Olivia de Havilland at age 100: 7/1/2016

[+ WilliamM]

http://cache2.asset-cache.net/gc/71235722-screen-legend-olivia-de-havilland-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=OCUJ5gVf7YdJQI2Xhkc2QEJR1Ww835%2F2kplQCwMjsfuyr5wNvub%2BDGSfSBIvbFGkjZEbrAWrFb4X56PlfSvzUQ%3D%3D

 

 

Happy birthday to the last living star of "Gone with The Wind" and many other wonderful films.

[Despardo]

Wow, she is still with us. Her Oscar winning performance in "The Heiress" is my personal favorite--terrific film, amazing cast.

[Moondance]

Miss Mellie

http://66.media.tumblr.com/6ebee13437b01f5f424f34b1ffa0a282/tumblr_nm74b22PAo1u9813ao1_500.jpg

Olivia and Oscar (1946 for To Each His Own; 1949 for The Heiress)

[longtime lurker]

Her pairings with Errol Flynn have aged nicely including The Adventures of Robin Hood. I was always been partial to Captain Blood myself. She may not have always gotten along with her sister Joan Fontane, but she and Bette Davis were great buddies.

[Moondance]

...she and Bette Davis were great buddies.

[Kenny]

I've always enjoyed The Feud -- Olivia and her sis, Joan Fontaine: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/joan-fontaine-olivia-de-havilland-666087

[+ glennnn]

Hallelujah! A great actress and the last of the great stars! Her legal battle with the studio (Warner Brothers I think) freed her fellow performers from what amounted to servitude. She never gave a bad performance, even in poor material beneath her talent. I'm thrilled that she is still with us. What a woman!

[Moondance]

Just came across this dandy image of Kirk Douglas and Olivia from the early '50s. Kirk turns 100 this December.

[marylander1940]

[longtime lurker]

 

Another one your video *sent* me to. This interview was 10 years ago when she was 90.

 

[+ WilliamM]

 

Olivia is the mystery guest on "What's My Line" 1965.

 

Full show, Mystery guest at 18:08

 

Added later for @Kenny: Nasty quote from perhaps one of her friends: "She wants to live as long as possible just in case there's an afterlife and Joan's there."

[body2body]

She saw The Heiress on Broadway, and immediately called William Wyler and persuaded him to fly to New York to see the play. She then persuaded Paramount to buy the rights to play for $250,000 ( quite a sum in 1948) and hire the Goetz's to write the screenplay for an additional $10,000 a week. She had really good instincts regarding the roles she chose. When de Havilland got the lead in The Snake Pit, she threw herself into research for the role, she hired psychiatrists as consultants, interviewed mental patients, and visited the State Mental Hospital at Camarillo, several times to view patients, including viewing hydrotherapy, and electric shock therapy sessions. Her performance was ground breaking, and even today is harrowing to watch.

[marylander1940]

[+ honcho]

Olivia is the mystery guest on "What's My Line" 1965.

 

To go completely off-topic I was a bit surprised to hear an English horn (tenor oboe) taking solo turn in the theme music early on . . . never noticed that before

[+ WilliamM]

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/olivia-de-havilland-joan-fontaine-feud-9.jpg

 

Posted on the Internet on her birthday, but not necessarily taken then.

[body2body]

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/olivia-de-havilland-joan-fontaine-feud-9.jpg

 

Posted in the Internet on her birthday, but not necessarily taken then.

The photo was taken in 2006 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where they screened The Heiress, and Miss de Havilland generously agreed to speak and answer questions after the screening.

[MrMiniver]

She basically can no longer hear or see which is why she no longer makes public appearances but she is very generous with e-mail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She's a wonderful correspondent. Still sharp as a tack. As for the feud, it was mostly one sided. Joan Fontaine was a complete nasty bitch -- and didn't have half the talent that Olivia had -- and I think the so-called feud suited her purposes.

[actor61]

She saw The Heiress on Broadway, and immediately called William Wyler and persuaded him to fly to New York to see the play. She then persuaded Paramount to buy the rights to play for $250,000 ( quite a sum in 1948) and hire the Goetz's to write the screenplay for an additional $10,000 a week. She had really good instincts regarding the roles she chose. When de Havilland got the lead in The Snake Pit, she threw herself into research for the role, she hired psychiatrists as consultants, interviewed mental patients, and visited the State Mental Hospital at Camarillo, several times to view patients, including viewing hydrotherapy, and electric shock therapy sessions. Her performance was ground breaking, and even today is harrowing to watch.

I think the reason her performance in "The Heiress" is so good is because it's quite brave from the inside rather than the outside. So often, lovely, appealing actresses take roles in which they don't have to look good to prove their chops and the less talented ones just end up looking like actresses without make-up trying to prove their chops but de Havilland's performance as Catherine is complete and brutally honest. Her transformation from the shy, damaged young woman detested by her father to the embittered bitch she becomes after Morris likewise betrays her all comes from within. There is no phoniness in the performance, no desire to project a sense of "aren't I brilliant for being so awful?" She and Wyler made Catherine a complete and ultimately loathsome human being and the movie is superb as a result. And by the way, it also contains 2 other sensational performances from Ralph Richardson and Miriam Hopkins. Montgomery Clift? Meh.

[MrMiniver]

I think the reason her performance in "The Heiress" is so good is because it's quite brave from the inside rather than the outside. So often, lovely, appealing actresses take roles in which they don't have to look good to prove their chops and the less talented ones just end up looking like actresses without make-up trying to prove their chops but de Havilland's performance as Catherine is complete and brutally honest. Her transformation from the shy, damaged young woman detested by her father to the embittered bitch she becomes after Morris likewise betrays her all comes from within. There is no phoniness in the performance, no desire to project a sense of "aren't I brilliant for being so awful?" She and Wyler made Catherine a complete and ultimately loathsome human being and the movie is superb as a result. And by the way, it also contains 2 other sensational performances from Ralph Richardson and Miriam Hopkins. Montgomery Clift? Meh.

 

I pretty much agree with you. I like Clift a bit better but not much. He's the weak link here. William Wyler brought out the best in performers, there's no question. Bette Davis did her best, most restrained work for Wyler. He kept her in check. DeHavilland in The Heiress is one of the great performances in cinema history.

[actor61]

I pretty much agree with you. I like Clift a bit better but not much. He's the weak link here. William Wyler brought out the best in performers, there's no question. Bette Davis did her best, most restrained work for Wyler. He kept her in check. DeHavilland in The Heiress is one of the great performances in cinema history.

Just to continue the thoughts about Wyler, I think the best performance he ever got from an actor was Audrey Hepburn's in "Roman Holiday". She was a gorgeous, delightful human being with that indefinable magic that great movie stars always have. He was able to capture it without distilling it and got a heartbreaking, funny and complex performance out of her in what would otherwise have been a fairly mundane 1950s rom-com. And consequently, she won an Oscar as so many women in Wyler films have done. I have never been a Bette Davis fan but I think what Wyler got out of her in "The Letter" was remarkable. Most people cite "Jezebel" or "The Little Foxes" as her superior achievements with him but for me, it's her brittle evil in "The Letter" that is an actor's performance rather than a star's performance.

 

But as brilliant (and apparently brutal) as Wyler was with actors, he couldn't get anything out of Charlton Heston in the 2 films they made together. How Heston was granted an Oscar for "Ben Hur" baffles me, and he is so over-the-top in "The Big Country" as to be laughable. I've never understood the appeal of Heston but a lot of people liked him including, I guess, Wyler. It's strange that he couldn't rein in Heston's hamminess because although Wyler was best known for his "women's films" (like his contemporary George Cukor), the men in his movies were always at their best too. Watch Frederic March, Dana Andrews in "Best Years of Our Lives", Herbert Marshall in "The Letter" and "The Little Foxes", Ralph Richarson in "The Heiress", Gregory Peck in "Roman Holiday" and "The Big Country", Burl Ives in "The Big Country" for which he won Supporting Actor, for example; they are all better with him than they were with any other directors.

 

I could go on and on but I need my second cup of coffee!

[MrMiniver]

Just to continue the thoughts about Wyler, I think the best performance he ever got from an actor was Audrey Hepburn's in "Roman Holiday". She was a gorgeous, delightful human being with that indefinable magic that great movie stars always have. He was able to capture it without distilling it and got a heartbreaking, funny and complex performance out of her in what would otherwise have been a fairly mundane 1950s rom-com. And consequently, she won an Oscar as so many women in Wyler films have done. I have never been a Bette Davis fan but I think what Wyler got out of her in "The Letter" was remarkable. Most people cite "Jezebel" or "The Little Foxes" as her superior achievements with him but for me, it's her brittle evil in "The Letter" that is an actor's performance rather than a star's performance.

 

But as brilliant (and apparently brutal) as Wyler was with actors, he couldn't get anything out of Charlton Heston in the 2 films they made together. How Heston was granted an Oscar for "Ben Hur" baffles me, and he is so over-the-top in "The Big Country" as to be laughable. I've never understood the appeal of Heston but a lot of people liked him including, I guess, Wyler. It's strange that he couldn't rein in Heston's hamminess because although Wyler was best known for his "women's films" (like his contemporary George Cukor), the men in his movies were always at their best too. Watch Frederic March, Dana Andrews in "Best Years of Our Lives", Herbert Marshall in "The Letter" and "The Little Foxes", Ralph Richarson in "The Heiress", Gregory Peck in "Roman Holiday" and "The Big Country", Burl Ives in "The Big Country" for which he won Supporting Actor, for example; they are all better with him than they were with any other directors.

 

I could go on and on but I need my second cup of coffee!

 

Much to agree with you on and much to disagree with you on. I like Roman Holiday somewhat but without Hepburn I couldn't watch it. She's magical. Peck is the most boring actor in the entire history of cinema and that includes Keanu Reeves. I can't abide him for even a second. I'll disagree about Heston. I think his performance in Ben Hur is top notch. I find most people who don't like him are really reacting to his high profile political profile instead of his actual acting. I defy anyone with a heart to not be moved by the final scene of Ben Hur with Heston walking up the stairs with tears in his eyes. THAT's a movie star.

 

I like Davis but I find her performances don't age as well as Stanwyck or Crawford. I also agree with you that her performance in Wyler's The Letter is the finest of the three. He gets so much out of her without letting her chew the scenery which she often did.

 

I've taught film for years and I've never heard a single soul say Wyler was known for his "women's films." If anything he is known as a literary director, not a visual one which I don't think is quite fair but I get the comment.

[actor61]

In a film class I took at UCLA once, the professor gave his list of the 3 greatest performances ever given onscreen by a woman. They were: Lillian Gish in "The Wind", Barbara Stanwyck in "Stella Dallas" and Emma Thompson in "Howard's End". I didn't disagree with him but I would have expanded the list to 5 and included Vivien Leigh in "Streetcar Named Desire" and Cicely Tyson in "Sounder". (The list was confined to English speaking films; otherwise, some very fine European performances would have been mentioned - Giuletta Masina in "Nights of Cabiria" comes immediately to mind.)

 

We will never agree on Charlton Heston! And my opinion of him has nothing to do with his politics, as abhorrent to me as they were. He was just of that generation of actors that I found so difficult to watch or appreciate because they were so big and noisy - Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Heston, Stephen Boyd. Too macho for me. Too conscious of their own greatness.

 

I disagree with you about Peck. I think he's very fine in a lot of movies, such as "Keys of the Kingdom", "Mockingbird", "Boys from Brazil".

 

"Roman Holiday" was originally intended for Elizabeth Taylor and would have subsequently been a lousy movie. Taylor would have LOOKED like a princess but Hepburn WAS a princess - the posture, the accent, the manners, the slight haughtiness, the incomprehension of "ordinary" things.

 

I'm a huge Stanwyck fan. I never liked Crawford and find Bette Davis almost impossible to watch in most things, "The Letter" being the exception. My favorites of their contemporaries were Claudette Colbert, Loretta Young, de Havilland, and sometimes, not always, the other Hepburn - Kate. I especially liked the movies Stanwyck made with Fred MacMurray, "Remember the Night" being the best. That cast also included the divine Beulah Bondi, one of the greatest character actors ever. I liked Norma Shearer a lot too, when she wasn't being grand. She is sublime in the last third of "Marie Antoinette", especially in her scenes with the children when they are imprisoned in the Temple. In fact, she's always good with kids; her best scenes in "The Women" are with her daughter. She's bad when she's "cute" and when she didn't have a strong director, she tended to rely on "cute" a lot. Watch her in "Private Lives" - you'll want to smack her. She has moments in "Barretts of Wimpole Street" but is mostly acted off the screen by Charles Laughton and Frederic March, even though the movie was a vehicle for her. I liked Ginger Rogers in her non musical roles too. I understand why she got the Oscar for "Kitty Foyle"; it's a lousy movie but she's quite wonderful in it. She elevates the soap opera material in a way that I never thought Davis did in her melodramas. I read that Rogers was offered "All This and Heaven Too", and I think it would have been a much finer picture with her as the disgraced governess than it was with Bette Davis pretending to be shy and awkward. I know that "Now Voyager" is a beloved film but I find it unwatchable because of Davis' performance; she seems to be wearing a sign throughout that says, "Aren't I just a great actress, folks? First I'm ugly and then I'm beautiful! You should be SO impressed."

 

It's funny that I didn't like Davis and Crawford but I always enjoyed Susan Hayward. Now there's a woman who defined "over-the-top" but for me, she was so much more fun to watch and not nearly as annoying as the other 2 divas because there was a core of honesty in Hayward that I never sensed in Crawford or Davis. Davis was always Davis acting with a capital A, and Crawford just always seemed to be looking for her key light but Hayward seemed to want to be good, knew her limitations, and didn't have the crippling vanity the others did.

 

As for Audrey Hepburn, I'd have watched her read the phone book, as the saying goes. I even liked her in "My Fair Lady". When she comes down that staircase in that white ball gown, it takes your breath away. It is one of the most perfect moments ever filmed.

 

Oh dear, I've gone on and on. I'm an actor/singer/dancer, and passionate about my profession so when you get me on the subject of theatre, movies, theatre/movie history, great performances, lousy performances, directors and stars, I don't know when to shut up.

[+ WilliamM]

In a film class I took at UCLA once, the professor gave his list of the 3 greatest performances ever given onscreen by a woman. They were: Lillian Gish in "The Wind", Barbara Stanwyck in "Stella Dallas" and Emma Thompson in "Howard's End". I didn't disagree with him but I would have expanded the list to 5 and included Vivien Leigh in "Streetcar Named Desire" and Cicely Tyson in "Sounder"

 

First, I wish you would post more often.

 

Second, How do you explain that one the most critically admired (even more so lately) U.S. films is Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." Kim Novak is not in the same class as the actresses you mentioned, yet she is at the center of this great film, along with James Stewart. You seldom see a poll of critic's best films of all time lately where "Vertigo." is not mentioned as one of top two films of all time.

 

I have an answer, but I would greatly appreciate hearing what you think.

[MrMiniver]

First, I wish you would post more often.

 

Second, How do you explain that one the most critically admired (even more so lately) U.S. films is Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." Kim Novak is not in the same class as the actresses you mentioned, yet she is at the center of this great film, along with James Stewart. You seldom see a poll of critic's best films of all time lately where "Vertigo." is not mentioned as one of top two films of all time.

 

I have an answer, but I would greatly appreciate hearing what you think.

 

Kim Novak couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag but acting isn't required of her in VERTIGO, which is, IMHO, the greatest film ever made. She isn't the center of the film at all. It's Stewart's film. It's all about him and his obsessions. Stewart's performance, on the other hand, is genius. I remember Marty Scorcese saying once and I'm paraphrasing ... "you don't have to believe the plot, I don't believe the plot at all. The plot is just a string on which to hang pure poetry. That's what Hitchcock does and I believe every minute of it."

[MrMiniver]

In a film class I took at UCLA once, the professor gave his list of the 3 greatest performances ever given onscreen by a woman. They were: Lillian Gish in "The Wind", Barbara Stanwyck in "Stella Dallas" and Emma Thompson in "Howard's End". I didn't disagree with him but I would have expanded the list to 5 and included Vivien Leigh in "Streetcar Named Desire" and Cicely Tyson in "Sounder". (The list was confined to English speaking films; otherwise, some very fine European performances would have been mentioned - Giuletta Masina in "Nights of Cabiria" comes immediately to mind.)

 

We will never agree on Charlton Heston! And my opinion of him has nothing to do with his politics, as abhorrent to me as they were. He was just of that generation of actors that I found so difficult to watch or appreciate because they were so big and noisy - Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Heston, Stephen Boyd. Too macho for me. Too conscious of their own greatness.

 

I disagree with you about Peck. I think he's very fine in a lot of movies, such as "Keys of the Kingdom", "Mockingbird", "Boys from Brazil".

 

"Roman Holiday" was originally intended for Elizabeth Taylor and would have subsequently been a lousy movie. Taylor would have LOOKED like a princess but Hepburn WAS a princess - the posture, the accent, the manners, the slight haughtiness, the incomprehension of "ordinary" things.

 

I'm a huge Stanwyck fan. I never liked Crawford and find Bette Davis almost impossible to watch in most things, "The Letter" being the exception. My favorites of their contemporaries were Claudette Colbert, Loretta Young, de Havilland, and sometimes, not always, the other Hepburn - Kate. I especially liked the movies Stanwyck made with Fred MacMurray, "Remember the Night" being the best. That cast also included the divine Beulah Bondi, one of the greatest character actors ever. I liked Norma Shearer a lot too, when she wasn't being grand. She is sublime in the last third of "Marie Antoinette", especially in her scenes with the children when they are imprisoned in the Temple. In fact, she's always good with kids; her best scenes in "The Women" are with her daughter. She's bad when she's "cute" and when she didn't have a strong director, she tended to rely on "cute" a lot. Watch her in "Private Lives" - you'll want to smack her. She has moments in "Barretts of Wimpole Street" but is mostly acted off the screen by Charles Laughton and Frederic March, even though the movie was a vehicle for her. I liked Ginger Rogers in her non musical roles too. I understand why she got the Oscar for "Kitty Foyle"; it's a lousy movie but she's quite wonderful in it. She elevates the soap opera material in a way that I never thought Davis did in her melodramas. I read that Rogers was offered "All This and Heaven Too", and I think it would have been a much finer picture with her as the disgraced governess than it was with Bette Davis pretending to be shy and awkward. I know that "Now Voyager" is a beloved film but I find it unwatchable because of Davis' performance; she seems to be wearing a sign throughout that says, "Aren't I just a great actress, folks? First I'm ugly and then I'm beautiful! You should be SO impressed."

 

It's funny that I didn't like Davis and Crawford but I always enjoyed Susan Hayward. Now there's a woman who defined "over-the-top" but for me, she was so much more fun to watch and not nearly as annoying as the other 2 divas because there was a core of honesty in Hayward that I never sensed in Crawford or Davis. Davis was always Davis acting with a capital A, and Crawford just always seemed to be looking for her key light but Hayward seemed to want to be good, knew her limitations, and didn't have the crippling vanity the others did.

 

As for Audrey Hepburn, I'd have watched her read the phone book, as the saying goes. I even liked her in "My Fair Lady". When she comes down that staircase in that white ball gown, it takes your breath away. It is one of the most perfect moments ever filmed.

 

Oh dear, I've gone on and on. I'm an actor/singer/dancer, and passionate about my profession so when you get me on the subject of theatre, movies, theatre/movie history, great performances, lousy performances, directors and stars, I don't know when to shut up.

 

I only have a second or I would respond more comprehensively. Peck in Boys from Brazil? Now, you make me question your sanity. Just kidding. He is absolutely horrendously bad. But then he always was but late career Peck is truly awful.

 

Loretta Young? You have to joking on that one. She can't act at all. Not for a second. That Oscar for Farmer's Daughter has to be one of the biggest injustices in Academy history.

 

Norma Shearer would join my list of Irene Dunne and Joan Crawford as highly underrated.

 

I don't think Ginger Rogers can act much either. Without Fred, I find her a trial to watch. Kitty Foyle is not very good and there's another Oscar that should have gone to someone else.

 

Audrey was a dear in every respect.

 

I like that list of top 3 performances. I doubt I could limit it to those and I wouldn't include Emma Thompson only because I'd split the list between the Golden Age and later. But Gish in The Wind and Stanwyck in Stella Dallas would definitely be in my top 10 along with de Havilland in The Heiress and a few others that it's too early for my brain to recall.

 

Cicely Tyson in Sounder would make my later film list but Streetcar has not worn well and I find it hard to watch today so I'll pass on Vivien.

 

Kate Hepburn was always Kate Hepburn. You either like that or you don't. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But either way, I think she's highly overrated but I completely understand why she is a star.

 

I'm a sap for Now, Voyager. Love Davis in it. One of her best performances, IMHO. But Henreid is a drip. Who could get that romantic about that guy? What was that comment about him? He looks like his idea of fun would be to sit in a dark damp grave?