Olivia de Havilland, Oscar winner who starred in 'Gone With the Wind,' dies at 104

July 26, 2020, 12:04 PM

Olivia de Havilland, the dignified and dogged Oscar-winning actress and last surviving star of Gone With the Wind who feuded with sister Joan Fontaine, and bucked the old Hollywood studio system, died in her sleep on Saturday, July 25, Entertainment Weekly reports. She was 104.

“Last night, the world lost an international treasure, and I lost a dear friend and beloved client. She died peacefully in Paris,” the star’s former lawyer, Suzelle M. Smith, said in a statement to Variety.

A fighter to the end, de Havilland marked the day before her 101st birthday with a lawsuit: On June 30, 2017, she sued FX and producer Ryan Murphy over her depiction in the Emmy-winning backstage docudrama series Feud: Bette and Joan. In 2018, the California Court of Appeal of the Second District ruled against de Havilland, and her attempt to appeal the decision was declined.

During a screen career that endured for more than 50 years, de Havilland won two Best Actress Oscars, her first for 1947's To Each His Own and then for 1950's The Heiress.

De Havilland and Fontaine, a Best Actress winner for 1942's Suspicion, are the only siblings and sisters in Oscar history to have each claimed a statuette in the lead-acting categories.

De Havilland was nominated for a total of five Academy Awards. Other notable credits include The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Snake Pit.

Her most famous screen performance was as the unwaveringly good Melanie Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. Released in 1939 when de Havilland was just 23, the Civil War epic won eight Oscars and reigned as the all-time box-office champ for more than 25 years. When its grosses are adjusted for inflation, the movie remains Hollywood's top money-maker,

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