Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland DBE (/dəˈhævɪlənd/; born July 1, 1916) is a retired British-American actress born in Japan to British parents. Her career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading movie stars during the golden age of Classical Hollywood. Her younger sister was the actress Joan Fontaine.De Havilland came to prominence as a screen couple with Errol Flynn in adventure films such as Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). One of her best-known roles is Melanie Hamilton in the film classic Gone with the Wind (1939). De Havilland departed from ingénue roles in the 1940s and later won awards for her performances in To Each His Own (1946), The Snake Pit (1948), and The Heiress (1949), including two Academy Awards. She was also successful in work on stage and television. De Havilland has lived in Paris since the 1950s and received honours like the National Medal of the Arts, the Légion d'honneur and the appointment to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
In addition to her film career, de Havilland 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 television feature films such as Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award. During her film career, de Havilland also won two Golden Globe Awards, 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.
