Oscar winner and legendary screen actress Olivia de Havilland has died, passing away at the age of 104 earlier today.
De Havilland died of natural causes at her home in Paris, where she had lived for more than six decades according to her publicist Lisa Goldberg.
De Havilland was the last remaining star of “Gone With the Wind,” playing the sweet and suffering Melanie in the feature and scored an Oscar nomination – losing to fellow castmember Hattie McDaniel.
De Havilland won Oscars for her roles in “To Each His Own” and “The Heiress,” and nominated for “Hold Back the Dawn,” “My Cousin Rachel” and “The Snake Pit”. She co-starred frequently with Errol Flynn, including his 1938 “The Adventures of Robin Hood” where she played Maid Marian.
Other works included “Captain Blood,” “Dodge City,” “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex,” “Airport 77” and “Murder Is Easy”. Her last feature performance was 1979’s “The Fifth Musketeer” and mini-series like “Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna” and “Roots: The Next Generations”.
Her greatest impact however was offscreen. She sued Warner Bros. Pictures to gain freedom from the studio after her seven-year contract had expired but Warners tried to extend her deal. In a landmark ruling in 1945, the courts ruled she was free and all artists were to be limited to the calendar terms of their deals.
‘The De Havilland Decision’ was the most famous marker to the end of the Golden Age ‘star system’ in Hollywood.
Her older sister Joan Fontaine, another Oscar winning actress, died in December 2013 at age 96 with the pair famously not getting along and were estranged.
