Posted on 07/01/2019 4:29:24 PM PDT by fhayek
Given my interest in the stars from yesteryear, I vividly recall a conversation I had with the late TCM film historian Robert Osborne about Gone With the Wind star Olivia de Haviland.
"We speak every Sunday," he told me. "And I would so like to do an on-camera interview with her for TCM. But she would rather be remembered for her illustrious career instead of anyone wondering what she might look like as an older woman."
My conversation with Mr. Osborne, if I remember correctly, was in 2003, which would have made the legendary two-time Oscar winning actress 87 years old at the time.
Today it is my honor, and my privilege, to wish Dame Olivia de Haviland a very Happy Birthday. She turns 103.
Movie fans, of course, will remember de Haviland as Melanie Hamilton Wilkes in 1939 classic Gone With the Wind, which netted the actress her first of five Academy Award nominations. But her initial movie role of prominence was in 1935 swashbuckling pirate film Captain Blood opposite Errol Flynn. Then of note, also pre-Gone With the Wind (and also opposite Errol Flynn), was The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938.
"This was an early Technicolor classic," Osborne said about The Adventures of Robin Hood during our memorable conversation. "It was the film that really was the best looking color film of the 1930s; more so than The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. It just never got the credit it deserves."
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I fell in love with her in “They died with their boots on.” I told my then girlfriend about the old movie, how great it was, how beautiful the old-time actress was, and that I had stayed up until 4 am on a work day to watch it.
“Oh - I have it on tape. And the actress is Olivia de Havilland.”
“Oh - so that’s who that is. Just beautiful! They don’t make movie stars like that anymore!!”
“Well - she’s still alive.”
“What!!?? No way!!!”
And my girlfriend is now my wife - and we’re both 30+ years older! (As is Olivia! Wow!!)
Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.
Quite a head start on Keith Richards.
ex-SCOTUS J P Stevens alive at 99
ex-SCOTUS J P Stevens alive at 99
It’s actually a welcoming comfort to know that people from then are still with us.
Just happen to see this.
“Gone with the Wind’ mansion up for auction; opening bid starts at one million dollars “
It is.
Wish I could write that she did.
Yup, we all are ;-)
They REALLY made her look plain in The Heiress, one of my favorite pictures. Savage performance too.
Is she still waiting in the parlor for Morris?
Nope... Mostly the wonders of family genes...
The link you posted to the auction house has pics of a first class restoration of the mansion. Just beautiful.
Olivia and her sister Joan Fontaine were allegedly the inspiration for “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”
Except for those who are no longer with us.
I see what you did there ;-)
She is 103. She was born 51 years after the Civil War.
Cleopatra (30 BC) is closer to our time than to Khufu's (BC 2589).
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