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One of the all-time greats from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Olivia de Havilland, is 104 today.
What is your favorite performance(s) of hers? What films do you think she should’ve been nominated/won an Oscar for, in addition to her five nominations and two wins?
ReplyShe was rumored to by James Cameron’s first choice for old Rose in Titanic but was offended by him wanting to audition her or maybe just interview her to see if she was up for the task. Not sure which.
Gloria Stuart was fine but it would have been a nice piece of film history to have her end her career in a huge film like Titanic (and maybe win a third Oscar.)
I’m not sure when this was (probably around 1990 or so) but a local news reporter was standing in traffic reporting how bad the traffic jam leaving the show was. He was going up to cars to see if he could get a comment from the occupants and a woman rolled down the window and it was Olivia. She hadn’t even done anything on the show. Just was in the audience.
ReplyCopy URLI’m not sure when this was (probably around 1990 or so) but a local news reporter was standing in traffic reporting how bad the traffic jam leaving the show was. He was going up to cars to see if he could get a comment from the occupants and a woman rolled down the window and it was Olivia. She hadn’t even done anything on the show. Just was in the audience.
Oh that’s incredible.. Is there any footage of that moment out there?
ReplyCopy URLDid her lawsuit surrounding her depiction in Bette vs. Joan ever get resolved? Is that the reason I have been unable to find a DVD for the show?
I would have voted for others the 5 times she was nominated (Geraldine Fitzgerald for Wuthering Heights; Bette Davis for The Little Foxes; Rosalind Russell for Sister Kenny; Irene Dunne for I Remember Mama; and Deborah Kerr for Edward, My Son), and I don’t think she was worthy for any other roles. She was a solid actress but not a particular favorite.
ReplyCopy URLHer best work is in THE HEIRESS. She also gave the most deserving performance for a lead actress not only among the Oscar nominees but in general film releases that year. She’s so beautiful but her performance in that makes you forget that the character is supposed to be quite plain looking. Unfortunately that’s the only time I felt that way after seeing at least 20 or more of her films. I did like her very much in “Hold Back the Dawn”, “The Dark Mirror” (far, far better than “To Each His Own” that same year), “My Cousin Rachel” and “Lady In a Cage”. I’ll take a pass on “The Snake Pit”, the film and her performance don’t hold up very well for me with that one.
ReplyCopy URLDid her lawsuit surrounding her depiction in Bette vs. Joan ever get resolved? Is that the reason I have been unable to find a DVD for the show?
It was resolved in 2018 and she lost…
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https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/ryan-murphy-fx-win-feud-lawsuit-olivia-de-havilland-article-1.3897641I’d give Olivia three Oscars: Gone with the Wind, The Heiress and The Snake Pit.
I think Snake is her best performance.
I recently saw all the nominees for her first Oscar (https://excessopop.blogspot.com/2020/06/melhor-atriz-1946-os-104-anos-de-olivia.html) and she was, easily, the second best for me.
A legend and I hope she live many years to come! If she turns 105, she’ll pass Rainer as the oldest person alive with an Oscar.
ReplyCopy URLShe’s currently the oldest Oscar winner alive. At 105 she would become the longest lived ever.
ReplyCopy URLI’d give Olivia three Oscars: Gone with the Wind, The Heiress and The Snake Pit.
I think Snake is her best performance.
I recently saw all the nominees for her first Oscar (https://excessopop.blogspot.com/2020/06/melhor-atriz-1946-os-104-anos-de-olivia.html) and she was, easily, the second best for me.
A legend and I hope she live many years to come! If she turns 105, she’ll pass Rainer as the oldest person alive with an Oscar.
Oh that’s incredible.. Is there any footage of that moment out there?
I doubt it. It was just from a local news show. There was gridlock and the reporter was just trying to get somebody to roll down the window and say how long they had been stuck there. Olivia obliged. Introduced herself and then answered his questions such as how she liked the show, winners etc. The reporter stumbled into a good interview when he initially would have been happy just talking to a chauffeur even.
ReplyCopy URLI give her two wins – for The Heiress (it feels like everybody does so) and The Snake Pit. In addition, two nominations (Hold back the dawn + Gone with the wind).
I like her very much but my anticipation when watching a movie with her is usually bigger than my enthusiasm after it. She starred in a lot of fluff and forgettable pictures. She wasn’t a very good comedienne – some of the material she was given was average or just about good but she couldn’t translate it into something great like Jean Arthur or Irene Dunne could. Drama was certainly her genre and with the right director and the right role she was breathtaking. However, as I said, when you go down her filmography there is probably more forgettable fluff than masterpieces (To each his own is also quite fluffly, but very watchable).
I liked the trivia about Rose from Titanic – de Havilland would have most certainly won a third Oscar for it.
ReplyCopy URLIt would have been very interesting to see what de Havilland could have done with playing Old Rose.
Yes I’d have liked to see that. Plus she looked a bit like Kate Winslet. (the big eyes and stuff) I never really bought the idea that Gloria Stuart was Kate as an old woman and Gloria Stuart was never really that famous. It wasn’t a star cameo like it would have been with Olivia.
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