Olivia de Havilland

Olivia's father, Walter de Havilland (1872–1968), served as an English professor at the Imperial University in Tokyo City before becoming a patent attorney.

Her paternal cousin was Sir Geoffrey de Havilland (1882–1965), an aircraft designer and founder of the de Havilland aircraft company.

Her mother, Lilian Fontaine (née Ruse; 1886–1975), was educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a stage actress.

Lilian also sang with the Master of the King's Music, Sir Walter Parratt, and toured the United Kingdom with the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Lilian and Walter met in Japan in 1913 and married the following year; the marriage was not a happy one, owing in part to Walter's infidelities.

Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British and American actress.

Olivia Mary deHavilland was born on July 1, 1916.

They moved into a large house in Tokyo City, where Lilian gave informal singing recitals.

Olivia's younger sister Joan (Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland)later known as actress Joan Fontainewas born 15 months later, on October 22, 1917.

Both sisters became British subjects automatically by birthright.

In February 1919, Lilian persuaded her husband to take the family back to Britain for a climate better suited to their ailing daughters.

They sailed aboard the SS Siberia Maru to San Francisco, where the family stopped to treat Olivia's tonsillitis.

After Joan developed pneumonia, Lilian decided to remain with her daughters in California, where they eventually settled in the village of Saratoga, 50 mi south of San Francisco.

Her father abandoned the family and returned to his Japanese housekeeper, who eventually became his second wife.

Olivia was raised to appreciate the arts, beginning with ballet lessons at the age of four and piano lessons a year later.

She learned to read before she was six, and her mother, who occasionally taught drama, music, and elocution, had her recite passages from Shakespeare to strengthen her diction.

During this period, her younger sister Joan first started calling her "Livvie", a nickname that would last throughout her life.

DeHavilland entered Saratoga Grammar School in 1922 and did well in her studies.

She enjoyed reading, writing poetry, and drawing, and once represented her grammar school in a county spelling bee, coming in second place.

In 1923, Lilian had a new Tudor-style house built, where the family resided until the early 1930s.

In April 1925, after her divorce was finalised, Lilian married George Milan Fontaine, a department store manager for O.A.Hale & Co. in San Jose.

Fontaine was a good provider and respectable businessman, but his strict parenting style generated animosity and later rebellion in both of his new stepdaughters.

DeHavilland continued her education at Los Gatos High School near her home in Saratoga.

There she excelled in oratory and field hockey and participated in school plays and the school drama club, eventually becoming the club's secretary.

With plans of becoming a schoolteacher of English and speech, she also attended Notre Dame Convent in Belmont.

The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988.

She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time.

De Havilland first came to prominence with Errol Flynn as a screen couple in adventure films such as Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).

One of her best-known roles is that of Melanie Hamilton in Gone with the Wind (1939), for which she received her first of five Oscar nominations, the only one for Best Supporting Actress.

De Havilland departed from ingénue roles in the 1940s and later distinguished herself for performances in Hold Back the Dawn (1941), To Each His Own (1946), The Snake Pit (1948), and The Heiress (1949), receiving nominations for Best Actress for each and winning for To Each His Own and The Heiress.

She was also successful in work on stage and television.

De Havilland lived in Paris from the 1950s and received honours such as the National Medal of the Arts, the Légion d'honneur, and the appointment to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire at the age of 101.

In addition to her film career, deHavilland continued her work in the theatre, appearing three times on Broadway, in Romeo and Juliet (1951), Candida (1952), and A Gift of Time (1962).

She also worked in television, appearing in the successful miniseries Roots: The Next Generations (1979) and Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Movie or Series.

During her film career, deHavilland also collected two New York Film Critics Circle Awards, the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress, and the Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup.

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She and her sister remain the only siblings to have won major acting Academy Awards.

By birth, Olivia was a member of the de Havilland family, which belonged to landed gentry that originated from mainland Normandy.

At the time of her death in 2020 at age 104, she was the oldest living and earliest surviving Academy Award winner and was widely considered as being the last surviving major star from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

Her younger sister was Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine.