Joan Fontaine was a sublime actress. Who knew ?

Vivien in the exact same scene. Shockingly atrocious. WTF ???

I knew.

Go back, go back go back go back.

The Academy knew, apparently.

WHO???

She was a great beauty.

Viv was not atrocious.

Joan Fontaine is Christabel Kane, whom I bet was Eric Kane's vicious older sister whom niece Erica emulated. "Born to Be Bad", the epitome of delightful trashy soap opera!

And Serenade!!!

At 9 minutes in guest starring on "Ryan's Hope".

Vivien was abysmal. She clearly had no clue what she was doing. I can only assume she didn’t read the novel.

I didn't think Viv was bad but I do love Fontaine

Joan Fontaine was a bitch

Vivian was a brilliant actress. She was no shrinking flower and she couldn't play one. Her natural strong spirit kept wanting to come out and it was all wrong for that part. She gave it a good try though.

Viv was too beautiful for the role.

Fontaine, although lovely, was able to pull off the mousey look with ease.

"Vivian was a brilliant actress. She couldn't play a character different from her own."

Hm, I see what you did there.

I read in Fontaine's autobio that Leigh and herself swapped flats in the early sixties. Fontaine asked if she could have Leigh's RollsRoyce removed from the garage to Park her own car and Leigh said no, so in retaliation Fontaine sent Leigh's maid and cat away, saying that the flat was reeking of cat piss. Vivien went on tour in South America and left her luggage at Fontaine's in NYC for another YEAR. Fontaine was furious. When she finally went back to London, she declared her collection of watches stolen and called the cops on Fontaine, who was investigated by Scotland Yard. (Interestingly, the collection of watches turned out at Christies Auction 2 years ago...)

Why the hell would they swap flats? Fontaine was equally as beautiful as Leigh. Her mousiness was a result of ACTING.

R17 stars were doing that to save money when they were shooting abroad (incredibly cheap, I know) the burtons and the bogarts did it,, someone remarked to burton and sibyl that the double ' B' on the doormat of their NYC flat was a little too much, and burton replied that it was for' ' bogey and betty' ', peter finch and liz taylor/wilding era, garbo and dietrich/Gabin, (that's how they found out that Garbo was marking the bottles), claudia cardinale and liz taylor, et c.. It was very common practice, same level of maintenance, and the staff wasn't paid for nil.

"Fontaine was equally as beautiful as Leigh."

Nope.

The Second Mrs. Winters? I think not.

Vivien was who I always have in mind when I think of how Rebecca looked.

Nobody was ' equally as beautiful as Leigh'.

I know this is the height of MARY!, but Fontaine was always one of those actresses that I've championed mostly because I think they didn't get enough credit. Or have enough fans, or something. One who I felt never got enough respect so they'd become, ipso facto, a favorite. Eleanor Parker, Dorothy McGuire, Miriam Hopkins are others.

I always felt she was playing the same character in "Rebecca" and "Suspicion". Not much range.

She was very, very good in ' letter from un unknown woman'. Oh, and R23= Olivia d'

[quote]Vivien was who I always have in mind when I think of how Rebecca looked.

I always pictured Ava Gardner

Such a missed opportunity not having Fontaine and OdH in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

I was way too young for the part. I could only have played the Child actress then.

Joan played the same person in every film- just older. The sexless blonde with the vague smile and the mid-Atlantic accent.

Hi Olivia..

I always pictured "The Wicked Lady", aka Margaret Lockwood, who could be feisty but decent ("The Lady Vanishes") or downright evil. Her Gainsborough films of the 1940's ("Wicked Lady", "The Man in Grey", to name a few) are deliciously fun!