Olivia de Havilland: Hollywood grande dame to celebrate 100th birthday
(CNN) — She was pretty and demure, and usually played sympathetic heroines with ladylike airs in a movie career that spanned three decades.
But off-screen she was a fighter, maneuvering for challenging roles and winning a tough legal battle against a major studio, a victory that still resonates in Hollywood 70 years later.
This Friday, Olivia de Havilland proves once again she's no ordinary Hollywood survivor. The Oscar-winning actress is celebrating her 100th birthday as the last surviving female superstar from the golden era of movies. Her chief male competitor, Kirk Douglas, will join the centenarian club in December, but de Havilland made her screen debut more than 10 years before him.
She first became famous as a damsel in distress opposite Errol Flynn in swashbuckling epics such as "Captain Blood" (1935) and "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938).
Her most enduring role came in "Gone With the Wind" (1939), still Hollywood's top moneymaking film when adjusted for inflation. Her sweet and gentle Melanie Wilkes seemed too good to be true, but she held her own against the fiery Scarlett O'Hara.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/30/entertainment/cnnphotos-tbt-olivia-de-havilland-100th-birthday/index.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
