Published Thursday, June 30, 2011 (incidentally, the 75th anniversary of the release of the book Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell)
The stars of Gone With the Wind have, for the most part, not been blessed with long lives.
Vivien Leigh, who played the movie's central character, Scarlett O'Hara, passed away in July 1967 from tuberculosis at the age of 53. The life of Clark Gable (Rhett Butler) was claimed in November 1960, when he was 59, by a coronary thrombosis, ten days after he had suffered a severe heart attack. In June 1943, the life of Leslie Howard (Ashley Wilkes) was cut short at 50, when, while he was involved in propaganda and possibly intelligence work for his native Britain during World War II, his plane was shot down by the Nazi Germans. Hattie McDaniel (Mammy), who won an Oscar (the first black to do so and the only black to do so until 1963) for Best Supporting Actress, died of breast cancer at 57 in 1952.
However, there is one notable exception: Olivia de Havilland, whose character Melanie Hamilton Wilkes, ironically enough, loses her life at a tragically young age. Tomorrow marks 95 years since the actress was born.
In quick summary, de Havilland was born in Tokyo, Japan to a father with an overseas patent law practice and an actress mother. Both she and her sister, Joan Fontaine (Rebecca, Suspicion, The Constant Nymph, Ivanhoe) were among the 1930s' leading motion picture actresses. De Havilland's film debut was 1935's A Midsummer Night's Dream. She is probably best known for her role in 1939's Gone With the Wind and 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood, in which she played Maid Marian. Although losing the 1939 Best Supporting Actress Oscar, for which she was nominated, to McDaniel, de Havilland eventually won two Best Actress Oscars, for her roles as Miss Josephine "Jody" Harris in 1946's To Each His Own and as Catherine Sloper in 1949's The Heiress. Married twice and the mother of two children, de Havilland has resided in Paris since the 1950s. (Additional biographical details about de Havilland are accessible easily enough.
Mickey Kuhn, who, in Gone With the Wind, played de Havilland's character's son Beau Wilkes as a seven-year-old, has been communicating with de Havilland in recent years via letters and notes. He offers this assessment of her: "She's a lovely lady. She's just the epitome of class. And she's a delight to talk to."
However, Kuhn shares a detail that may be surprising about his interaction on the set with de Havilland: "I have to be honest with you. I never met Olivia when I was working. Can you believe that? When [her character] was dying, she was behind closed doors, and that was just a fake wall. I never met her."
In fact, Kuhn "never had the opportunity to meet her until her 90th birthday. They had a 90th birthday party for her out in Hollywood, and I was invited. I just briefly met her because those Hollywood types wanted to dominate her. Being the gentleman that I am, I didn't push myself."
According to Kuhn: "Last October, my wife and I were in Paris to celebrate our 25th anniversary. And we were at Olivia's house. We were to have cocktails with her. But something got snafued, and we didn't have the opportunity. But we were at her house, and it was still quite a thrill. Her staff had forgotten to tell her earlier in the day that I was going to be there. She did say, however, that if I were available the next morning, that we would meet for brunch. But, unfortunately, that was when I had to leave."
Kuhn states: "She's a wonderful lady, and she's in great shape. She's coming out to California in September. Her daughter is getting married, and she's going to be at the wedding. I'm hoping, and I'm praying, that [Turner Classic Movies host] Robert Osborne can arrange a meeting for us."
Kuhn also notes de Havilland's concern about Stalinist atrocities and her resistance to efforts of the international Communist movement to infiltrate Hollywood. He states: "It's nice to know that she was one of those in Hollywood who saw through the Communist plot."
Stacey Albert, an audit manager for the City of Philadelphia’s Office of the Controller, is planning a get-together for friends tonight -- which will feature a viewing, at the very least, of The Adventures of Robin Hood -- in honor of de Havilland's 95th birthday. Albert relates personally to the role of Melanie Wilkes.
"Olivia almost always played the shy character [note: de Havilland was displeased, as her career developed, by what she felt was typecasting], never getting the spotlight. That's like most of us as we live our lives ... in the shadow of a sister, brother or other family members. Almost the only major role of hers in which she didn't play this kind of character was in The Adventures of Robin Hood.
"That's why I relate, My late sister, who loved Gone With the Wind, was like Vivien Leigh's Scarlett, and I guess I'm in some ways like Melanie."
Albert adds: "Robin Hood was one of my favorite movies growing up. Maid Marian was beautiful, and the most honorable swashbuckler was in love with her. Who could ask for more?"
Leigh Mills, the webmaster of vivien-leigh.com, notes the relationship between the movie's two most prominent actresses: "Olivia de Havilland and Vivien Leigh were comrades during the tiresome, stressful filming of Gone With the Wind, and they kept in touch after the film wrapped. De Havilland has only the kindest words when remembering Vivien, calling her exquisite, elegant, and composed. Yet these qualities, I think, perfectly describe Miss de Havilland herself."
Connie Sutherland, director of the Marietta Gone With the Wind Museum in Marietta, Georgia, reflects on her own interaction with de Havilland: "In 2009, the museum hosted its grandest event to date, a '70th Anniversary Re-Premiere' weekend. While de Havilland was not able to come in from Paris to attend the event, she was gracious enough to provide an audio recording centered around the event, to introduce the weekend's screening of Gone With the Wind. At that time, she had only done such things for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
As Sutherland describes: "Imagine, if you will, 500 fans who have enjoyed a weekend of all things Gone With the Wind and who have settled in for an evening to view their favorite film of all time. Acknowledgements are made on the stage of the Strand [Theatre in Marietta], and then an introduction of Robert Osborne. He steps on stage to a lone spotlight, and following the necessary acknowledgments, pauses and says, 'Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Olivia de Havilland.' "
Sutherland continues: "In the dimly lit theatre, one of the most recognizable voices known to Hollywood begins to resonate through the beautiful walls of the Strand as Miss de Havilland acknowledges actress Ann Rutherford [Carreen O’Hara] along with 'three of her sons' [Kuhn, Patrick Curtis [who played Beau as a toddler] and Greg Geise [who played both infant Beau and infant Bonnie Blue Butler]. Then she introduces Gone With the Wind , and the audience erupts in thundering applause. It was one of the most memorable evenings for Gone With the Wind fans I've encountered, and this wonderful gracious lady made it all possible. She is, in a word, splendid."
And Sutherland concludes with a hint for de Havilland which is much less subtle than anything Melanie Hamilton Wilkes would have typically said: "Our museum would never be the same – actually, I would never be the same -- should she ever agree to grace us with an appearance."
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