The last surviving cast member of Gone with the Wind passed away this weekend.
Olivia de Havilland, the legendary actor known for the role of Melanie, died at home on Saturday. She was 104.
Gone with the Wind actress dies
The actress died of natural causes in Paris, where she has lived for over sixty years, her publicist said.
She is mostly known for playing the saintly sister-in-law of the spoiled belle, Scarlett O’Hara, in Gone with the Wind. Although the role got her an Oscar nomination, it was for two other movies, To Each His Own and The Heiress, that de Havilland won Oscars for best actress.
Born in 1916, de Havilland rose to prominence in the 1930s in titles like The Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain Blood, starring alongside Errol Flynn. She got her big break while studying acting in college, after impressing director Max Reinhardt, who was then directing A Midsummer Nights’ Dream.
“I wanted to be a stage actress,” she once said. “Life sort of made the decision for me.”
Later in life, De Havilland appeared in TV productions including Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, and for her legendary talents, she received the National Medal of Arts and France’s Legion of Honor. Her final role was 1988’s The Woman He Loved.
Legendary actor
Beyond the studio, de Havilland is known for a 1940s legal battle over her contract with Warner, in which she won more freedom or herself and other actors.
She also had a notable rivalry with younger sister Joan Fontaine, also an actress. They were nominated for the same Oscar category in 1941, but her sister won for Hitchcock’s Suspicion.
Twice married, De Havilland moved to France in the 1950s with her second husband, the late French journalist Pierre Galante. Her first marriage, to author Marcus Goodrich, ended in divorce, and she outlived their only child, Benjamin.
Olivia’s passing comes as the civil war epic that immortalized her attracts increasing controversy, for supposedly having romanticizing the slaveholding South. Nevertheless, Gone with the Wind remains one of the true triumphs in movie history, and De Havilland’s storied career will never be forgotten.
She is survived by a daughter, Gisele, son-in-law Andrew, and niece Deborah.
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