Selznick to portray the kindly Melanie in “Gone With the Wind,” losing out on an Oscar for best supporting actress to her history-making African-American co-star, Hattie McDaniel.Īfter her court victory, de Havilland embarked on a varied series of roles in the 1940s that established her as more than an ingenue and great beauty. – with whom she had signed a seven-year contract – loaned her to producer David O. Sidelined for the duration of the lawsuit, de Havilland won the case, and in the process struck a blow for the freedom of actors that had been bound by the strictures of the studio system.īorn in Japan to British parents, de Havilland moved to California as a child and was noticed in a school play by the director Max Reinhardt, who cast her in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” (Her sister, Joan Fontaine, also became a famous actress, although their relationship was notoriously stormy.)ĭe Havilland was still in her teens when she stunningly arrived on screen opposite the swashbuckling Errol Flynn, co-starring in “Captain Blood” in 1935 before playing Maid Marian in “The Adventures of Robin Hood” three years later. – at the height of her career – after the studio suspended her for demanding more substantial roles and rejecting scripts. Olivia de Havilland, star of 'Gone With the Wind,' dies at 104ĭe Havilland, famously, had gone to court to protect her rights before, suing Warner Bros.

(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Hulton Archive/Getty Images She wears a gown, with her hair parted and pulled back. Circa 1939: Promotional studio portrait of American actor Olivia de Havilland, standing in front of a window in a promotional portrait for 'Gone With The Wind'.

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