Olivia de Havilland

Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (Template:IPAc-en; July 1, 1916Template:SpndJuly 26, 2020) was a British and American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988.<ref name="tcm-filmography"/> She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. Before her death in 2020 at age 104, she was the oldest living and earliest surviving Academy Award winner and was widely considered as being the last surviving major star from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Her younger sister, with whom she had a noted rivalry well documented in the media,<ref name="life">Template:Cite web</ref> was Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine.

De Havilland first came to prominence with Errol Flynn as a screen couple in adventure films such as Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). One of her best-known roles is that of Melanie Hamilton in Gone with the Wind (1939), for which she received the first of her five Oscar nominations, the only one for Best Supporting Actress. De Havilland departed from ingénue roles in the 1940s and later distinguished herself for performances in Hold Back the Dawn (1941), To Each His Own (1946), The Snake Pit (1948), and The Heiress (1949), receiving four Best Actress nominations and winning for To Each His Own and The Heiress. She was also successful in work on stage and television. De Havilland lived in Paris from the 1950s and received honors such as the National Medal of the Arts, the Légion d'honneur, and the appointment to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire at the age of 101.

In addition to her film career, deTemplate:NbspHavilland continued her work in the theater, appearing three times on Broadway, in Romeo and Juliet (1951), Candida (1952), and A Gift of Time (1962). She also worked in television, appearing in the successful miniseries Roots: The Next Generations (1979), and Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986) for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Movie or Series. During her film career, deTemplate:NbspHavilland collected two New York Film Critics Circle Awards, the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress, and the Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup. For her contributions to the motion picture industry, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and her sister remain the only siblings to have won major acting Academy Awards.

Early life

By birth, Olivia was a member of the de Havilland family, which belonged to landed gentry that had originated from mainland Normandy. Her mother, Lilian Fontaine (née Ruse; 1886Template:Nbnd1975), was educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a stage actress.Template:Sfn She also sang with Sir Walter Parratt, who was Master of the King's Music, and she toured the United Kingdom with the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.Template:Sfn Olivia's father, Walter de Havilland (1872Template:Nbnd1968), served as an English professor at Tokyo Imperial University before becoming a patent attorney.Template:Sfn Her paternal cousin was [[Geoffrey de Havilland|Sir Geoffrey deTemplate:NbspHavilland]] (1882Template:Nbnd1965),<ref name="french-observer"/> an aircraft designer and founder of the de Havilland aircraft company.Template:Sfn

File:Lilian Fontaine with her daughters, Joan and Olivia, c. 1922.png

De Havilland with mother Lilian Fontaine and sister Joan Fontaine (left) c. 1922

Walter and Lilian first met in Japan in 1913 and married the following year;Template:Sfn it was not a happy marriage, owing in part to Walter's infidelities.Template:Sfn Olivia Mary deTemplate:NbspHavilland was born on July 1, 1916.Template:Sfn The family moved into a large house in Tokyo City, where Lilian gave informal singing recitals.Template:Sfn Olivia's younger sister Joan (Joan de Beauvoir deTemplate:NbspHavilland)Template:Nsmdnslater known as actress Joan FontaineTemplate:Nsmdnswas born on October 22, 1917, when Olivia was 15Template:Nbspmonths old. Both sisters became British subjects automatically by birthright.Template:Sfn

In February 1919, Lilian persuaded her husband to take the family back to Britain as its climate was better suited to their ailing daughters.Template:Sfn They sailed aboard the SS Siberia Maru to San Francisco,Template:Sfn where the family stopped to treat Olivia's tonsillitis.Template:Sfnm Joan developed pneumonia, so Lilian decided to remain with her daughters in California, and they eventually settled in the village of Saratoga, Template:Convert south of San Francisco.Template:Sfn<ref group="Note">After living in an apartment near Golden Gate Park while the sisters were being treated, the family moved to San Jose and stayed at the Hotel Vendome.Template:Sfn Soon after, they moved to the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where they stayed at a boarding house called Lundblad's Lodge on Oak Street owned by a Swedish family.<ref name="academy-of-achievement"/>Template:Sfn</ref> Walter abandoned the family and returned to his Japanese housekeeper, who eventually became his second wife.Template:Sfn

File:USA-Saratoga-Lundblad's Lodge.jpg

Lundblad's Lodge in Saratoga, where the family lived for a while

Olivia was raised to appreciate the arts, beginning with ballet lessons at the age of four and piano lessons a year later.Template:Sfn She learned to read before she was six,Template:Sfn and her mother, who occasionally taught drama, music, and elocution,Template:Sfn had her recite passages from Shakespeare to strengthen her diction.Template:Sfn<ref group="Note">Olivia was named after a character in Twelfth Night.Template:Sfn</ref> During this period, Olivia's sister first started calling her "Livvie", a nickname that lasted throughout her life.Template:Sfn DeTemplate:NbspHavilland entered Saratoga Grammar School in 1922 and did well in her studies.<ref name="academy-of-achievement"/> She enjoyed reading, writing poetry, and drawing, and once represented her grammar school in a county spelling bee, finishing in second place.<ref name="academy-of-achievement"/> Lilian had a new Tudor-style house built in 1923,<ref name="academy-of-achievement"/> and the family resided there until the early 1930s.Template:Sfnm In April 1925, after her divorce was finalized, Lilian married George Milan Fontaine, a department store manager for [[Hale Bros.|O.Template:NbspA.Template:NbspHale & Co.]] in San Jose.Template:Sfn Fontaine was a respectable businessman and a good provider, but his strict parenting style generated animosity and later rebellion in both of his new stepdaughters.Template:Sfn<ref group="Note">Lilian and George were introduced to each other in 1920 by four-year-old Olivia who noticed him sitting on a park bench and referred to him in Japanese as "Daddy".Template:Sfnm</ref>

At the age of 15

De Havilland in the stage play Alice in Wonderland, 1933

DeTemplate:NbspHavilland continued her education at Los Gatos High School near her home in Saratoga.Template:Sfn There she excelled in oratory and field hockey and participated in school plays and the school drama club, eventually becoming the club's secretary.Template:Sfn With plans of becoming a schoolteacher in English and speech,Template:Sfn she also attended Notre Dame Convent in Belmont.Template:Sfn

In 1933, a teenaged deTemplate:NbspHavilland made her amateur theater debut in Alice in Wonderland, a production of the Saratoga Community Players based on the novel by Lewis Carroll.Template:Sfn She appeared in several school plays, including The Merchant of Venice and Hansel and Gretel.Template:Sfn Her passion for drama eventually led to a confrontation with her stepfather, who forbade her from participating in further extracurricular activities.Template:Sfn When he learned that she had won the lead role of Elizabeth Bennet in a school fund-raising production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, he told her that she had to choose between staying at home or appearing in the production and not being allowed home.Template:Sfn Not wanting to let her school and classmates down, she left home and moved in with a family friend.Template:Sfn

After graduating from high school in 1934, deTemplate:NbspHavilland was offered a scholarship to Mills College in Oakland to pursue her chosen career as an English teacher.Template:Sfn She was also offered the role of Puck in the Saratoga Community Theater production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.Template:Sfn That summer, Austrian director Max Reinhardt came to California for a major new production of the same play due to premiere at the Hollywood Bowl.Template:Sfn One of Reinhardt's assistants saw deTemplate:NbspHavilland performing in Saratoga, and he offered her the second understudy position for the role of Hermia.Template:Sfn One week before the premiere, the understudy Jean Rouverol and the lead actress Gloria Stuart both left the project, leaving 18-year-old deTemplate:NbspHavilland to play Hermia.Template:Sfn Impressed with her performance, Reinhardt offered her the part in the four-week autumn tour that followed.Template:Sfn During the tour, Reinhardt received word that he was to direct the Warner Bros. film version of his stage production, and he offered deTemplate:NbspHavilland the film role of Hermia. She initially wavered, with her mind still set on becoming a teacher, but Reinhardt and executive producer Henry Blanke eventually persuaded her to sign a five-year contract with Warner Bros. on November 12, 1934, with a starting salary of $200 a week, marking the beginning of a professional acting career that would span more than 50Template:Nbspyears.Template:Sfnm

Career

1935–1937: Early films

DeTemplate:NbspHavilland made her screen debut in Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935),Template:Sfn which was filmed at Warner Brothers studios from December 19, 1934, to March 9, 1935.<ref name="tcm-midsummer-op"/> During the production, deTemplate:NbspHavilland picked up film acting techniques from the film's co-director William Dieterle and camera techniques from cinematographer Hal Mohr, who was impressed with her questions about his work. By the end of filming, she had learned the effect of lighting and camera angles on how she appeared on screen and how to find her best lighting.<ref name="tcm-midsummer-miller"/> Following premieres in New York City and Beverly Hills, the film was released on October 30, 1935.<ref name="tcm-midsummer-op"/> Despite the publicity campaign, the film generated little enthusiasm with audiences.Template:Sfn While the critical response was mixed, deTemplate:NbspHavilland's performance was praised by The San Francisco Examiner critic.Template:Sfn In his review in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Winston Burdett wrote that she "acts graciously and does greater justice to Shakespeare's language than anyone else in the cast".<ref name="brooklyn-daily-burdett"/> Two minor comedies followed, Alibi Ike (1935) with Joe E. Brown and The Irish in Us (1935) with James Cagney.Template:Sfnm In both films, she played the sweet and charming love interestTemplate:Nsmdnsa role into which she would later become typecast.Template:Sfn After the experience of being a Reinhardt player, deTemplate:NbspHavilland felt disappointed being assigned these routine heroine roles.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In March, deTemplate:NbspHavilland and her mother moved into an apartment at the Chateau des Fleurs at 6626 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood.Template:Sfn

Climbing a ladder wearing a pirate's outfit

Publicity photo, 1935

Although Warner Brothers studio had assumed that the many costumed films that studios such as MGM had earlier produced would never succeed during the years of the American Great Depression, they nonetheless took a chance by producing Captain Blood (1935).<ref name=Gerstner>Gerstner, David A., and Staiger, Janet. Authorship and Film, Psychology Press (2003)</ref>Template:Rp The film is a swashbuckler action drama based on the novel by Rafael Sabatini and directed by Michael Curtiz.<ref name=Gerstner/>Template:Rp Captain Blood starred a then little-known contract bit-part actor and former extra, Errol Flynn, with the equally little-known de Havilland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn According to film historian Tony Thomas, both actors had "classic good looks, cultured speaking voices, and a sense of distant aristocracy about them".Template:Sfn Filmed between August 5 and October 29, 1935,<ref name="tcm-cb-opi"/> Captain Blood gave deTemplate:NbspHavilland the opportunity to appear in her first costumed historical romance and adventure epic, a genre to which she was well suited, given her beauty and elegance.Template:Sfn

In the film, she played Arabella Bishop, the niece of a Jamaica plantation owner who purchases at auction an Irish physician wrongly condemned to servitude. The on-screen chemistry between deTemplate:NbspHavilland and Flynn was evident from their first scenes together,Template:Sfn where clashes between her character's spirited hauteur and his character's playful braggadocio did not mask their mutual attraction to each other.Template:Sfn<ref group="Note">The on-screen attraction of the characters reflected the actual feelings of the actors at the time.Template:Sfn DeTemplate:NbspHavilland would later admit that she had a crush on Flynn through the entire production, and he would later acknowledge the same.Template:Sfn</ref> Arabella is a feisty young woman who knows what she wants and is willing to fight for it.Template:Sfn The bantering tone of their exchanges in the filmTemplate:Nsmdnsthe healthy give-and-take and mutual respectTemplate:Nsmdnsbecame the basis for their on-screen relationship in subsequent films.Template:Sfn Captain Blood was released on December 28, 1935,<ref name="tcm-cb-opi"/> and received good reviews and wide public appeal.Template:Sfn DeTemplate:NbspHavilland's performance was singled out in The New York Times and Variety.<ref name="nytimes-cb-sennwald"/><ref name="variety-cb"/> The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.<ref name="tcm-cb-awards"/> The popular success of the film, as well as the critical response to the on-screen couple, led to seven additional collaborations:Template:Sfn The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Four's a Crowd (1938), Dodge City (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939, although de Havilland played a supporting role with Bette Davis as Flynn's leading lady), Santa Fe Trail (1940), and They Died with Their Boots On (1941).

DeTemplate:NbspHavilland appeared in Mervyn LeRoy's historical drama Anthony Adverse (1936) with Fredric March.Template:Sfn Based on the popular novel by Hervey Allen, the film follows the adventures of an orphan raised by a Scottish merchant whose pursuit of fortune separates him from the innocent peasant girl he loves, marries, and eventually loses.Template:Sfn DeTemplate:NbspHavilland played a peasant girl, Angela, who after being separated from her slave-trader husband becomes opera star Mademoiselle Georges, the mistress of Napoleon.Template:Sfn The film earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.<ref name="tcm-aa-steinberg"/> It garnered deTemplate:NbspHavilland good exposure and the opportunity to portray a character as she develops over time.Template:Sfn Howard Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune found her later scenes as Mademoiselle Georges "not very credible",Template:Sfn but Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times called her "a winsome Angela".<ref name="nytimes-aa-nugent"/> That same year, she was re-united with Flynn in Michael Curtiz's period action film The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), featuring Flynn look-alike Patric Knowles (playing Flynn's brother) and David Niven. The picture was set during the Crimean WarTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfnm and became a major box office hit.Template:Sfn

During the film's production, deTemplate:NbspHavilland renegotiated her contract with Warner Bros. and signed a seven-year contract on April 14, 1936, with a starting weekly salary of $500 (Template:Inflation).Template:Sfn<ref group="Note">De Havilland hired the Ivan Kahn Agency to represent her in the contract negotiations with Warner Bros.Template:Sfn The contract she signed provided for yearly increases in her weekly salary, starting at $500 and then increasing to $750, $1000, $1250, $1500, $2000, and $2500 in her last year (Template:Inflation).Template:Sfn</ref> Toward the end of the year, 20-year-old deTemplate:NbspHavilland and her mother moved to 2337 Nella Vista Avenue in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.Template:Sfn

Smiling

In Call It a Day, 1937

DeTemplate:NbspHavilland had her first top billing in Archie Mayo's comedy Call It a Day (1937),Template:Sfn about a middle-class English family struggling with the romantic effects of spring fever during the course of a single day.Template:Sfn DeTemplate:NbspHavilland played daughter Catherine Hilton, who falls in love with the handsome artist hired to paint her portrait.Template:Sfn The film did not do well at the box office and did little to advance her career.Template:Sfn She fared better in Mayo's screwball comedy It's Love I'm After (1937) with Leslie Howard and Bette Davis.Template:Sfn DeTemplate:NbspHavilland played Marcia West, a debutante and theater fan enamored with a Barrymore-like matinee idol who decides to help the girl's fiancé by pretending to be an abominable cad.Template:Sfn The film received good reviews, with Variety calling it "fresh, clever, excellently directed and produced, and acted by an ensemble that clicks from start to finish" and praising deTemplate:NbspHavilland.<ref name="variety-ilia"/>

Also released during 1937 was another period film with deTemplate:NbspHavilland, beginning with The Great Garrick, a fictional romantic comedy about the 18th-century English actor's encounter with jealous players from the Comédie-Française who plot to embarrass him on his way to Paris.Template:Sfn Wise to their prank, Garrick plays along with the ruse, determined to get the last laugh, even on a lovely young aristocrat, deTemplate:NbspHavilland's Germaine Dupont, whom he mistakenly believes to be one of the players.Template:Sfn With her refined demeanour and diction,Template:Sfn deTemplate:NbspHavilland delivers a performance that is "lighthearted and thoroughly believable", according to Judith Kass.Template:Sfn Variety praised the film, calling it "a production of superlative workmanship".<ref name="variety-gg"/><ref name="tcm-gg-arnold"/> Despite the positive reviews, the film did not do as well at the box office.<ref name="tcm-gg-arnold"/><ref group="Note">During the production, Brian Aherne found de Havilland "young and entrancing" and organized her 21st birthday party on the set. They also dated during the making of the picture.Template:Sfn He later wrote, "I little thought that I would one day marry her younger sister, Joan Fontaine."<ref name="tcm-gg-arnold"/> Aherne and Fontaine married two years later, on August 19, 1939.Template:Sfn</ref> The Michael Curtiz-directed romantic drama Gold Is Where You Find ItTemplate:Sfn is a film about the late 19th-century conflict in the Sacramento Valley between gold miners and their hydraulic equipment and farmers whose land is being flooded.Template:Sfn DeTemplate:NbspHavilland played the daughter of a farmer, Serena Ferris, who falls in love with the mining engineer responsible for the flooding portrayed by George Brent.Template:Sfn The picture also stars Claude Rains. The film was released in February 1938,<ref name="tcm-gold-opi"/> and was her first appearance in a Technicolor filmTemplate:Sfn but not her last. She would make three more Technicolor films within the next two years, two of which would arguably remain her most fondly remembered by audiences across the decades since their release.

1938–1940: Movie stardom

In September 1937, deTemplate:NbspHavilland was selected by Warner Bros. studio head Jack L. Warner to play Maid Marian in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) opposite Errol Flynn.Template:Sfn The principal photography for this Technicolor production took place between September 26, 1937, and January 14, 1938, including location work at Bidwell Park, Busch Gardens in Pasadena, and Lake Sherwood in California.<ref name="tcm-robinhood-opi"/> Directed by William Keighley and Michael Curtiz, the film is about the legendary Saxon knight who opposes the corrupt and brutal Prince John and his Norman lords, while good King Richard is away fighting in the Third Crusade.Template:Sfn The king's ward Maid Marian initially opposes Robin Hood, but she later supports him after learning his true intentions of helping his oppressed people.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfnm Far from being a mere bystander, Marian risks her life to save Robin by providing his men with a plan for his escape.Template:Sfn As defined by deTemplate:NbspHavilland, Marian is both a beautiful fairy-tale heroine and a spirited, intelligent woman "whose actions are governed by her mind as well as her heart", according to author Judith Kass.Template:Sfn Released on May 14, 1938,<ref name="tcm-robinhood-opi"/> The Adventures of Robin Hood was an immediate critical and commercial success, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. It went on to become one of the most popular adventure films of the Classical Hollywood era.<ref name="tcm-robinhood-nixon"/>Template:Sfn

The film's success raised deTemplate:NbspHavilland's status, but this was not reflected in her subsequent film assignments at Warner Bros.;Template:Sfn her next several roles were more routine and less challenging.Template:Sfn In the romantic comedy Four's a Crowd (1938), she played Lorri Dillingwell, a flighty rich girl being romanced by a conniving public relations man looking to land an account with her eccentric grandfather.Template:Sfn In Ray Enright's romantic comedy Hard to Get (1938), she played another frivolous rich girl, Margaret Richards, whose desire to exact revenge on a gas station attendant leads to her own comeuppance.Template:Sfn In the summer of 1938, she portrayed the love interest between two U.S. Navy pilot brothers in Wings of the Navy, released in early 1939.<ref>Staff, "Film Stars To Be On Location In Pensacola For Navy Picture," Okaloosa News-Journal, Crestview, Florida, Friday July 8, 1938, Volume 24, Number 28, page 1.</ref> While deTemplate:NbspHavilland was certainly capable of playing this type of character, her personality was better suited to stronger and more dramatic roles, according to Judith Kass.Template:Sfn By this time, she was having serious doubts about her career at Warner Bros.<ref name="tcm-wn-landazuri"/>Template:Sfn

Some film scholars consider 1939 to be the high point of the golden age of Classic Cinema,<ref name="latimes-mathews"/> producing award-winning box office hits in many genres, including the Western.<ref name="tcm-dc-steinberg"/><ref group="Note">Following the success of Cecil B. DeMille's epic adventure The Plainsman (1937), studios began investing their top talent and budgets to produce films such as Stagecoach, Union Pacific, and Destry Rides AgainTemplate:Nsmdnsall released in 1939.<ref name="tcm-dc-steinberg"/></ref> Warner Bros. produced Michael Curtiz's Technicolor adventure Dodge City (1939), which was Flynn and deTemplate:NbspHavilland's first Western film.<ref name="tcm-dc-steinberg"/> Set during the American Civil War, the film is about a Texas trailblazer who witnesses the brutal lawlessness of Dodge City, Kansas, and becomes sheriff to clean up the town. DeTemplate:NbspHavilland played Abbie Irving, whose initial hostility towards Flynn's character Wade Hatton is transformed by events, and the two fall in loveTemplate:Nsmdnsby now a proven formula for their on-screen relationships.Template:Sfn Curtiz's action sequences, Sol Polito's cinematography, Max Steiner's expansive film score, and perhaps the "definitive saloon brawl in movie history"<ref name="tcm-dc-steinberg"/> all contributed to the film's success.Template:Sfnm Variety described the film as "a lusty western, packed with action".<ref name="variety-dc"/> For deTemplate:NbspHavilland, playing yet another supporting love interest in a limited role, Dodge City represented the emotional low point of her career to that point.Template:Sfn She later said, "I was in such a depressed state that I could hardly remember my lines."Template:Sfn

Wearing a flowing dress and bonnet

Studio publicity portrait for Gone with the Wind, 1939

In a letter to a colleague dated November 18, 1938, film producer David O. Selznick wrote, "I would give anything if we had Olivia deTemplate:NbspHavilland under contract to us so that we could cast her as Melanie."Template:Sfn The film he was preparing to shoot was the Technicolor epic Gone with the Wind, but Jack L. Warner was unwilling to lend her out for the project.Template:Sfn While most other actresses wanted the Scarlett O'Hara role, deTemplate:NbspHavilland had read the novel and wanted to play Melanie HamiltonTemplate:Nsmdnsa character whose quiet dignity and inner strength she understood and felt she could bring to life on the screen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

DeTemplate:NbspHavilland turned to Warner's wife Anne for help.Template:Sfn Warner later recalled: "Olivia, who had a brain like a computer concealed behind those fawn-like eyes, simply went to my wife and they joined forces to change my mind."Template:Sfn He relented, and deTemplate:NbspHavilland was signed to the project a few weeks before the start of principal photography on January 26, 1939.<ref name="tcm-gwtw-notes"/> Set in the American South during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, the film is about Scarlett O'Hara—the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner—who is in love with the husband of her sister-in-law Melanie, whose kindness stands in sharp contrast to those around her. According to film historian Tony Thomas, deTemplate:NbspHavilland's skillful and subtle performance effectively presents this character of selfless love and quiet strength in a way that keeps her vital and interesting throughout the film.Template:Sfn Gone with the Wind had its world premiere in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 15, 1939, and was well received.<ref name="tcm-gwtw-notes"/> Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times wrote that deTemplate:NbspHavilland's Melanie "is a gracious, dignified, tender gem of characterization",<ref name="nytimes-gwtw-nugent"/> and John C. Flinn Sr. in Variety called her "a standout".<ref name="variety-gwtw-flinn"/> The film won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and deTemplate:NbspHavilland received her first nomination for Best Supporting Actress.Template:Sfn<ref name="oscars-1940"/> Template:Quote box

Within days of completing her work in Gone with the Wind in June 1939, deTemplate:NbspHavilland returned to Warner Bros. to begin filming Michael Curtiz's historical drama The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) with Bette Davis and Errol Flynn.Template:Sfn She had hoped her work on Selznick's prestige picture would lead to first-rate roles at Warner Bros., but instead, she received third billing below the title as the queen's lady-in-waiting.Template:Sfn In early September, she was lent out to Samuel Goldwyn Productions for Sam Wood's romantic caper film Raffles (1939) with David Niven,<ref name="tcm-raf-miller"/> about a high-society cricketer and jewel thief.Template:Sfn She later complained, "I had nothing to do with that style of film."Template:Sfn

Wearing a silver dress and broach

Santa Fe Trail (1940)

In early 1940, deTemplate:NbspHavilland refused to appear in several films assigned to her, initiating the first of her suspensions from the studio.Template:Sfn She did agree to play in Curtis Bernhardt's musical comedy drama My Love Came Back (1940) with Jeffrey Lynn and Eddie Albert, who played a classical music student turned swing jazz bandleader. DeTemplate:NbspHavilland played violinist Amelia Cornell, whose life becomes complicated by the support of a wealthy sponsor.Template:Sfn<ref group="Note">The performance sequences in My Love Came Back were accomplished by placing a professional female violinist behind the actress to perform the complicated left-hand fingering while the actress played the bow with her right hand.<ref name="tcm-mylove-notes"/></ref> Bosley Crowther of The New York Times described the film as "a featherlight frolic, a rollicking roundelay of deliciously pointed nonsense", finding that deTemplate:NbspHavilland "plays the part with pace and wit".<ref name="nytimes-mylove-crowther"/>

That same year, deTemplate:NbspHavilland was re-united with Flynn in their sixth film together, Michael Curtiz's Western adventure Santa Fe Trail, set against the backdrop of abolitionist John Brown's radical anti-slavery attacks in the days leading up to the American Civil War.Template:Sfn The mostly fictional story follows West Point cadets J. E. B. Stuart and George Armstrong Custer, played by Flynn and Ronald Reagan, respectively, as they make their way west, both vying for the affections of Kit Carson Halliday.Template:Sfn Playing Kit in a provocative, tongue-in-cheek manner, deTemplate:NbspHavilland creates a character of real substance and dimension, according to Tony Thomas.Template:Sfn Following its world premiere on December 13, 1940, at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which was attended by cast members, reporters, the governor, and over 60,000 fans,Template:Sfn Santa Fe Trail became one of the top-grossing films of 1940.<ref name="bigbend-sft-taylor"/> After accompanying Flynn on the well-publicized train ride to Santa Fe, deTemplate:NbspHavilland was unable to attend the premiere because she had been diagnosed with appendicitis that morning and rushed into surgery.Template:Sfn

1941–1944: War years and lawsuit

Following her emergency surgery, deTemplate:NbspHavilland began a long period of convalescence in a Los Angeles hospital during which time she rejected several scripts offered to her by Warner Bros., which led to another suspension.Template:Sfn She appeared in three commercially successful films released in 1941, beginning with Raoul Walsh's romantic comedy The Strawberry Blonde with James Cagney.Template:Sfn Set during the Gay Nineties, the story involves a man who marries an outspoken advocate for women's rights after a rival steals his glamorous "strawberry blonde" girlfriend, and he later discovers her to be a loving and understanding wife.Template:Sfn The film was a critical and commercial success.Template:Sfn In Mitch Leisen's romantic drama Hold Back the Dawn with Charles Boyer for Paramount Pictures, she transitioned to a different type of roleTemplate:Nsmdnsan ordinary, decent, small-town teacher whose life and sexuality are awakened by a sophisticated European gigolo, whose own life is positively affected by her love.Template:Sfn Leisen's careful direction and guidance appealed to deTemplate:NbspHavilland, much more than the workman-like approach of her Warner Bros. directors.Template:Sfn Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times that she "plays the school teacher as a woman with romantic fancies whose honesty and pride are her ownTemplate:Nsmdnsand the film'sTemplate:Nsmdnschief support. Incidentally, she is excellent."<ref name="nytimes-hbtd-crowther"/> For this performance, she garnered her second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actress.Template:Sfn

DeTemplate:NbspHavilland was re-united with Flynn for their eighth movie together, Walsh's epic They Died with Their Boots On. The film is loosely based on the courtship and marriage of George Armstrong Custer and Elizabeth "Libbie" Bacon.Template:Sfn Flynn and deTemplate:NbspHavilland had fallen out the previous year, mainly over the roles she was being given, and she had intended not to work with him again.Template:Sfn Flynn said, "She was sick to death of playing 'the girl' and badly wanted a few good roles to show herself and the world that she was a fine actress."Template:Sfn After she learned from Warner that Flynn had come to his office saying he needed her in the film, deTemplate:NbspHavilland accepted.Template:Sfn Screenwriter Lenore Coffee was brought in to add several romantic scenes and improve the overall dialogue,Template:Sfn resulting in a film that includes some of their finest work together.Template:Sfnm Their final on-screen appearance is Custer's farewell to his wife.Template:Sfn "Errol was quite sensitive", deTemplate:NbspHavilland later remembered, "I think he knew it would be the last time we worked together."Template:Sfn Flynn's final line in that scene would hold special meaning for her: "Walking through life with you, ma'am, has been a very gracious thing."Template:Sfn They Died with Their Boots On was released on November 21, 1941, and while some reviewers criticized the film's historical inaccuracies, most applauded the action sequences, cinematography, and acting.Template:Sfn Thomas M. Pryor of The New York Times found deTemplate:NbspHavilland "altogether captivating".<ref name="nytimes-tdwtbo-pryor"/> The film went on to earn $2,550,000 (Template:Inflation) and was Warner Bros' second-biggest money-maker of that year.<ref name="variety-tdwtbo-101"/>

In 1942, de Havilland appeared with Henry Fonda in Elliott Nugent's romantic comedy The Male Animal, about an idealistic professor fighting for academic freedom while trying to hold onto his job and his wife Ellen, portrayed by deTemplate:NbspHavilland. While the role was not particularly challenging, her delineation of an intelligent, good-natured woman trying to resolve the unsettling circumstances of her life played a major part in the film's success, according to Tony Thomas.Template:Sfn The film was a critical and commercial success, and Bosley Crowther of The New York Times noted that deTemplate:NbspHavilland "concocts a delightfully pliant and saucy character as the wife".<ref name="nytimes-tma-crowther"/> Around the same time, she appeared with Bette Davis in John Huston's drama In This Our Life (1942). Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Ellen Glasgow, the story is about two sisters whose lives are destroyed by the anger and jealousy of one of them.Template:Sfn Crowther gave the film a negative review but praised deTemplate:NbspHavilland's "warm and easy performance".<ref name="nytimes-itol-crowther"/> During production, deTemplate:NbspHavilland and Huston began a romantic relationship that lasted for three years.Template:Sfn

According to deTemplate:NbspHavilland, one of the few truly satisfying roles she played for Warner Bros. was the title character in Norman Krasna's romantic comedy Princess O'Rourke (1943), in which she starred alongside Robert Cummings.Template:Sfn Filmed in July and August 1942,<ref name="tcm-po-opi"/> the story is about a European princess in New York City visiting her diplomat uncle, who is trying to find her an American husband. Intent on choosing her own match, she boards a plane heading west and ends up falling in love with an American pilot, who is unaware of her true identity.Template:Sfn<ref group="Note">The plot and several story devicesTemplate:Nsmdnsincluding the princess waking up in the bed of an honorable bachelorTemplate:Nsmdnswas resurrected a decade later in Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn.Template:Sfn</ref> Released on October 23, 1943,<ref name="tcm-po-opi"/> the film did well at the box office.Template:Sfn Crowther called it "a film which is in the best tradition of American screen comedy" and found deTemplate:NbspHavilland's performance "charming".<ref name="nytimes-po-crowther"/> Template:Quote box

After fulfilling her seven-year Warner Bros. contract in 1943, deTemplate:NbspHavilland was informed that the contract had been extended by six months to allow for the times that she had been suspended.Template:Sfn The studios had adopted the position that California law allowed them to suspend contract players for rejecting a role, and the period of suspension could be added to the contract period.Template:Sfn Most contract players accepted this, but a few tried to challenge the assumption, including Bette Davis, who mounted an unsuccessful lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the 1930s.Template:Sfn On August 23, 1943, acting on the advice of her lawyer Martin Gang, deTemplate:NbspHavilland filed suit against Warner Bros. in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeking declaratory judgment that she was no longer bound by her contract.Template:Sfn<ref name="scholar-dehavilland-warner"/> She used the grounds that an existing section of the California Labor Code forbade an employer from enforcing a contract against an employee for longer than seven years from the date of their first performance.Template:Sfnm When the court found in favor of deTemplate:NbspHavilland in November 1943, Warner Bros. immediately appealed.Template:Sfn

A little over a year later, the California Court of Appeal for the Second District ruled in deTemplate:NbspHavilland's favor.<ref name="scholar-dehavilland-warner"/><ref group="Note">Two months later, the Supreme Court of California refused to review the case.Template:Sfn</ref> The decision was one of the most significant and far-reaching legal rulings in Hollywood, reducing the power of the studios and extending greater creative freedom to performers.<ref name="reuters-belloni"/> California's resulting "seven-year rule", as articulated by the Court of Appeal in analysing Labor Code Section 2855 in this case, is still known as the De Havilland Law.<ref name="reuters-belloni"/>Template:Sfn Her legal victory, which cost her $13,000 (Template:Inflation) in legal fees, won deTemplate:NbspHavilland the respect and admiration of her peers, among them her own sister Joan Fontaine, who later commented, "Hollywood owes Olivia a great deal."Template:Sfn Warner Bros. reacted to the lawsuit by circulating a letter to other studios, which had the effect of a "virtual blacklisting".Template:Sfn Consequently, deTemplate:NbspHavilland did not work at a film studio for almost two years.Template:Sfn

Visiting a wounded soldier in a hospital

At the Naval Air Station in Kodiak, Alaska (March 20, 1944)

She became a naturalized citizen of the United States on November 28, 1941, ten days before the U.S. entered World War II militarily.<ref name="nytimes-citizen"/><ref name="cnn-facts"/> During the war years, she actively contributed to the war effort. In May 1942, deTemplate:NbspHavilland joined the Hollywood Victory Caravan, a three-week train tour of the country that raised money through the sale of war bonds.<ref name="startrib-welter"/> Later that year, she began attending events at the Hollywood Canteen, meeting and dancing with troops.Template:Sfn In December 1943, she joined a USO tour that travelled throughout the U.S. and the South Pacific, visiting wounded soldiers in military hospitals.Template:Sfn<ref name="academy-of-achievement"/> She earned the respect and admiration of the troops for visiting the isolated islands and battlefronts in the Pacific.<ref name="sas-walter"/> She survived flights in damaged aircraft and a bout with viral pneumonia that required several days' stay in one of the island barrack hospitals.<ref name="academy-of-achievement"/><ref name="sas-walter"/><ref group="Note">In 1957, in appreciation of her support of the troops during World War II and the Korean War, deTemplate:NbspHavilland was made an honorary member of the 11th Airborne Division and was presented with a United States Army jacket bearing the 11th's patch on one sleeve and the name patch "deTemplate:NbspHavilland" across the chest.<ref name="sas-walter"/></ref> She later remembered, "I loved doing the tours because it was a way I could serve my country and contribute to the war effort."Template:Sfn

1945–1952: Vindication and recognition

Smiling softly

De Havilland with the first of her two Oscars, this one for To Each His Own, March 13, 1947

After the California Court of Appeal<ref>67 Cal.App.2d 225 (1944)</ref> ruling freed her from her Warner Bros. contract, deTemplate:NbspHavilland signed a two-picture deal with Paramount Pictures.Template:Sfn In June 1945, she began filming Mitchell Leisen's drama To Each His Own,Template:Sfn (1946) about an unwed mother who gives up her child for adoption and then spends the rest of her life trying to undo that decision.Template:Sfn DeTemplate:NbspHavilland insisted on bringing in Leisen as director, trusting his eye for detail, his empathy for actors, and the way he controlled sentiment in their previous collaboration, Hold Back the Dawn.Template:Sfn The role required deTemplate:NbspHavilland to age nearly 30 years over the course of the filmTemplate:Nsmdnsfrom an innocent, small-town girl to a shrewd, ruthless businesswoman devoted to her cosmetics company. While deTemplate:NbspHavilland never formally studied acting, she did read Stanislavsky's autobiography My Life in Art and applied one of his "methods" for this role.Template:Sfn To help her define her character during the four periods of the story, she used a different perfume for each period. She also lowered the pitch of her voice incrementally in each period until it became a mature woman's voice.Template:Sfn Her performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress for 1946Template:Nsmdnsher first Oscar.Template:Sfn According to film historian Tony Thomas, the award represented a vindication of her long struggle with Warner Bros. and confirmation of her abilities as an actress.Template:Sfn

Her next two roles were challenging. In Robert Siodmak's psychological thriller The Dark Mirror (also 1946), deTemplate:NbspHavilland played twin sisters Ruth and Terry CollinsTemplate:Nsmdnsone loving and normal, the other psychotic.Template:Sfn In addition to the technical problems of showing her as two characters interacting with each other on screen at the same time, deTemplate:NbspHavilland needed to portray two separate and psychologically opposite people.Template:Sfn While the film was not well received by criticsTemplate:NsmdnsVariety said the film "gets lost in a maze of psychological gadgets and speculation"<ref name="variety-dm"/>Template:NsmdnsdeTemplate:NbspHavilland's performance was praised by Tony Thomas, who called her final scene in the film "an almost frighteningly convincing piece of acting".Template:Sfn In his review in The Nation, James Agee wrote that "her playing is thoughtful, quiet, detailed, and well sustained, and since it is founded, as some more talented playing is not, in an unusually healthful-seeming and likable temperament, it is an undivided pleasure to see".<ref name="nation-agee"/>Template:Sfn Later that year while appearing in a summer stock production of What Every Woman Knows in Westport, Connecticut, her second professional stage appearance, deTemplate:NbspHavilland began dating Marcus Goodrich, a U.S. Navy veteran, journalist, and author of the novel Delilah (1941). The couple married on August 26, 1946.Template:Sfn

De Havilland was praised for her performance as Virginia Cunningham in Anatole Litvak's drama The Snake Pit (1948), one of the first films to attempt a realistic portrayal of mental illness and an important exposé of the harsh conditions in state mental hospitals, according to film critic Philip French.<ref name="guardian-french"/> Based on a novel by Mary Jane Ward and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, the film is about a woman placed in a mental institution by her husband to help her recover from a nervous breakdown.Template:Sfn Virginia Cunningham was one of the most difficult of all her film roles, requiring significant preparation both mentally and physicallyTemplate:Nsmdnsshe deliberately lost weight to help create her gaunt appearance on screen.Template:Sfn She consulted regularly with psychiatrists hired as consultants for the film, and visited Camarillo State Mental Hospital to research her role and observe the patients. The extreme physical discomfort of the hydrotherapy and simulated electric shock therapy scenes were especially challenging for the slight Template:Convert actress.Template:Sfn In her performance, she conveyed her mental anguish by physically transforming her face with furrowed brow, wild staring eyes, and grimacing mouth.Template:Sfn Template:Quote box

According to author Judith Kass, deTemplate:NbspHavilland delivered a performance both "restrained and electric", portraying varied and extreme aspects of her characterTemplate:Nsmdnsfrom a shy young woman to a tormented and disorientated woman.Template:Sfn For her performance in The Snake Pit, deTemplate:NbspHavilland received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, and the Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup.<ref name="allmovie-olivia-awards"/>

DeTemplate:NbspHavilland appeared in William Wyler's period drama The Heiress (1949), the fourth in a string of critically acclaimed performances.Template:Sfnm After seeing the play on Broadway, deTemplate:NbspHavilland called Wyler and urged him to fly to New York to see what she felt would be a perfect role for her. Wyler obliged, loved the play, and with deTemplate:NbspHavilland's help arranged for Paramount to secure the film rights.Template:Sfn Adapted for the screen by Ruth and Augustus Goetz and based on the 1880 novel Washington Square by Henry James, the film is about a dull, guileless young woman who falls in love with a handsome, ingenuous young man (Montgomery Clift), over the objections of her cruel and emotionally abusive father, who suspects the young man of being a fortune seeker.Template:Sfn As she had done in Hold Back the Dawn, deTemplate:NbspHavilland portrayed her character's transformation from a shy, trusting innocent to a guarded, mature woman over a period of years.Template:Sfn Her delineation of Catherine Sloper is developed through carefully crafted movements, gestures, and facial expressions that convey a submissive and inhibited young woman. Her timid voice, nervous hands, downcast eyes, and careful movements all communicate what the character is too shy to verbalize.Template:Sfn Throughout the production, Wyler pressed deTemplate:NbspHavilland hard to elicit the requisite visual points of the character. When Catherine returns home after being jilted, the director had the actress carry a suitcase filled with heavy books up the stairs to convey the weight of Catherine's trauma physically instead of using a planned speech in the original script.Template:Sfn The Heiress was released in October 1949 and was well received by critics. For her performance, she received the New York Film Critics Award, the Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, Template:Nsmdnsher second Oscar.<ref name="tcm-h-miller"/>

After giving birth to her first child, Benjamin, on September 27, 1949, deTemplate:NbspHavilland took time off from making films to be with her infant son.Template:Sfn She turned down the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, later explaining that becoming a mother was a "transforming experience" and that she could not relate to the character.<ref name="wsj-meroney"/> In 1950, her family moved to New York City, where she began rehearsals for a major new stage production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet; it was her life-long ambition to play Juliet on the stage.Template:Sfn The play opened at the Broadhurst Theater on March 11, 1951, to mixed reviews, with some critics believing the 35-year-old actress was too old for the role.Template:Sfn The play closed after 45 performances.Template:Sfn Undaunted, deTemplate:NbspHavilland accepted the title role in the stage production of George Bernard Shaw's comedy Candida, which opened at the National Theater on Broadway in April 1952.Template:Sfn While reviews of the play were mixed, deTemplate:NbspHavilland's performance was well received, and following the scheduled 32 performances, she went on tour with the company and delivered 323 additional performances, many to sold-out audiences.Template:Sfn While deTemplate:NbspHavilland achieved major accomplishments during this period of her career, her marriage to Goodrich, 18 years her senior, had grown strained because of his unstable temperament.Template:Sfn In August 1952, she filed for divorce, which became final the following year.Template:Sfn

1953–1962: New life in Paris

In April 1953, at the invitation of the French government, she travelled to the Cannes Film Festival, where she met Pierre Galante, an executive editor for the French journal Paris Match.Template:Sfn Following a long-distance courtship and the requisite nine-month residency requirement, deTemplate:NbspHavilland and Galante married on April 12, 1955, in the village of Yvoy-le-Marron, and settled together in a three-storey house near the Bois de Boulogne park in Paris' 16th Arrondissement.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="latimes-tartaglione"/>Template:Sfn That same year, she returned to the screen in Terence Young's period drama That Lady (1955), about a Spanish princess and her unrequited love for King Philip II of Spain, whose respect she earned in her youth after losing an eye in a sword fight defending his honor.Template:Sfn According to Tony Thomas, the film uses authentic Spanish locations effectively, but suffers from a convoluted plot and excessive dialogue, and while deTemplate:NbspHavilland delivered a warm and elegant performance as Ana de Mendoza, the film was disappointing.Template:Sfn Following her appearances in the romantic melodrama Not as a Stranger (1955)Template:Sfn and The Ambassador's Daughter (1956)Template:SfnTemplate:Nsmdnsneither of which was successful at the box office Template:NsmdnsdeTemplate:NbspHavilland gave birth to her second child, Gisèle Galante, on July 18, 1956.Template:Sfn

Smiling while holding her newborn child with her husband

With Pierre Galante and daughter Gisèle, 1956

De Havilland returned to the screen in Michael Curtiz's Western drama The Proud Rebel (1958),Template:Sfn a film about a former Confederate soldier (Alan Ladd) whose wife was killed in the war and whose son lost the ability to speak after witnessing the tragedy. DeTemplate:NbspHavilland played Linnett Moore, a tough yet feminine frontier woman who cares for the boy and comes to love his father.Template:Sfn The movie was filmed on location in Utah, where deTemplate:NbspHavilland learned to hitch and drive a team of horses and handle a gun for her role.Template:Sfn The Proud Rebel was released May 28, 1958, and was well received by audiences and critics. In his review for The New York Times, A. H. Weiler called the film a "truly sensitive effort" and "heartwarming drama", and praised deTemplate:NbspHavilland's ability to convey the "warmth, affection and sturdiness needed in the role".<ref name="nytimes-pr-weiler"/>

One of deTemplate:NbspHavilland's best received performances during this period was in Guy Green's romantic drama Light in the Piazza (1962) with Rossano Brazzi.Template:Sfn Filmed in Florence and Rome,Template:Sfn and based on Elizabeth Spencer's novel of the same name, the film is about a middle-class American tourist on extended vacation in Italy with her beautiful 26-year-old daughter (Yvette Mimieux), who is mentally disabled as a result of a childhood accident.Template:Sfn Faced with the prospect of her daughter falling in love with a young Italian, the mother struggles with conflicting emotions about her daughter's future.Template:Sfn DeTemplate:NbspHavilland projects a calm maternal serenity throughout most of the film, only showing glimpses of the worried mother anxious for her child's happiness.Template:Sfn The film was released on February 19, 1962, and was well received, with a Hollywood Reporter reviewer calling it "an uncommon love story ... told with rare delicacy and force", and Variety noting that the film "achieves the rare and delicate balance of artistic beauty, romantic substance, dramatic novelty and commercial appeal". Variety singled out deTemplate:NbspHavilland's performance as "one of great consistency and subtle projection".<ref name="variety-piazza"/>

In early 1962, deTemplate:NbspHavilland traveled to New York City, and began rehearsals for Garson Kanin's stage play A Gift of Time. Adapted from the autobiographical book Death of a Man by Lael Tucker Wertenbaker, the play explores the emotionally painful struggle of a housewife forced to deal with the slow death of her husband, played by Henry Fonda. The play opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on Broadway to positive notices, with deTemplate:NbspHavilland receiving her best reviews as a stage actress.Template:Sfn Theater critic Walter Kerr praised her final scene, writing, "As darkness gathers, the actress gains in stature, taking on the simple and resolute willingness to understand."Template:Sfn The New York World-Telegram and Sun reviewer concluded: "It is Miss deTemplate:NbspHavilland who gives the play its unbroken continuity. This distinguished actress reveals Lael as a special and admirable woman."Template:Sfn She stayed with the production for 90 performances.Template:Sfn The year 1962 also saw the publication of deTemplate:NbspHavilland's first book, Every Frenchman Has One, a lighthearted account of her often amusing attempts to understand and adapt to French life, manners, and customs.Template:Sfn The book sold out its first printing prior to the publication date and went on to become a bestseller.Template:Sfn<ref name="latimes-tartaglione"/>

1963–1988: Later films and television

File:Olivia de Havilland, actress, 1985 - levels adjustment.jpg

de Havilland in 1985

De Havilland appeared in her final motion picture leading roles in two films released in 1964, both of which were psychological thrillers. In Walter Grauman's Lady in a Cage, she played a wealthy poet who becomes trapped in her mansion's elevator and faces the threat of three terrorising hooligans in her own home.Template:Sfn Critics responded negatively to the graphic violence and cruelty shown on screen.Template:Sfn A.Template:NbspH. Weiler of The New York Times called it a "sordid, if suspenseful, exercise in aimless brutality".<ref name="nytimes-cage-weiler"/> That same year, deTemplate:NbspHavilland appeared in Robert Aldrich's Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte with her close friend Bette Davis.Template:Sfn After Joan Crawford left the picture owing to illness, Davis had Aldrich fly to Switzerland to persuade a reluctant deTemplate:NbspHavilland to accept the role of Miriam Deering, a cruel, conniving character hidden behind the charming façade of a polite and cultured lady.Template:Sfn Her quiet, restrained performance provided a counterbalance to Davis. Film historian Tony Thomas described her performance as "a subtle piece of acting" that was "a vital contribution to the effectiveness of the film".Template:Sfn The film was mainly well received and earned seven Academy Award nominations.<ref name="tcm-hush-lobianco"/> In 1965 she served as the president of the jury of the 18th Cannes Film Festival, the first woman to do so.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

As film roles became more difficult to find, a common problem shared by many Hollywood veterans from her era, deTemplate:NbspHavilland began working in television dramas, despite her dislike of the networks' practice of breaking up story lines with commercials.Template:Sfn Her first venture into the medium was a teleplay directed by Sam Peckinpah called Noon Wine (1966) on ABC Stage 67,Template:Sfn a dark tragedy about a farmer's act of murder that leads to his suicide.Template:Sfn The production and her performance as the farmer's wife Ellie were well received.Template:Sfn In 1972, she starred in her first television film, The Screaming Woman, about a wealthy woman recovering from a nervous breakdown.Template:Sfn In 1979, she appeared in the ABC miniseries Roots: The Next Generations in the role of Mrs. Warner, the wife of a former Confederate officer played by Henry Fonda. The miniseries was seen by an estimated 110Template:Nbspmillion peopleTemplate:Nsmdnsnearly one-third of American homes with television sets.<ref name="schenectady-gazette-roots"/> Throughout the 1970s, deTemplate:NbspHavilland's film work was limited to smaller supporting roles and cameo appearances.Template:Sfn Her last feature film was The Fifth Musketeer (1979).Template:Sfn During this period, deTemplate:NbspHavilland began doing speaking engagements in cities across the United States with a talk entitled "From the City of the Stars to the City of Light", a programme of personal reminiscences about her life and career. She also attended tributes to Gone with the Wind.Template:Sfn

In the 1980s, her television work included an Agatha Christie television film Murder Is Easy (1982), the television drama The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana (1982) in which she played the Queen Mother, and the 1986 ABC miniseries North and South, Book II.<ref name="tcm-filmography"/> Her performance in the television film Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986), as Dowager Empress Maria, earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film.<ref name="tcm-bio"/> In 1988, deTemplate:NbspHavilland appeared in the HTV romantic television drama The Woman He Loved; it was her final screen performance.<ref name="tcm-filmography"/>

1989–2020: Retirement and honors

File:Olivia de Havilland.jpg

de Havilland at the Smithsonian Institution in 2001

In retirement, deTemplate:NbspHavilland remained active in the film community. In 1998, she travelled to New York City to help promote a special showing of Gone with the Wind.<ref name="philly-rickey"/> In 2003, she appeared as a presenter at the 75th Academy Awards, earning an extended standing ovation upon her entrance.<ref name="tcm-bio"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2004, Turner Classic Movies produced a retrospective piece called Melanie Remembers in which she was interviewed for the 65th anniversary of the original release of Gone with the Wind.Template:Sfn In June 2006, she made appearances at tributes commemorating her 90th birthday at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.<ref name="wsj-meroney"/>

On November 17, 2008, at the age of 92, deTemplate:NbspHavilland received the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people of the United States. The medal was presented to her by President George W. Bush, who commended her "for her persuasive and compelling skill as an actress in roles from Shakespeare's Hermia to Margaret Mitchell's Melanie. Her independence, integrity, and grace won creative freedom for herself and her fellow film actors."<ref name="wh-archive"/><ref name="nytimes-itzkoff"/> The following year, deTemplate:NbspHavilland narrated the documentary I Remember Better When I Paint (2009),<ref name="huffpost-gitau"/> a film about the importance of art in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.<ref name="huffpost-gitau"/>

In 2010, de Havilland almost made her return to the big screen after a 22-year hiatus with James Ivory's planned adaptation of The Aspern Papers, but the film was never made.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On September 9, 2010, deTemplate:NbspHavilland was appointed a Chevalier (knight) of the Légion d'honneur, the highest decoration in France, awarded by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who told the actress, "You honor France for having chosen us."<ref name="ap-corbet"/> In February the following year, she appeared at the César Awards in France, where she was greeted with a standing ovation.<ref group="Note">In February 2016, deTemplate:NbspHavilland was named "Oldie of the Year" by the satirical magazine The Oldie. Unable to travel to the ceremony in London, she recorded a message saying she was "utterly delighted" the judges deemed "sufficient snap in my celery" existed to win the accolade.<ref name="bbc-oldie"/></ref> DeTemplate:NbspHavilland celebrated her 100th birthday on July 1, 2016.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In June 2017, two weeks before her 101st birthday, de Havilland was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to drama by Queen Elizabeth II.<ref name="auto">Template:London Gazette</ref> She is the oldest woman ever to receive the honor. In a statement, she called it "the most gratifying of birthday presents".<ref name="auto1">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref name="auto2">Template:Cite news</ref> She did not travel to the investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace and received her honor from the hands of the British Ambassador to France at her Paris apartment in March 2018, four months before her 102nd birthday. Her daughter Gisèle was by her side.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Relationships

Although known as one of Hollywood's most exciting on-screen couples,<ref name="tcm-bio"/> deTemplate:NbspHavilland and Errol Flynn were never involved in a romantic relationship.<ref name="telegraph-leach"/> Upon first meeting her at Warner Bros. in August 1935, 26-year-old Flynn was drawn to the 19-year-old actress with "warm brown eyes" and "extraordinary charm".Template:Sfn In turn, deTemplate:NbspHavilland fell in love with him,<ref name="telegraph-leach"/><ref group="Note">In 2009, deTemplate:NbspHavilland said, "Yes, we did fall in love and I believe that this is evident in the screen chemistry between us. But his circumstances at the time prevented the relationship going further. I have not talked about it a great deal, but the relationship was not consummated. Chemistry was there, though. It was there."<ref name="telegraph-leach"/></ref> but kept her feelings to herself. Flynn later wrote, "By the time we made The Charge of the Light Brigade, I was sure that I was in love with her."Template:Sfn Flynn finally professed his love on March 12, 1937, at the coronation ball for King George VI at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where they slow danced together to "Sweet Leilani" at the hotel's Coconut Grove nightclub.Template:Sfn "I was deeply affected by him," she later remembered, "It was impossible for me not to be."Template:Sfn The evening ended on a sobering note, however, with deTemplate:NbspHavilland insisting that despite his separation from his wife Lili Damita, he needed to divorce her before their relationship could proceed.Template:Sfn Flynn re-united with his wife later that year,Template:Sfn and deTemplate:NbspHavilland never acted on her feelings for Flynn.<ref name="telegraph-leach"/><ref group="Note">During the making of Robin Hood in November 1937, de Havilland decided to tease Flynn who was being watched closely on the set by his wife. In 2005, de Havilland said, "And so we had one kissing scene, which I looked forward to with great delight. I remember I blew every take, at least six in a row, maybe seven, maybe eight, and we had to kiss all over again. And Errol Flynn got really rather uncomfortable, and he had, if I may say so, a little trouble with his tights."Template:Sfn</ref>

In July 1938, deTemplate:NbspHavilland began dating business tycoon, aviator, and filmmaker Howard Hughes,Template:Sfn who had just completed his record-setting flight around the world in 91 hours.<ref name="academy-of-achievement"/> In addition to escorting her about town, he gave the actress her first flying lessons.Template:Sfn She later said, "He was a rather shy man ... and yet, in a whole community where the men every day played heroes on the screen and didn't do anything heroic in life, here was this man who was a real hero."<ref name="academy-of-achievement"/>

In December 1939, she began a romantic relationship with actor James Stewart. At the request of Irene Mayer Selznick, the actor's agent asked Stewart to escort deTemplate:NbspHavilland to the New York premiere of Gone with the Wind at the Astor Theater on December 19, 1939. Over the next few days, Stewart took her to the theater several times and to the 21 Club.Template:Sfn They continued to see each other back in Los Angeles, where Stewart provided occasional flying lessons and romance.Template:Sfn According to deTemplate:NbspHavilland, Stewart proposed marriage to her in 1940, but she felt that he was not ready to settle down.Template:Sfn Their relationship ended in late 1941 when deTemplate:NbspHavilland began a romantic relationship with film director John Huston while making In This Our Life.Template:Sfnm "John was a very great love of mine", she later said, "He was a man I wanted to marry."Template:Sfn<ref group="Note">On April 29, 1945, at the home of producer David O. Selznick, Huston, who knew about de Havilland's three-year crush on Flynn, confronted the Australian actorTemplate:Nsmdnswho suffered from tuberculosisTemplate:Nsmdnsabout his not serving in the military during the war.Template:Sfn When Flynn responded by alluding to his former "relationship" with de Havilland, Huston initiated an extended fistfight with the expert amateur boxer which landed them both in the hospital.Template:Sfn</ref>

Marriages and children

Smiling while holding her son in her arms

With her son, Benjamin, Template:Circa

On August 26, 1946, she married Marcus Goodrich, a U.S. Navy veteran, journalist, and author of the novel Delilah (1941).Template:Sfn De Hallivand filed for divorce in 1953, writing in her suit that Goodrich had "pursued a course of cruel treatment" and had "wrongfully inflicted upon her grievous physical and mental suffering, all without provocation or any excuse whatsoever."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn They had one child, Benjamin Goodrich, who was born on September 27, 1949.Template:Sfn Benjamin was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma at the age of 19<ref name="tcm-bio"/> and graduated from the University of Texas. He worked as a statistical analyst for Lockheed Missiles and Space Company in Sunnyvale, California, and as an international banking representative for the Texas Commerce Bank in Houston.<ref name="tcm-bio"/> He died on September 29, 1991, in Paris at the age of 42 of heart disease brought on by treatments for Hodgkin's disease, three weeks before the death of his father.<ref name="nytimes-honan"/><ref name="reel-bio"/>

On April 2, 1955, deTemplate:NbspHavilland married Pierre Galante, an executive editor for the magazine Paris Match.Template:Sfn Her marriage to Galante prompted her relocation to Paris. The couple separated in 1962 for undisclosed reasons but continued to live in the same house for another six years to raise their daughter together.Template:Sfn<ref name="philly-rickey"/><ref name="people-vespa"/> Galante moved across the street and the two remained close, even after the divorce was finalized in 1979.<ref name="philly-rickey"/> She looked after him during his final bout with lung cancer prior to his death in 1998. They had one child, Gisèle Galante, who was born on July 18, 1956.Template:Sfn After studying law at the Paris Nanterre University School of Law, she worked as a journalist in France and the United States.<ref name="tcm-bio"/> From 1956, deTemplate:NbspHavilland lived in a three-storey house near the Bois de Boulogne in Paris.<ref name="latimes-tartaglione"/>

Religion and politics

DeTemplate:NbspHavilland was raised in the Episcopal Church and remained an Episcopalian throughout her life.<ref name="anglicans-whalon"/><ref group="Note">In a 2015 interview, de Havilland stated that her religious beliefs had lapsed in her adult years, but that she regained her faith when her son was ill. Her renewed faith inspired her sister to return to the Episcopal Church.<ref name="variety-stadiem-notorious"/></ref> In the 1970s, she became one of the first women lectors at the American Cathedral in Paris, where she was on the regular rota for Scripture readings. As recently as 2012, she was doing readings on major feast days,<ref name="anglicans-whalon"/> including Christmas and Easter. "It's a task I love", she once said.<ref name="wsj-meroney"/> In describing her preparation for her readings, she once observed, "You have to convey the deep meaning, you see, and it has to start with your own faith. But first, I always pray. I pray before I start to prepare, as well. In fact, I would always say a prayer before shooting a scene, so this is not so different, in a way."<ref name="anglicans-whalon"/> DeTemplate:NbspHavilland preferred to use the Revised English Bible for its poetic style.<ref name="anglicans-whalon"/> She raised her son, Benjamin, in the Episcopal Church and her daughter, Gisèle, in the Roman Catholic Church, the faith of each child's father.Template:Sfn

As a United States citizen,<ref name="cnn-facts"/> deTemplate:NbspHavilland became involved in politics as a way of exercising her civic responsibilities.<ref name="wsj-meroney"/> She campaigned for Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt's ultimately successful reelection bid in 1944.<ref name="wsj-meroney"/> After the war, she joined the Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions, a national public-policy advocacy group that included Bette Davis, Gregory Peck, Groucho Marx, and Humphrey Bogart in its Hollywood chapter.<ref name="wsj-meroney"/> In June 1946, she was asked to deliver speeches for the committee that reflected the Communist Party line, and the group was later alleged to be a communist front organization.Template:Sfn Disturbed at seeing a small group of communist members manipulating the committee, she removed the pro-communist material from her speeches and rewrote them to reflect Democratic president Harry S. Truman's anti-communist platform. She later recalled, "I realized a nucleus of people was controlling the organization without a majority of the members of the board being aware of it. And I knew they had to be Communists."<ref name="wsj-meroney"/>

She organized a fight to regain control of the committee from its pro-Soviet leadership, but her reform efforts failed. Her resignation from the committee triggered a wave of resignations by 11 other Hollywood figures, including future president Ronald Reagan.<ref name="wsj-meroney"/><ref group="Note">Reagan was a relatively new board member when he was invited to join 10 other film-industry colleagues, including MGM studio head Dore Schary, for a meeting at deTemplate:NbspHavilland's house where he first learned that Communists were trying to gain control of the committee.Template:Sfn During the meeting, he turned to deTemplate:NbspHavilland, who was on the executive committee, and whispered, "You know, Olivia, I always thought you might be one of them." Laughing, she responded, "That's funny. I thought you were one of them." Reagan suggested they propose a resolution at the next meeting that included language reaffirmed the committee's "belief in free enterprise and the Democratic system" and repudiated "Communism as desirable for the United States"Template:Nsmdnsthe executive committee voted it down the following week.Template:Sfn Shortly afterwards, the committee disbanded, only to resurface as a newly named front organization.Template:Sfn Despite organising Hollywood resistance to Soviet influence, deTemplate:NbspHavilland was denounced later that year as a "swimming-pool pink" in Time magazine for her involvement in the committee.Template:Sfn</ref> In 1958, she was secretly called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and recounted her experiences with the Independent Citizens' Committee.<ref name="wsj-meroney"/>

Relationship with Joan Fontaine

Joan Fontaine and Gary Cooper holding Oscars

Joan Fontaine and Gary Cooper at the Academy Awards, 1942

De Havilland and her sister Joan Fontaine are the only siblings to have each won Academy Awards in a lead acting category.<ref name="time-berman"/> According to biographer Charles Higham, the sisters always had an uneasy relationship, starting in early childhood when Olivia had trouble accepting the idea of having a younger sister and Joan resented that her mother favored Olivia. Olivia would tear the clothes that her sister was given to wear as hand-me-downs, forcing Joan to stitch them together again.<ref name="independent-cornwell"/> This tension was made worse by Fontaine's frequent childhood illnesses, which led to her mother's overly protective expression "Livvie can, Joan can't."Template:Sfn DeTemplate:NbspHavilland was the first to become an actress, and for several years Fontaine was overshadowed by her sister's accomplishments. When Mervyn LeRoy offered Fontaine a personal contract, her mother told her that Warner Bros. was "Olivia's studio" and that she could not use the family name of deTemplate:NbspHavilland.Template:Sfn

In 1942, deTemplate:NbspHavilland and Fontaine were both nominated for an Academy Award for Best ActressTemplate:NsmdnsdeTemplate:NbspHavilland for Hold Back the Dawn and Fontaine for Suspicion. When Fontaine's name was announced as winner, deTemplate:NbspHavilland reacted graciously saying "We've got it!"Template:Sfn According to biographer Charles Higham, Fontaine rejected deTemplate:NbspHavilland's attempts to congratulate her, leaving deTemplate:NbspHavilland offended and embarrassed.Template:Sfn

Their relationship was strained further in 1946 when Fontaine made negative comments to an interviewer about deTemplate:NbspHavilland's new husband Marcus Goodrich. When she read her sister's remarks, deTemplate:NbspHavilland was deeply hurt and waited for an apology that was never offered.<ref name="hr-feinberg-feud"/> The following year after accepting her first Academy Award for To Each His Own, deTemplate:NbspHavilland was approached backstage by Fontaine, who extended her hand to congratulate her; deTemplate:NbspHavilland turned away from her sister.<ref name="hr-feinberg-feud"/> The two did not speak for the next five years.<ref group="Note">In 1957, in the only interview in which she ever commented on her relationship with her sister, deTemplate:NbspHavilland told the Associated Press "Joan is very bright and sharp and has a wit that can be cutting. She said some things about Marcus that hurt me deeply. She was aware there was an estrangement between us."<ref name="hr-feinberg-feud"/></ref> This may have caused an estrangement between Fontaine and her own daughters, who maintained a covert relationship with their aunt.Template:Sfn

Following her divorce from Goodrich, deTemplate:NbspHavilland resumed contact with her sister,<ref name="hr-feinberg-feud"/> visiting Fontaine's New York apartment and spending Christmas together in 1961.<ref name="hr-feinberg-feud"/><ref name="getty-galella"/> The final break between the sisters occurred in 1975 over disagreements regarding their mother's cancer treatment; deTemplate:NbspHavilland wanted to consult other doctors and supported exploratory surgery but Fontaine disagreed.Template:Sfn Fontaine later claimed that deTemplate:NbspHavilland had not notified her of their mother's death while she was touring with a play, but deTemplate:NbspHavilland had in fact sent a telegram, which took two weeks to reach her sister.<ref name="independent-cornwell"/> However, according to Fontaine in a 1979 interview with the CBC, de Havilland did not bother to phone to find out where she could be reached. The sibling feud lasted until Fontaine's death on December 15, 2013.<ref name="hr-feinberg-feud"/><ref group="Note">Fontaine once remarked, "I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia did, and if I die first, she'll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it!"<ref name="wp-bernstein"/></ref> The following day, deTemplate:NbspHavilland released a statement saying that she was "shocked and saddened" by the news.<ref name="cbsnews-djansezian-shocked"/>

Death

De Havilland died in her sleep of natural causes at her home in Paris on July 26, 2020, at the age of 104.Template:Refn Her funeral was held on August 1, 2020, at the American Cathedral in Paris. After cremation, her ashes were placed in the crematorium-columbarium of Père-Lachaise, in an urn later to be transferred to a family burial place on the British island of Guernsey.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Legacy

Five-pointed star with her name and an image of an old film camera

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6762 Hollywood Blvd.<ref name="hollywood-walk"/>

De Havilland began her acting career playing demure ingénues opposite male stars such as Errol Flynn, with whom she made her breakout film Captain Blood in 1935. Flynn and deTemplate:NbspHavilland made eight more feature films together and became one of Hollywood's most successful on-screen romantic pairings.<ref name="tcm-bio"/> DeTemplate:NbspHavilland appeared in 49 feature films, and her range of performances included roles in most major movie genres. Following her film debut in the Shakespeare adaptation A Midsummer Night's Dream, she achieved her initial popularity in romantic comedies, such as The Great Garrick and Hard to Get, and Western adventure films, such as Dodge City and Santa Fe Trail.<ref name="tcm-filmography"/> In her later career, she was most successful in drama films, such as In This Our Life and Light in the Piazza, and psychological dramas in which she played non-glamorous characters in films such as The Dark Mirror, The Snake Pit, and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte.<ref name="tcm-bio"/>

During her career, deTemplate:NbspHavilland won two Academy Awards (To Each His Own and The Heiress), two Golden Globe Awards (The Heiress and Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna), two New York Film Critics Circle Awards (The Snake Pit and The Heiress), the National Board of Review Award and the Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup (The Snake Pit), and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination (Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna).<ref name="tcm-milestones"/>

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, deTemplate:NbspHavilland received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960.<ref name="hollywood-walk"/> She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hertfordshire in 1998 and from Mills College in 2018.<ref name="tcm-notes"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She was one of 500 stars nominated for the American Film Institute's list of 50 greatest screen legends.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

With a glowing smile looking up at the president

Receiving the National Medal of Arts from President George W. Bush, November 2008

In 2006, she was inducted into the Online Film & Television Association Award Film Hall of Fame.<ref name="ofta-hall"/>

The moving-image collection of Olivia de Havilland is held at the Academy Film Archive, which includes a preserved nitrate reel of a screen test for Danton, Max Reinhardt's never-produced follow-up to A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

As a confidante and friend of Bette Davis, deTemplate:NbspHavilland is featured in the series Feud: Bette and Joan, where she is portrayed by Catherine Zeta-Jones. In the series, deTemplate:NbspHavilland reflects on the origins and depth of the Davis–Crawford feud and how it affected contemporary female Hollywood stars. In 2017, she filed suit against FX Networks and producer Ryan Murphy for inaccurately portraying her and using her likeness without permission.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Although FX attempted to strike the suit as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, Judge Holly Kendig denied the motion and set trial for November 2017.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> An interlocutory appeal of the ruling was argued in March 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A three-justice panel of the California Court of Appeal ruled that the trial court had erred in denying the defendants' motion to strike, in a published opinion by Justice Anne Egerton that affirmed the right of filmmakers to embellish the historical record and that such portrayals are protected by the First Amendment.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>De Havilland v. FX Networks, LLC, 21 Cal. App. 5th 845, 230 Cal. Rptr. 3d 625 (2018).</ref> De Havilland appealed the decision to the Supreme Court in September 2018, which declined to review the case.<ref>Olivia de Havilland, Now 102, Will Take 'Feud' to Supreme Court, Eriq Gardner, August 23, 2018, The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 24, 2018.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

She was portrayed by Ashlee Lollback in the 2018 Australian biographical film In Like Flynn.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2021, the Olivia de Havilland Theater was inaugurated at the American University of Paris.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result	Template:Tooltip
1940	Academy Award	Best Supporting Actress	Gone with the Wind	Template:Nom	<ref name="tcm-milestones" />
1942		Best Actress	Hold Back the Dawn	Template:Nom	<ref name="tcm-milestones" />
1946			To Each His Own	Template:Won	<ref name="tcm-milestones" />
1948			The Snake Pit	Template:Nom	<ref name="tcm-milestones" />
1948	National Board of Review Award	Best Actress		Template:Won	<ref name="allmovie-olivia-awards" />
1948	New York Film Critics Circle Award	Best Actress		Template:Won	<ref name="allmovie-olivia-awards" />
1949	Academy Award	Best Actress	The Heiress	Template:Won	<ref name="tcm-milestones" />
1949	Golden Globe Award	Best Actress - Drama		Template:Won	<ref name="golden-globes-olivia" />
1949	New York Film Critics Circle Award	Best Actress		Template:Won	<ref name="allmovie-olivia-awards" />
1949	Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup	Best Actress	The Snake Pit	Template:Won	<ref name="allmovie-olivia-awards" />
1952	Grauman's Chinese Theater	Hand prints and footprints	—	Template:Won	<ref name="ap-graumans" />
1953	Golden Globe Award	Best Motion Picture Actress	My Cousin Rachel	Template:Nom	<ref name="golden-globes-olivia" />
1960	Hollywood Walk of Fame Star	Motion Picture at 6762 Hollywood Blvd, February 8, 1960	—	Template:Won	<ref name="hollywood-walk" />
1986	Golden Globe Award	Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role	Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna	Template:Won	<ref name="golden-globes-olivia" />
1986	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries		Template:Nom	<ref name="tcm-milestones" />
1998	Honorary Doctorate	University of Hertfordshire	—	Template:Won	<ref name="tcm-notes" />
2006	Online Film & Television Association	Film Hall of Fame	—	Template:Won	<ref name="ofta-hall" />
2008	National Medal of Arts	—	—	Template:Won	<ref name="wh-archive" />
2010	Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur	—	—	Template:Won	<ref name="ap-corbet" />
2016	Oldie of the Year	—	—	Template:Won	<ref name="bbc-oldie" />

Honors

National honors

Country	Date	Decoration	Post-nominal letters
Template:Flagu	2008Template:Spaced ndashJuly 26, 2020	National Medal of Arts
Template:Flagu	2010Template:Spaced ndashJuly 26, 2020	Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur
Template:Flagu	2017Template:Spaced ndashJuly 26, 2020	Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire	DBE

Honorary degrees

Location	Date	School	Degree	Status
Template:Flagu	1994	American University of Paris	Doctorate <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Flagu	1998	University of Hertfordshire	Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Flagu	May 12, 2018	Mills College	Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL) <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Memberships and fellowships

Location	Date	Organization	Position
Template:Flagu	1940Template:Spaced ndashJuly 26, 2020	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences	Member (Actors Branch)
Template:Flagu	1978Template:Spaced ndashJuly 26, 2020	American Academy of Achievement<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	Awards Council Member

Filmography

• Alibi Ike (1935)
• The Irish in Us (1935)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
• Captain Blood (1935)
• Anthony Adverse (1936)
• The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
• Call It a Day (1937)
• The Great Garrick (1937)
• It's Love I'm After (1937)
• Gold Is Where You Find It (1938)
• The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
• Four's a Crowd (1938)
• Hard to Get (1938)
• Wings of the Navy (1939)
• Dodge City (1939)
• The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
• Gone with the Wind (1939)
• Raffles (1939)
• My Love Came Back (1940)
• Santa Fe Trail (1940)
• The Strawberry Blonde (1941)
• Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
• They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
• The Male Animal (1942)
• In This Our Life (1942)
• Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
• Princess O'Rourke (1943)
• Government Girl (1944)
• To Each His Own (1946)
• Devotion (1946)
• The Well Groomed Bride (1946)
• The Dark Mirror (1946)
• The Snake Pit (1948)
• The Heiress (1949)
• My Cousin Rachel (1952)
• That Lady (1955)
• Not as a Stranger (1955)
• The Ambassador's Daughter (1956)
• The Proud Rebel (1958)
• Libel (1959)
• Light in the Piazza (1962)
• Lady in a Cage (1964)
• Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
• The Adventurers (1970)
• Pope Joan (1972)
• The Screaming Woman (1972)
• Airport '77 (1977)
• The Swarm (1978)
• The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
• I Remember Better When I Paint (2009)

See also

• List of Academy Award winners and nominees from Great Britain
• List of actors with Academy Award nominations
• List of actors with more than one Academy Award nomination in the acting categories
• List of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories

References

General and cited sources

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External links

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• "Olivia de Havilland – A Century of Excellence", fair use compilation of movie clips, 6 min.