Index

Biog. >> Mailing Address >> Photo Gallery >> Film Poster Gallery >> Olivia De Havilland Autographs in Stock >> Gone With The Wind >> Agatha Christie's Murder Is Easy >> Olivia de Havilland Books & Dvds available @ amazon.com >> Search Site

Biography

Born in 1916 in Japan to a British patent attorney and his actress wife, Olivia de Havilland succumbed to the lure of Thespis while attending high school in Los Gatos, CA, where she played Hermia in an amateur production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The older sister of actress Joan Fontaine, de Havilland was spotted by famed director Max Reinhardt, who cast her in his legendary Hollywood Bowl production of the play. This led to her part in the Warner Bros. film adaptation of Midsummer in 1935, and being signed to a long-term contract with the company.

Considering herself a classical actress, de Havilland tried to refuse the traditional ingenue roles offered her by the studio, which countered by telling her she'd be ruined in Hollywood if she didn't co-operate. Loaned out to David O. Selznick, de Havilland played Melanie Hamilton in Gone With the Wind (1939), earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in the process.

Although she didn't come out on top that year, she would later win two Best Actress Oscars, the first for 1946's To Each His Own, and then again for 1949's The Heiress. De Havilland also made news when she sued Warner Bros. for extending her seven-year contract by tacking on the months she'd been on suspension for refusing to take a part. The actress spent three long years off the screen, but she ultimately won her case, and the "De Havilland Law," as it would become known, effectively destroyed the studios' ability to virtually enslave their contractees by unfairly extending their contract time.

After completing The Heiress, de Havilland spent several years on Broadway, cutting down her subsequent film appearances to approximately one per year.

In 1955, she moved to France with her second husband, Paris Match editor Pierre Galante; she later recalled her Paris years with the semiautobiographical Every Frenchman Has One.

De Havilland showed up in a brace of profitable fading-star horror films in the '60s: Lady in a Cage (1964) and Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965), in which she replaced Joan Crawford.

During the next decade, she appeared in a number of TV productions and in such all-star film efforts as Airport '77 (1977) and The Swarm (1978) (a film about he invasion of killer bees and so bad a film that her co-star, Michael Caine, said that when 20,000 bees were shitting all over him he should have known this was an awful movie).

After a number of TV appearances (if not always starring roles) in the '80s, de Havilland once more found herself in the limelight in 1989, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Gone With the Wind. As the only surviving star from this film, she was much sought after for interviews and reminiscences, but graciously refused almost every request.

She continues to live in Paris.

Olivia de Havilland Dvds are available @ amazon.com.

Mailing Address

Olivia De Havilland
3 Rue Benouville
75016 Paris
France

Gallery :: Photos

Below are some random photos from ... can you guess?

Olivia de Havilland Photos are available @ amazon.com.

Gallery :: Film Posters

Gone With The Wind bestrides her career in a way it doesn't with her co-stars. Gable had a host of films associated with him when you think about his film career; Leigh had Streetcar; and Leslie Howard had Scarlet and a few others even though he died not that long after the film. By contrast, Olivia's name is forever linked to this film like a soap star to a soap.

That is unfair as she is one of the best actresses Hollywood has ever produced and has a body of work the majority of actors would die for. Below is a reminder of the variety of her career.

You won't be surprised to know but the company with the most varied of Olivia de Havilland repro. film posters is amazon. There are a vast array of her posters there - far, far more than here.

They come in various sizes and usually work out to be less than $10 per poster which I don't think is too bad. You get an unusual and beautiful item to hang on your walls and I bet your friends won't have it.

Here, occasionally, you will find an original poster from the time of the release of the movie. They are obviously far more expensive but if you have the money they are worth it as they are works of art in their own right.

Olivia de Havilland Film Posters available @ amazon.com.