Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland was born to a British patent attorney and his wife on July 1, 1916, in Tokyo, Japan. Her sister, Joan, later to become famous as Joan Fontaine, was born the following year. Her parents divorced when Olivia was just three years old, and she moved with her mother and sister to Saratoga, California. After graduating from high school, Olivia enrolled in Mills College in Oakland. At Mills, she participated in the school play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and was spotted by Max Reinhardt. Reinhardt was so impressed that he picked her up for both his stage version and the Warner Bros. film version in 1935. Greatly impressd, Warner executives signed her to a 7-year contract. Olivia appeared in 3 more films: The Irish in Us (1935), Alibi Ike (1935) and Captain Blood (1935), the latter with Errol Flynn. He and Olivia starred together in 8 films during their careers. In 1939 Warner Bros. loaned her to David O. Selznick for Gone with the Wind (1939). Playing the sweet Melanie Hamilton, Olivia received her 1st nomination for Best Supporting Actress, only to lose out to co-star, Hattie McDaniel. After GWTW, Olivia returned to Warner Bros. In 1941 she played Emmy Brown in Hold Back the Dawn (1941), which resulted in her 2nd Oscar nomination, now for Best Actress. Again she lost to her sister Joan for her role in Suspicion (1941).
