Goodbye, Olivia.
Sad news today: Olivia de Havilland has passed away at the age of 104.
Like most, my first encounter with the great Olivia de Havilland was Gone with the Wind, a movie I've always enjoyed for the strength of its actors. The story, we know, is problematic, but the acting. My god, the acting. In my opinion, Vivien Leigh gave one of the best Oscar-winning performances of all time; Clark Gable is forever cemented with this role.
But it's Olivia that I want to focus on. She gives Melly Hamilton enough sensitivity and enough strength that she's a definite highlight of the film. She carries the emotional tone of the film, in my opinion, and when she passes at the end, it's such a significant loss that it irrevocably changes the lives of all the characters.
Nearly ten years ago, I decided that I wanted to watch all of the movies that earned the Academy Award for Best Actress. With Olivia's two wins, for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949), I got to see two of her greatest performances, and I wanted to see more.
Olivia excelled at playing good girls. She even said as much: "Playing good girls in the '30s was difficult, when the fad was to play bad girls. Actually I think playing bad girls is a bore; I have always had more luck with good girl roles because they require more from an actress."
Over the years, I've seen 20 of her films, and I'm constantly on the lookout for more. Some of my favourites: Princess O'Rourke, The Snake Pit (which should've won her another Oscar), The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Well-Groomed Bride, Light in the Piazza, Libel, In This Our Life, The Strawberry Blonde... I mean, just looking at the list of films I've seen, the only one I outright hated was Gold Is Where You Find It.
Beyond her film career, I've always enjoyed reading about her life. I recently re-read Every Frenchman Has One, her 1962 memoir about moving to Paris, and loved all the charming anecdotes she shared about the culture shock. Here's hoping she left behind a memoir, because, as I said in my review, "If anyone's going to spill the tea on what the Golden Age of Hollywood was really like, I sincerely hope it's the studio-system-destroying, two-time-Oscar-winning Olivia de Havilland."
It's a sad day, but anyone who lived as richly and as fully as Olivia de Havilland deserves some rest after all this time.
“I would prefer to live forever in perfect health, but if I must at some time leave this life, I would like to do so ensconced on a chaise longue, perfumed, wearing a velvet robe and pearl earrings, with a flute of champagne beside me and having just discovered the answer to the last problem in a British cryptic crossword."
Goodbye, Olivia, and thank you.
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