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Olivia De Havilland: Academy Award
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At the height of her powers, de Havilland seemed to have lost the fighting spirit that enabled her to bring the dreaded seven-year studio contract system to its knees, a court battle previously lost by the redoubtable Bette Davis. Prissily concerned with her star image like Melanie guarding Southern traditions in Gone with the Wind, de Havilland rejected the chance to play Blanche Dubois. Considering her icy brilliance in The Snake Pit, it is interesting to contemplate what dimensions she would have brought to the most challenging role ever written for an actress. Throughout the fifties, she tackled Broadway to a lukewarm reception (Romeo and Juliet, Candida) and worked less frequently on-screen—hypnotically ambiguous in My Cousin Rachel and authoritatively embodying pioneer spirit in Proud Rebel, but ludicrously sporting an eye patch and saccharine airs for the period costumer, That Lady, and ladling on a thick Swedish meatball accent for Not as a Stranger. Almost all the rest is disappointing with de Havilland making great lady appearances rather than flexing her acting muscles (on televised awards ceremonies, she gushes as if impressed with her own place in film history). If she mainly played it safe as part of all-star disaster ensembles (The Swarm, Airport '77), her latter-day career is marked with two striking returns to form.
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Soon after signing with Warner Brothers in 1935, Olivia de Havilland had her first starring role in Captain Blood (1935) opposite Errol Flynn. But it was 1939’s Gone with the Wind that showcased her talent as a serious dramatic actress. De Havilland earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Melanie Hamilton in this Civil War and Reconstruction era drama. She scored another Academy Award nomination two years later for her role in Hold Back the Dawn (1941).
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Tickets for An Academy Tribute to Olivia de Havilland will go on sale June 1, 2006, for $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members. They will be available for purchase at the Academy during regular business hours or by mail. The Academy is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. For more information call 310-247-3600.
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De Havilland appeared sporadically in films after the 1950s and attributed this partly to the growing permissiveness of Hollywood films of the period. She was reported to have declined the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, citing the unsavoury nature of some elements of the script and saying there were certain lines she could not allow herself to speak. The role eventually went to her former Gone with the Wind co-star, Vivien Leigh, who won her second Academy Award for her role. De Havilland continued acting on film until the late 1970s, afterwards continuing her career on television until the late 80s, which included her winning a Golden Globe for her performance as the Dowager Empress Maria in the 1986 miniseries Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna.
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A resident of Paris since the 1950s , de Havilland lives in retirement and makes appearances rarely. She is reported to be working on an autobiography . One of her most recent public appearances was as a presenter at the 75th Annual Academy Awards in 2003 . In 2004 , Turner Classic Movies put together a retrospective piece called "Melanie Remembers," in which de Havilland was interviewed for the 65th anniversary of Gone with the Wind 's original release. Nearly 90 years old, de Havilland remembered every detail of her casting (she was in a contract with Warner's and at first they refused to let her play Melanie for David O. Selznick ) as well as filming (Leigh could go immediately from break to taping and fall into her Scarlett O'Hara role, while she needed 20 minutes to focus to get back into Melanie.) The documentary lasted for a little under 40 minutes and can be seen on the Gone with the Wind four-disc special collector's edition.
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De Havilland's family moved from Tokyo when she was two years old, settling in Saratoga, California. She attended school at Los Gatos High School and at the Notre Dame Convent Catholic girls' school in Belmont, California. An acting award at Los Gatos is named after her.
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