We throw the Ron’s Amazing Spotlight on actress Olivia de Havilland. She was born July 1, 1916 and her career spanned from 1935 to 1988. Here is the amazing part, she is one of the last surviving stars at age one-hundred, from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Olivia appeared in forty-nine feature films. She is best known for her early screen performance in one of my favorite films of all time, The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938. She was also in a tiny little film in 1939 called Gone with the Wind. That film only won twelve academy awards including best actress in a supporting role – Olivia de Havilland. Oh, in case you were wondering, best actress in a leading role was won by Vivien Leigh star of Gone with the Wind.

Olivia was born in Tokyo to English parents. She and her younger sister, actress Joan Fontaine, moved to California in 1919. They were raised by their mother Lillian, a former stage actress who taught them dramatic art, music, and elocution. De Havilland made her acting debut Reinhardt’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1935. She began her career playing demure innocent women opposite popular leading men, including Errol Flynn, with whom she made nine films. They became one of Hollywood’s most popular romantic on-screen pairings.

After romantic relationships with Howard Hughes, James Stewart, and John Huston, Olivia married author Marcus Goodrich, with whom she had a son, Benjamin. In 1953, she moved to Paris and married Pierre Galante with whom she had a daughter, Gisèle. Olivia and Joan Fontaine are the only sisters to have won Academy Awards in a lead acting category. A lifelong rivalry between the two resulted in an estrangement that lasted over three decades. Joan died in 2013 and won her Academy Award for best actress for her role in Suspicion in 1941.

This Week’s Podcast:

On this week’s podcast we present Olivia de Havilland in one the golden age of radio’s best plays, The Scarlet Pimpernel. You can listen to this podcast this Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from iTunes, stream it on TuneIn Radio or listen on your radio Friday night at 8pm Eastern time. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.