Actor Olivia de Havilland, one of the last remaining stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood, died in Paris on Sunday, reported AP. She was 104. She died of natural causes at her home, said her publicist Lisa Goldberg.
De Havilland was the last surviving star from Gone with the Wind, in which she played the role of Melanie Hamilton. A two-time Oscar winner, De Havilland’s career spanned more than 50 years during which she appeared in over 50 feature films. She won the Best Actress Oscar in 1946 for her role in To Each His Own, and then in 1949 for The Heiress.
Born in Tokyo in 1916, De Havilland made her breakthrough in Captain Blood, opposite Errol Flynn. She continued to act till the late 1980s. In 1986, she won a Golden Globe for Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna. Among her notable films were A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Hold Back the Dawn and The Dark Mirror.
De Havilland took on Hollywood’s studio system. In 1943, she took Warner Brothers to court when it added time to her original contract as a penalty for turning down roles. The California Supreme Court ruled in her favour and it came to be known as the “De Havilland Law”. The ruling loosened the grip studios had on actors.
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