles became scarcer for Olivia, but she kept working some in theatre and television. She is now retired in Paris, France, but active in church work.
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