Olivia de Havilland

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 10:33am

Having just read that she attended Charlton Heston's memorial service, I googled her and found this two year old article. I didn't know about this. I just love her and think she looks beautiful.
She's Still Here

[romantico]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 10:39am

Oh yes, she is still here. When she recorded the interview on the Gone with the Wind Special Edition dvd she also did an interview on a TCM special on Errol Flynn. She tells some great stories. I love Olivia. She has a dirty mind and I love it. She tells about the scene where Robin Hood climbed up the balcony to visit Maid Marion and said something like "Errol's tights became very tight on him all of a sudden". She was a great story teller. She told a story as if it was the first time telling it and you were the only one she was telling it to. The expressions she makes and the tone of her voice when telling it only adds to the thrill of it.Plus her and Bette Davis I hear were close friends (I LOVED HUSH HUSH SWEET CHAROLETTE)What a pair those two must have been at a cocktail party!

Updated On: 4/13/08 at 10:39 AM

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 10:48am

I haven't seen the TCM special. I love the tights story.
I remember reading about Bette and her doing publicity for Charlotte and they got into a small spat. Olivia said to Bette, "How would you like to be doing this with Joan Crawford?"
Bette replied, "How would you like to do this with Joan Fontaine?"

[romantico]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 11:02am

I saw it on a documentary that came with an Errol Flynn box set a year or so ago. I just tried to find it on Youtube with no success. Its worth watching just to hear her stories about Errol. I did however come across this very short clip of her and Bette Davis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pddO_PS0zX8

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 11:05am

Thanks for posting that. I'd love to see the whole thing.

I just found this:

When Olivia de Havilland was 9 years old, she made a will in which she stated "I bequeath all my beauty to my younger sister Joan, since she has none". Updated On: 4/13/08 at 11:05 AM

[kec]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 12:09pm

In 1993 I was in Paris for Easter. I went to the American church on Avenue Georges V for service. It was very crowded, so I ended up sitting behind a large pillar. As I glanced through the Bulletin, I noticed a familiar name -- Olivia De Havilland -- listed as someone reading one of the lessons. I thought -- could it be? The pillar, however, blocked my view of the altar. When that lesson came, and I heard that voice, I nodded my head -- yep, it was. I recognized the voice. After the service was over, I saw her towards the front of the church as I was leaving. She looked wonderful.

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 12:15pm

Kec, that must have been quite a wonderful shock!

[romantico]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 12:37pm

Olivia and her sister Joan Fontaine have to this day never buried the hatchet, which I find sad.

[thatgirl712]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 10:21am

Olivia is very classy!

Diane

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 10:42am

She'll be 92 this July.

She's one of the true screen legends still with us in 2008. She made her film debut in 1935. That's 73 years ago!

And for those of you who only know her from "Gone With the Wind," check out her Oscar-winning performances in To Each His Own and The Heiress. Powerhouse work, in both instances.

[D2]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 10:43am

Not to mention her work in THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 10:51am

Or even Robin Hood! She's so friggin' beautiful in that movie. It's hard to imagine they would even consider her for "plain" Melanie Hamilton in GWTW a year later.

Olivia's first Oscar win in 1946 for To Each His Own particularly "stung" at Warner Bros. It was her first movie back, after almost two years of being in a major law suit with the studio that ended up in the Supreme Court. And she won! They were trying to add her suspension time onto the end of her 7-year contract. So they could punish actors by suspension, and then ADD time to their agreement?

The Supreme Court said, "NO." And that was a huge blow to the entire studio system, when she won her case. Many point to this as one of the chief reasons the Hollywood studio system fell apart. It started in 1946, with this ruling. Followed by another Supreme Court ruling that said Hollywood studios couldn't own movie theatre chains (like Loewe's and the Strand, etc.). It was ruled as a monopoly.

And Olivia's first movie at Warners after her "big win" in the courts, resulted in her first Oscar for Best Actress.

I'm sure Warner Bros. was thrilled and horrified, simultaneously.

In any case, this lady made film history in more ways than one.

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 11:10am

I have expressed my love for "Hush..,Hush, Sweet Charlotte" many a times on this board. (although I can never remember the correct punctuation for the title!)

[WOSQ]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 11:20am

Also Olivia won the NY Film Critics award for The Snake Pit which isn't exactly chopped liver. This along with The Heiress made her a back-to-back winner.

Apparently she and Joan never got along even as small children. I bet both are staying alive out of sheer spite and waiting for the other to die first. It happens.

[D2]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 11:54am

Witness my mother.

[romantico]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 12:10pm

One of my favorite scenes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvh2zswznrg

I bet when Olivia slapped Bette in this film when it first came out the audience cheered!

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 1:07pm

Oddly enough, I have to go to Baton Rouge in two weeks and, of course, will be stopping by Houmas House (Bette's character's house) and Oak Alley (Mary Astor's character's house). I've been to both before, but it's been many years since I've seen them. Very excited!!!!!!!!

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 3:45pm

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 3:49pm

A few years ago, I saw her give a speech to Women in Film or some such televised award and she was magnificent. Great speech and wonderful warm delivery. I was surprised how impressed I was.

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 4:50pm

JohnBoy2, you have got to explain that picture.

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 4:56pm

I like the way Elmer Fudd said her name, too.

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 5:01pm

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 5:07pm

That photo was taken at the 2006 45th Annual International Achievement Summit, at the Academy of Achievement in Los Angeles. Everyone from Supreme Court Judges to who you see in that photo, attends.

[Gingersnap2]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 7:42pm

She's always been one of my favorite actresses - especially in "The Heiress" - and just SO beautiful as a young woman and in those recent photos.

I think I'm going to watch a movie or two tonight.

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/14/08 at 9:41pm

The Adventures of Robin Hood was on late this afternoon. Of course, Olivia was wonderful and beautiful.
Ginger, if you watch some of her movies tonight, please post which ones.