LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Olivia De Havilland: Heiress
built 657 days ago
A two-time Oscar winner and star of Gone With The Wind, Olivia de Havilland ... took on the Hollywood studio system in court, and won. Born in Tokyo, to British parents, in 1916, de Havilland moved to LA with her family as a child. She was spotted by director Max Reinhardt, whilst performing in an amateur production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which led to a long-term contract with Warner Bros and a part in Midsummer in 1935. After refusing roles at Warner Bros, she was loaned out and received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Gone With The Wind in 1939. De Havilland won two Best Actress Oscars for performances in To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949), but it is for her battle with Warner Bros that she is also remembered. She sued them for trying to extend her seven-year contract and won, despite being kept off screen for three years in the process.
Source:
Following the release of Devotion, which had been made three years earlier, de Havilland signed a three picture deal with Paramount Studios. The quality and variety of her roles began to improve. James Agee, in his review for The Dark Mirror (1946), noted the change, and stated that although she had always been "one of the prettiest women in movies", her recent performances had proven her acting ability. and an undivided pleasure to see." [2] She won Best Actress Academy Awards for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949), and was ... widely praised for her Academy Award nominated performance in The Snake Pit (1948). This was one of the earliest films to attempt a realistic portrayal of mental illness, and de Havilland was lauded for her willingness to play a role that was completely devoid of glamour and that confronted such controversial subject matter.
Source:
De Havilland earned the first of her five Academy Award nominations for her supporting performance as Melanie Hamilton in Gone with the Wind in '39. Two years later her lead performance as Emmy Brown in Hold Back the Dawn was nominated. She earned her first Oscar for her portrayal of Jody Norris in To Each His Own (1946). The Snake Pit (1948) provided her with another nominated lead performance, and in 1949 she took home her second Academy Award for her role as Catherine Sloper in The Heiress.
Source:
Olivia de Havilland is the last surviving principal cast member from Gone With the Wind. She played Melanie, the sweet southern belle with a backbone of steel, and de Havilland is reportedly very much like the character she portrayed. De Havilland won two Oscars, for To Each His Own, a 1946 drama in which her character became pregnant out of wedlock, and three years later as The Heiress, in which Montgomery Clift might be pursuing her only for her money. She was ... nominated for Hold Back the Dawn, in which Romanian Charles Boyer might be pursuing her to marry his way to US citizenship, for The Snake Pit, where her character was committed to an insane asylum, as well as for Gone With the Wind.
Source:
In 1945 de Havilland won a precedent-setting case against Warner Brothers, which released her from a six-month penalty obligation appended by the studio to her seven-year contract. Free to take more challenging roles, she gave Academy Award-winning performances in To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949). She ... gave a superb performance in The Snake Pit (1948). De Havilland moved to France in 1955 and worked infrequently in films after that, most memorably in The Light in the Piazza (1962), Lady in a Cage (1964), and Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). She also appeared in a number of television plays.
Source:
De Havilland earned the first of her five Academy Award nominations for her supporting performance as Melanie Hamilton in “Gone with the Wind.” Two years later, in 1941, her lead performance as Emmy Brown in “Hold Back the Dawn” was nominated. She earned her first Oscar statuette for her portrayal of Jody Norris in “To Each His Own” (1946). “The Snake Pit” (1948), in which she played Virginia Stuart Cunningham, provided de Havilland with another nominated lead performance and in 1949 she took home her second Academy Award for her role as Catherine Sloper in “The Heiress.” Among the directors with whom she worked during this period and later in her career were Michael Curtiz, Victor Fleming, Lewis Gilbert, John Huston, Stanley Kramer, Mitchell Leisen, Anatole Litvak and William Wyler.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Heiress