ATTENTION, ATTENTION: Dame Olivia de Havilland turns 102 today!

You're risking a lawsuit by starting this thread, OP.

How about a gift certificate for a rentboy?

It trips me out that Melanie Hamilton is still alive ! Even the baby from that movie is long dead !

I'm sure Ryan Murphy's head on a platter would make her feel like a young girl of 78 again.

Are Olivia, Doris Day and Kirk Douglas the only big stars from the 40s who are still living? Offhand, I can't think of anyone else.

BorntOlivia Mary de Havilland

July 1, 1916 (age 101)

Beau is still alive!

She was mean to her baby sister...fuck Olivia!!

She turns 102 tomorrow, Rose.

She was good friends with me.

One of the very few people who could ever stand you, Bette. Most everyone else thought you were a total cunt.

Such a plain face for a movie star. Where is the GLAMOUR?

[quote]She was mean to her baby sister...fuck Olivia!!

And that's why she's alive and her younger sister is dead. People who have no conscience seem to live longer

Wow! I had no idea R7 ! The things you learn on DL !

She's also the last surviving original cast member of "Our American Cousin".

[quote] Are Olivia, Doris Day and Kirk Douglas the only big stars from the 40s who are still living? Offhand, I can't think of anyone else.

Olivia was a big star long before those two even made their film debuts. I think Olivia and Jane Withers are the last pre-WWII box office draws still living (though films of Miss Withers have been completely forgotten).

R5 FUCK OFF

So old.

Another crazy fact - Olivia was already a big star before the Berlin Olympics took place, starring in two Best Picture Oscar-nominated films in 1935.

Goodness, Angela has been drinking. Again.

[quote] (though films of Miss Withers have been completely forgotten).

I beg your pardon, R16!

HB Olivia!

Not marquee names in the 1940s, but Rhonda Fleming, Janis Paige, Marsha Hunt and June Lockhart all appeared in movies made in that decade and are still alive.

R9 can't read.

Wow r19 I didn't know that. 1935! And she's still here.

Thanks r23 but Olivia was a major A list star by the mid-1930s. No one else even comes close.

R20 I have not been drinking, I have shaky hands. I was browsing this world wide web looking for people on the Emmy voters committee. I shall want a word with them. ODH is a dear old friend, I almost once invited her to guest star on my show but dear William Windom advised me aginst it. He'd heard things about her "annoying" the boys in props. Suffice to say she was a horny old whore

Loved her in "The Heiress." So sweet, gentle, and innocent for most of the film, but then she stoked the fire within to render such a sly and justifiable form of cuntishness to the unsuspecting Morris Townsend! That's how it's DONE!

Fuck all y'all. I'm 103 and I'm still working, bitches!

She the patron saint the Maiden Aunt Brigade! (someone post that GIF por favor)

Long May She Reign!

I wish it were Joan who lived to be 102.

Has anyone else noticed how unhappy cats in those pics look - the one in the first pic even has her claws out, ready to snap at someone.

And by Joan, I hope you mean Crawford.

[quote]Has anyone else noticed how unhappy cats in those pics look - the one in the first pic even has her claws out, ready to snap at someone.

Oh, please, I had to deal with many, many unhappy sharp-clawed cats for years in Hollywood. Starting with my sister.

There is absolutely no evidence in these pictures of Olivia's pussy being ferocious!

Like Jane Wyman, a real lady, but sexless.

Jane Wyman wasn't a lady, she was a hard-as-nails, foul-mouthed broad.

R5, here's a list of the 200 oldest living screen stars (starlets and supporting cast among them)...

[quote] (though films of Miss Withers have been completely forgotten).

Go fuck yourself! I'm timeless.

Jane Withers made the Top 10 Box Office Stars in the mid-1930s, a feat Olivia never came near.

And what's the closest Jane ever came to an Oscar nomination....Chicken Wagon Family?

Bitch, bitch. Chomp, chomp.

Take THAT Mrs Alfred Steele! Miss Bette and Miss Olivia yukking it up with a Coke stall on the Hush Hush set.

Haha!

[quote]Jane Wyman wasn't a lady, she was a hard-as-nails, foul-mouthed broad.

Shut up, Nancy, and go back to sucking off every producer in Hollywood.

Tearing the joint apart

What type of aeroplanes does she ride?

I beg to differ, R36.

She was also known as Olivia de Hackahand in "Hack, Hack ... Sweet Has-Been. Or Whatever Happened to Good Taste?"

....

While her sister only got a cameo as A Pool of Blood, R49....

Happy Birthday, Liv. Waiter, remove all evidence that she was here and bring me a big glass of vodka.

Happy Birthday, Livvy! BTW Arlene Dahl also got her start in the late 40s. She's a regular on the New York Social Diary.

Here's Olivia's reaction when she realized the certificate R2 bought her had expired:

Why hasn't any one done an autotuned remix of "Attention...a swarm of killers bees..."

Livvie????

MARY!

Attention, attention, this is Miss Schuster....

Happy Birthday Maureen Schuester.

I love how the Queen made her a dame not long before her 101st birthday, presumably awarded in part for sheer bloody-mindedness in not being dead.

[quote] I wish it were Joan who lived to be 102.

Why?

Why must one choose? It would have been wonderful if both she and Joan were still alive and passive-aggressively bitching about each other.

Happy birthday, Liv.

As someone said above, it is impressive that Angela Lansbury was nominated for 2 Oscars in the mid-1940's at such a young age.

She was only 17 or 18 when she was nominated for "Gaslight", which probably made her one of the youngest nominees up to that time.

Robert Osborne made the best tribute.

Since Olivia was born in Japan, how does she qualify to be a Dame?

Does she have British citizenship?

Both her parents were British. Without a Japanese parent I’m not sure she would have qualified as Japanese. Japan also doesn’t allow dual nationality but the US and UK do (including with each other), so she is probably a citizen of both. Maybe she’s French now as well?? If that can be done.

Happy birthday Dame Olivia, and many, many more!!!

R53, Arlene Dahl turns 93 in August. Made her film debut in 1947. Among her husbands were two of the biggest cocks in Hollywood, Lex Barker and Fernando Lamas, with whom she created the very well hung Lorenzo Lamas.

Speaking of R53, "also got her start in the late 40s"? Try 1935, if that "also" refers to Olivia.

Happy birthday as well to Leslie Caron, who turns 87 today and is still appearing in film/television, making it a total of 67 years in the industry since her debut in 1951's An American in Paris.

Let’s not forget Eva Marie Saint and Joanne Woodward were big stars and are still alive too.

And Kim Novak! A mere 87.

See R38 for a list of the 200 oldest living stars of varying luminosity. Only Mary Carlisle and Norman Lloyd are older than Olivia.

r69/70 they weren't big stars in the 40s, though.

Olivia’s hundredth birthday thread is a DL classic.

I love that she’s still around and litigious!

Very few countries grant citizenship based on being born there. The US is a rarity in that respect.

"....had the privilege of riding Errol Flynn legendarily big cock - is there anything that would possibly make her happy?"

Didn't she claim the opposite - that she and Flynn were never sexually involved? I believe Flynn said the same thing.

She should have played Old Rose in Titanic. Instead James Cameron cast that piece of wood, Gloria Stuart. Olivia would have won that Oscar.

R76 Go fuck yourself - Gloria Stuart was wonderful in Titanic. In fact, she was so effective in that role that many people back then believed Old Rose was played by an actual Titanic survivor. And apparently that "piece of wood" was good enough for James Whale, who made her into his muse and cast her in three of his films (even though he was a notoriously hard to please guy).

Besides, Olivia had a chance to be in a couple of disaster films of her own in the 1970's and we all know how that turned out. At least we got that hilarious Miss Schuster gif out of her failed foray into the disaster movie genre.

I wish Bette Davis had still been alive to play Old Rose. She would've been Cameron's first choice and of course she would've accepted. Kate Winslet even has a slight resemblance to Davis, it would've worked wonderfully.

Why was she so upset with Feud? I thought she came across very well in it. They made her seem like a nice woman and good friend.

Before Gloria Stuart's comeback in 'Titanic', she had a non-speaking role in Peter O'Toole's Oscar-nominated 'My Favorite Year' in 1982.

Stuart has a brief dance with O'Toole.

R79 Because she disliked her portrayal, and she never dissed her sister or gossiped, and she found it fake and tacky

Cameron tried to sell the awful Stuart as some Norma Desmond screen goddess making her long-awaited cinematic comeback. Please. People barely knew who the hell she was when she was actually working in the 1930s. Titanic was considered the GWTW of its generation. Olivia could have bookended her legendary career by starring in both. How delicious and poignant that would have been. Instead we got flat line readings and high school level acting from the execrable Stuart. She was so bad in a role made to win an Oscar that Kim Basinger beat her for god sake.

R82 Have you ever seen The Old Dark House, cunt? Gloria looked like a beautiful art deco goddess in that film, as the wind was blowing through that gorgeous silky white dress of hers, and more than held her own against people like Karloff, Charles Laughton and Melvyn Douglas. And she was also a very pleasant and humorous lady in real life. She was actually hired by Cameron because he was listening to her commentary track on the laserdics of The Old Dark House and he found her comments to be very amusing.

I love Olivia dearly (and I'm actually the OP of this thread), but if you showed photos of Stuart and de Havilland to people under the age of 40 everyone would immediately recognize Stuart as "that old lady from Titanic", while de Havilland's photo wouldn't ring any bells. Sorry, but that's the truth.

How nice that you were able to find something complimentary to say about Gloria’s career R83.

"Because she disliked her portrayal, and she never dissed her sister or gossiped, and she found it fake and tacky"

She did diss her sister

Yes. Thank you OP. Very little mention in the media, although they could have give it a slight mention due to the uniqueness of the age itself.

I worked in the aircraft design industry and in addition to being and actress, she is related to the De Havilland Aircraft Company, which is now Britsish Aerospace, a subsidiary of part of General Electric.

R28 "Yes I can be that cruel. I have been taught by masters."

Mariah!

Bolt the door.

From the Osbourne ass-kissing:

Olivia: What do you want from acting?

Flynn: To be successful. What do you want.

Olivia: To be respected.

Olivia to Osbourne: We both got our wishes.

That is such a sublimely cunty thing to say.

There's a YT clip of Olivia guesting on Dinah!, on which she coyly confirms that she had a fling with Flynn.

....

R91: CAPTION: "I came, and I came, and I came!"

Click on the gif for Olivia...I wonder if was this a screening or an outtake? Agnes looks too Velma here for it to be a screening.

Having a laugh with R45...

Dame Olivia, relaxing DL style.

Die. God in heaven, die!

Get back in your crypt, Joan.

R86, PEOPLE has an article out about Olivia today:

Sorry but that "article" is a couple of paragraphs, none of which address anything current other than that she celebrated her 102nd birthday. PEOPLE magazine is a joke.

Fox News has a piece on Olivia, as well.

I don't normally go to their site, but it came up in a search:

The Fox piece is even less current and informative than the PEOPLE piece. Not a surprise.

What kind of current news about Olivia did you expect to see in those articles?! She's 102, for Christ's sake! All she probably does all day long is lie in her bed and imagine Ryan Murphy dying a horrible death. Not much of a news story there.

Where's that autobiography she's been working on?

I've been waiting.

If the media can reach out to her at 100, they can do the same damn thing a couple of years later, R102. Not everyone over 100 is bedridden and mentally out to lunch.

R102, that sounds like a few past DL threads right there.

I assume they're watching the dailies, r93.

R86 I didn't know she's related to the De Havilland Aircraft Company. But I do know it's a beautiful-sounding surname.

Authoritive and aerodynamic.

R107 Joan's first stage name was actually "Joan Burfield". I'm glad she soon changed, because it sounded fucking awful.

OP, I greatly appreciate your appropriate address to DL over the grade school PA system.

Olivia de Havilland presents Bette Davis with a Cesar Award in 1986:

Oh, R89, it really wasn't. Flynn himself knew he was no great actor, and people like Bette Davis had been borderline trashing him publicly for decades. She also said Flynn knew he wasn't an acting genius and that was okay, lots of stars were, but he was special.

Livvy is basically saying the same thing, marginally nicer.

I think here in 2018 we're so used to absolute shit actors that we don't realize how Flynn was regarded by his peers. To us, he seems great, and we're much more forgiving.

I think they're watching the dailies, r93. They'd be better dressed for a full-fledged screening.

[quote]I think here in 2018 we're so used to absolute shit actors that we don't realize how Flynn was regarded by his peers. To us, he seems great, and we're much more forgiving.

So are we too tolerant of bad acting today, R111?

I personally think so r113, but I'm a snob, so.

There's another big anniversary heading our way, my friends - in 11 days the most shit-tastic film of all time is gonna turn 40 years old: The Swarm was released on 14th July 1978.

Errol Flynn wasn't serious about acting, he was only in it for the money and the lifestyle it provided. It goes without saying what someone like Bette Davis thought about that.

Does that bee have killer halitosis, r115?

"I personally think so R113, but I'm a snob, so."

ROFLMAO. It's the other way around. Actors are better today - but this is DL where they venerate any "diva" who was born 100 years ago.

R118 Perhaps Golden Age stars weren't better actors, but at least they possessed amazing onscreen magnetism and charisma - something that can't be found among Hollywood stars of today. Do you really think anyone will be passionately discussing people like Alicia Vikander, Brie Larson or Chris Pratt on gay forums in 70 years?! I don't think so.

"Do you really think anyone will be passionately discussing people like Alicia Vikander, Brie Larson or Chris Pratt on gay forums in 70 years?! I don't think so."

Please, there were tons of forgettable "stars" back then to.....who is talking about, say, Anna Sten these days?

R120 I know we are. It was actually on DL where I first heard about Miss Sten a few years ago.

r121, outside of queens who go on and on about any old actress the general public does not care. I'm sure in 75 years Alicia Vikander will seem "glamorous" to the queens at DL (if DL is still around then)

I LOVED Anna Sten!

Too bad she couldn't act or speak English in a decipherable manner.

People still talk about me every day!

R119 makes a good point.

Stars of the past had a magnetism that younger actors are missing today.

Part of it is also because celebrities today are overexposed and we know every detail of their lives.

Movie stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood never had to fear TMZ . . . but they did have Confidential Magazine.

[quote]I didn't know she's related to the De Havilland Aircraft Company. But I do know it's a beautiful-sounding surname.

Yes, started by a cousin

"Stars of the past had a magnetism that younger actors are missing today."

Because you didn't see pictures of them picking their noses in US Weekly

R110, she shouldn't have let Elsa Lanchester do her hair that night.

R123, many many years ago I picked up a large old art book and an early signed photo of Anna Sten fell out. I still have it framed in my hallway. I liked her in The Girl With the Hatbox.

She has the worst death scene in The Swarm. It is sort of vague if she even dies. She deserved an elevator plunge or swimming scene like in other Irwin Allen productions.

Still the best article about Olivia that's been written about her recent years, as well as a look back...

Get me out of this elevator and get me a goddamned drink...

before I slap you into le treizième arrondissement...

Sometimes you just have to get your own drink.

....

Lady in a Cage is her campiest film

R135 I think that title belongs to "Light in the Piazza". Just thinking about the premise of that film makes me giggle - a crazy mother who tries to marry her mentally challenged daughter into Italian nobility and hopes they won't notice her retardedness. Also some very over-the-top acting by miss de Havilland on display.

But Lady in the Cage is fun, thriller camp. Light in the Piazza is a boring, nothing of a film, where the highlight is the Italian scenery.

R136 "A Little Light in the Piazza".

I like both films. Her 70s films rate higher on the campometer: The Adventurers where she beds down an actor young enough to be her son and shows a bit of nip; The Screaming Woman, standard horror Movie of the Week stuff with Olivia as a former mental patient; and of course Airport '77 and The Swarm.

R137, Plus, LIAC has young and hunky James Caan.

r136 is a little light in the loafers.

R139 I can't believe I forgot all about The Adventurers! Poor Bekim Fehmiu was imported from Yugoslavia to become the next big star with this film but after it flopped hard he quickly had to pack his bags and return to Europe. He killed himself a few years ago.

[quote]Her 70s films rate higher on the campometer

How come Olivia ended up having to do B-films like that?

Katharine Hepburn continued to get strong roles as she got older, and went on to win more Oscars.

Katharine Hepburn got strong roles because she was an (obnoxiously) strong personality

Olivia had a sweet, pleasant personality with a heart-shaped face so she was obliged to appear in 19th century period films where she could wear a wide crinolines to match her wide face.

She had the excellent luck to appear in one genius William Wyler film in '49 and was able to get tip-billing in the 50s but her career, of course, plummeted after that.

Even Hepburn had some bad duds toward the end from the late 60s on: The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Trojan Women, Rooster Cogburn; Olly, Olly Oxen Free; Grace Quigley, and then a whole spate of forgettable TV movies.

Very few actresses ended their careers on high notes, and even fewer had both longevity and consistently good films. Were there any that actually had film careers that lasted over 50 years without gaps in production or quality? I doubt it.

Bette Davis should've had a prestigious later career like Katharine Hepburn had, but for whatever reasons that's just not how it turned out.

She won a Golden Globe for her stunning work as the Russian Dowager Empress in the 80s TV movie, Anastasia, with Amy Irving.

Davis' later career had its successes amid the clunkers: Death on the Nile, The Whales of August, an Emmy for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter, and two more Emmy nominations after that.

De Havilland was also nominated for an Emmy for her work in Anastasia.

R147 Stunning work?! She was barely in that thing. In fact, the only thing I remember from that film is how hot the lead actor looked (Jan something).

But Livvie's acceptance speech was pretty amusing:

Oh this is the guy: Jan Niklas. He won a GG for some other TV film that same year and then pretty much disappeared from the industry. Whatever happened to him?!

And here are Jan and Olivia basking in glory:

[quote]Were there any that actually had film careers that lasted over 50 years without gaps in production or quality? I doubt it.

Yes, I think every actor or actress with a long career will inevitably end up in some bad productions.

I was just pointing out that Katharine Hepburn was able to continue getting good films and Oscar nominations (and Oscar wins) as the decades went by. Hepburn's career started in the 30's, and yet she was still able to win 2 Oscars in the 60's, and then another one in the 80's.

R146 And by "for whatever reasons," you mean that stroke-ey thing, right?

I don't think Bette Davis' late-period output was bad at all - most of the horror films she appeared in have aged surprisingly well. At least she was never in any infamous stinkers like The Swarm or Trog. The only mistake she made was not ending her career one film sooner.

Well, yes, the only other actress who's been able to achieve that level of enduring success is Meryl Streep, who has exceeded Hepburn's achievements compared to where Hepburn was at 69: 21 Oscar nominations solidly through six decades in addition to three Oscars (you might call Hepburn's Oscar tie equitable to Streep's supporting win). Streep will probably win another Oscar before her career's end.

Other than On Golden Pond, Hepburn had no film success and no Oscar nominations after A Lion in Winter. So that could be considered an anomaly in what was otherwise a pretty quick film decline. Streep hasn't gone for more than 5 years without an Oscar nomination since The Deer Hunter 40 years ago.

And Bette was also in "Lo scopone scientifico" - a film virtually unknown on DL but in my opinion one of the greatest dark comedies ever made.

For the unfamiliar, R156, I love Bette's entrance.

She brought a quiet dignity to every role.

Olivia and Kirk Douglas should do a Netflix series together. They can call it "102 and Counting."

We haven't seen Olivia standing for about ten years. My guess is she's throughly supine, sleeping constantly and may even be being fed intravenously.

Gloria Stuart was pretty damn good in Titanic. The person sayong she wasnt is juat wrong. Sorry, as much as I love Livvy, by 1996 she was far too affected and refined to play old Rose.

I wonder if Kate Hepburn was considered.

R154, Have you seen "Burnt Offerings"?

R161 Hepburn was considered but her personality and her Parkinsons was considered 'divisive' and would have unbalanced the main story.

I believe Hepburn was non compos mentis by the time Titanic was made. She certainly wasn't making any public appearances anymore.

Livvie & Ida.....

R162 Of course I did. Hardly a masterpiece, but I still think that scene where the smirking undertaker wheels a coffin into her bedroom (and straight into the camera) is one of the scariest movie moments ever. And Bette did some amazing acting in that scene - it was horrifying to watch her squirming on that bed in agony.

R160 Here's Olivia standing in 2011, albeit with some help from the noted homosexual Frederic Mitterand. I love how her hairstyle hasn't changed since the Eisenhower era.

Skip to the 1:10 mark in this video to hear Olivia cussing:

I love Bette's transformation in Burnt Offerings. And the Vanity Fair article refers to Olivia still swilling champagne and routinely climbing the five flights of stairs up to her Paris residence just a few years ago, R160.

[quote]Were there any that actually had film careers that lasted over 50 years without gaps in production or quality? I doubt it.

. 40 years this year!!! and counting.

After The Heiress and her second Oscar, Olivia's persona developed into the Great Lady Syndrome and never recovered.

I remember sometime in the 90s a reporter for a local TV station was covering the gridlock leaving the academy awards (this was when they were in the Shrine and traffic was really congested.

In a middle of a live newscast Olivia rolled down her limo window and started chatting with the reporter about how she felt the show went.

[quote]I wonder if Kate Hepburn was considered.

I think Cameron said he considered Kate, but that he thought she would be too recognizable.

R161 The mentally unbalanced person who wrote that posts pretty much the same thing on every Titanic or Olivia de Havilland-related thread. I have too much time on my hands so I tracked down a few of his other posts:

[quote] Olivia deHavilland deserves one more great film role. Shoulda been Old Rose in Titanic but asshole king of the world James Cameron chose the wooden nobody Gloria Stuart and then trumpeted this non-news like it was the return of Norma Desmond to the silver screen. There was talk of Livvie and Meryl doing an Astor biopic playing Brooke and the fat, grasping daughter-in-law. I wonder if that is still in development.

[quote] FINALLY! The opportunity has now come for beloved Olivia deHavilland to win another Oscar as she would have if James Cameron had cast her in Titanic instead of that awful piece of wood nobody, Gloria Stuart. Ms. DeHavilland will play the Russian princess, similar to get role in the 1979s miniseries Anastasia for which she was Emmy-nominated. It will be the greatest screen comeback of all time!

[quote] Why won't some director with a sense of history cast her in a film to give her one last chance at Oscar glory? She'd be a shoo-in to win and it would be the greatest cinematic comeback since Gloria Swanson. Frankly I don't know why James Cameron didn't make her Old Rose in Titanic instead of that piece of wood nobody Gloria Stuart. And Kenneth Branagh should have hired her for his upcoming Orient Express. She would have been delicious as the Russian princess.

[quote] My fervent wish is that the international media storm now around Olivia DeHavilland will wake up some producer in Hollywood to at last give her a juicy film supporting role that will win her a third Oscar. And I'm not talking to you, James Cameron, who whiffed the cinematic opportunity of a lifetime by not giving Olivia the role of Old Rose in Titanic. Instead, he chose the completely unknown and amateurish piece of wood, Gloria Stuart! Titanic was considered the GWTW of the latter 20th Century and it would have been a Hollywood full circle moment like no other. A damn shame.

Someone upthread lamented ODH’s lack of a proper death scene in The Swarm.

She, along with love interests Fred MacMurray and Ben Johnson, plunged off a ravine after the train they were traveling in derailed after the killer bees attacked it.

There was a shot of her dead and covered in bees, but they cut it. Thankfully, someone held on to a still for the crucial piece of film history that it was.

Honestly, that entire movie is a piece of lazy garbage. The only scene worth revisiting is the truly stupendous Miss Schuster moment. And thanks to DL, I get to revisit it at least weekly, sometimes when I least expect it but always where it belongs perfectly.

She was interviewed 2 years ago when she turned 100:

Ingenious, R174!

[quote] How about a gift certificate for a rentboy?

Hi yam ready to pleasure her!

Olivia interviewd in Paris in 2011 by Tracey Jackson.

She was pushing 95 here.

(Turn up the volume, since the soundtrack is a bit low).

I had no idea that shot of dead Olivia in The Swarm was ever filmed. That cut scene is like the DL version of the missing Watergate tapes.

r165 What am I -- chopped liver?

I wondered if anyone noticed, R180.

[quote]She (Dame Olivia de Havilland) brought a quiet dignity to every role.

How interesting, R158, that you brought up this topic and posted that particular photograph from my Classic film "Lady In a Cage".

As I recall, the director on that film, Walter Grauman, insisted that I should use a body double for those scenes in the gauzy peignoir that revealed so much...skin.

But I ASSURED Mr. Grauman that my derriere of nearly 50 years was still QUITE magnificent.

And I'm happy to see after these many years that my opinion was the correct one.

* Do not be surprised if you should hear from my American attorneys in the near future. Litigation can be so satisfying when one reaches the age of 102.

By the way, as I'm writing this I am soaking my perky breasts in a warm bath, drinking a saucy 1962 Chateau Lafite Rothschild Bordeaux, and enjoying the view from my apartment overlooking Saint Germain-des-Prés

I beg to differ.

I've read that de Havilland was quietly contacted through intermediaries to see whether she would have any interest in discussing coming out of retirement for Titanic. The answer was no. I don't have a source and don't know whether it's true. But I can't imagine she would have considered for even an instant a long shoot on location in the middle of the Atlantic at that point in her life.

She appeared to have mobility problems in this Oscar clip from 2003. Notice how she had to grab a piece of the set and then the podium as she made her entrance.

I should correct myself to say that I know Titanic was shot off the coast of Baja Calilfornia, Mexico, not in the middle of the Atlantic. And I meant to add that Gloria Stuart was more than fine; she was excellent.

BTW, Fay Wray was also approached but like de Havilland her age and health ruled out any kind of extended location shooting. Wray was scheduled to have a cameo in Peter Jackson's King Kong, though. She was to have been a woman in the crowd during the final scene and would have delivered the famous last line about beauty killing the beast. She passed away a month before the scene was scheduled to be filmed.

I googled Olivia and Titanic and nothing came up. But I did discover this interesting info that I wasn't aware of before:

[quote] It was an illustrious beginning: playing the tempestuous Hermia in Max Reinhardt’s black-and-white motion picture presentation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The actress knew the role well, having played Hermia in Reinhardt’s stage production at the Hollywood Bowl in 1934—just months after graduating from high school. She’d originally been the second understudy to Gloria Stuart, who, many years later, appeared in James Cameron’s Titanic.

So looks like Olivia and Gloria were somehow connected after all.

[quote]But I can't imagine she would have considered for even an instant a long shoot on location in the middle of the Atlantic at that point in her life.

The ancient, stroke-ridden Bette Davis would've been on a plane the next day.

Gloria Stuart was a piece of wood in Titanic. My grandmother could have given better line readings. Olivia would have been magnificent.

R189 And you could play the propeller guy - it would be fun to see your trolling ass twirl into the ocean.

Bette Davis would have made Titanic far less of the slog it is to sit through, though I don’t think she would have been plausible as the centenarian version of Kate Winslet.

She would really only be believable as the older version of the young Bette Davis- and I love her for that.

Were any of Old Rose's scenes shot on location? Weren't they all done in the studio?

It was strange, here I was among all those people, and at the same time I felt as if I were looking at them from some place far away, the whole place seemed to me like a deep hole and the people down in it like strange animals, like... like snakes, and I've been thrown into it... yes... as though... as though I were in a snake pit...

R193, I'll go for the low fruit. You're suggesting that Olivia is a member at DL, aren't you?

Dear R193, I know a very old female psychiatrist who told me that the movie "The Snake Pit' shook her so profoundly that she felt she had to take on the mantle of being a professional psychiatrist.

Not one person asked is her pussy stinks.

Any love for "Hold Back the Dawn" around here? I still think that's the best performance Olivia has ever given and she had such amazing onscreen chemistry with Charles Boyer. Awesome screenplay by Billy Wilder too.

Olivia was always the first to admit that Mitchell Leisen, one of my favorite directors, guided her carefully through that Oscar nominated performance, R197. Leisen has a cameo as the Paramount director in the film. Nearly all of Leisen's female stars seemed to adore him, that cunt Ginger Rogers being the notable exception. Leisen later directed Olivia in To Each His Own, for which she won her first Academy Award.

R198 I know nothing about this Mitchell Leisen.

Except I heard he was an appalling fluffy queen. And that he made a complete hash of Kurt Weill's 'Lady In the Dark'.

Another big fan here of Olivia in Hold Back the Dawn, also among my favorites of her performances along with The Heiress, The Snake Pit, Proud Rebel, and Light in the Piazza...

You heard wrong, r199. Leisen was gay, nearly openly, but, like Cukor, knew how to be play the game in social situations and was always discreet. The equally talented, perhaps even better director James Whale destroyed his career with his behavior.

And Leisen did NOT destroy Lady in the Dark. The culprit there was producer Buddy DeSylva, who cut the bulk of the wonderful Kurt Weill/Ira Gershwin score, even substituting some of his own music. DeSylva even cut My Ship, the show's beautiful climactic number, even though it had been filmed. Ginger says "Yes, I remember all the words now...." and then no song!

And don't get me started on the mink dress, for which Edith Head stole the credit. Leisen had described the dress in detail to Head and even gave her a detailed sketch, which survives, yet Head took the credit. Even after her first attempt at building the dress failed utterly -- it was so heavy Ginger couldn't walk in it, much less dance -- and Leisen had to bring in Mme. Karinska to rebuild it from scratch -- Head still insisted on taking credit.

Leisen had started his Hollywood career as a set and costume designer for DeMille and visually he always knew exactly what he wanted and how to achieve it.

Meh, too late to go on about it, but Olivia adored Leisen, like all his leading ladies except Rogers, and always gave him major credit for guiding her through two of her best performances. I'm sorry you don't know more about his major directing career in the late 1930s and 40s but it's just too late to go on about it. You really should check out Midnight with Claudette Colbert and John Barrymore and its brilliant Brackett/Wilder script. I'd go on but 'Every Cinderella has her midnight!"

I adore R201

R201 very informative, thanks

Wait till you suckers find out she died a long time ago and didn't tell anyone. People DO do that you know

I LOVE Hold Back the Dawn. Very underrated.

I liked her in IN THIS OUR LIFE because her characters name was Roy.

^Roy TIMBERLAKE. Was she Justin's granny?

1941 had probably my all time favorite line-up in the academy award for best actress category, with five trully amazing performances. Even Greer Garson (who I actually can't stand) gave a very touching performance in BitD:

Joan Fontaine – Suspicion

Bette Davis – The Little Foxes

Olivia de Havilland – Hold Back the Dawn

Greer Garson – Blossoms in the Dust

Barbara Stanwyck – Ball of Fire

They don't make great actresses like those anymore, R208.

r209 = Republican who think everything was better in "the good old days"

I'll take any of today's actresses over Greer Garson

Greer Garson was boring af and Mrs. Miniver sucked. She was OK on The Love Boat.

I can’t stand Greer Garson. She had a horsy, uneven face and those nostrils could have hidden Fat Man and Little Boy. And her acting style was so affected and mannered...

That's nice, R210 through R212. Now can we please get back to the actress to whom this thread is devoted?

Poor Olivia - you know you're bland and dull as dishwater when people start discussing Greer Garson on your thread.

Oh, Joan....still rankled?

[quote]Greer Garson was boring af and Mrs. Miniver sucked.

Actually, dear, Mrs. Miniver had a big impact during World War II.

It helped increase American sympathies towards the British.

R212 I agree. Greer Garson's nostrils are as ugly and creepy as Gladys Cooper's.

And what kind of crazy made-up names is "Greer"?

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I liked Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver with its pro-British, anti-Nazi propaganda, and Pride and Prejudice, which shows Olivier and Greer at their Hollywood-style British best. She's also beautiful and moving in Goodbye Mr. Chips, an all-together fine movie, which made her a superstar overnight.

All of her other movies are disappointing, so I can understand the Greer-haters.

She showed off her immense charm on What's My Line, after she replaced Roz Russell on Broadway in Auntie Mame. To the surprise of many and the disgust of Roz, she was a hit in it.

She starts at 17:31.

I had the strangest dream about her 2 nights ago. She had a deep basso voice and hair on her chin. She was instructing me and some other people to run from a monster.

What do you think it all meant?

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