Sunday, July 26, 2020

Walking through life with you, madam, has been a very gracious thing





The last class act of Hollywood is gone.

PS Forgive me, it's my favorite scene of her and it's what made the movies so special.



And she is just so beautiful.

I know, I'm a sentimental slob.

9 comments:

chickelit said...

I got to know that last name from Geoffrey de Havilland's aircraft company. They were cousins.

The Dude said...

I never made that connection - thanks, CL. My brother was an airplane kind of guy, but all I knew about de Havilland's products was that I am glad I never got aboard a Comet, just sayin'.

edutcher said...

A fine and wonderful woman and a great and good lady in the grand manner. If you are an admirer, here's a long (2 1/2 hrs) of her talking about her professional life. Some very nice vignettes.

During WWII, she helped publicize the plight of servicemen in psychiatric wards and almost died from pneumonia on New Guinea. She tossed a shot at Best Actress to help Hattie McDaniel get her Best Supporting for GWTW.

She was also a patriot, who fought Communism.

And she was going strong to the end.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eb1dY4BXkAAD5JB?format=jpg&name=360x360

chickelit said...

My brother was an airplane kind of guy, but all I knew about de Havilland's products was that I am glad I never got aboard a Comet, just sayin'.

Coincidence: My older brother and I were WW I airplane nuts when we were kids. We built all the plastic model kits and knew all the names of the planes and the aces (anybody here read "Enemy Aces" comic books?). But I digress. De Havilland's earliest innovation was the DH.2, which was a so-called "pusher" because its motor and prop were behind the pilot and gunner: link. I built one of those as a model.

The Red Baron mocked those planes because they were so easy to shoot down. Von Richtofen wrote that his 27th aerial victory was "just another lattice-tail enemy aircraft." link

chickelit said...

BTW, very well done post edutcher. I didn't mean to detract from Olivia.

Say, didn't she win some sort of lawsuit against the makers of the Joan Crawford/Bette Davis biopic? I forget the details.

edutcher said...

No, but she got them to at least hear it. I think the fix was in.

She did successfully break her contract with Warners (Troop will come along and give all the gory details, I'm sure), which had all the hallmarks of indentured servitude.

And I hold no malice for you thinking of Geoffrey. My brother-in-law's a flyer and I understand these things. I just wanted to note the passing of a great lady.

MamaM said...

Walking through life with you, ma'am, has been a very gracious thing.

Yes to the lightness, depth, and loveliness conveyed in these parting words on screen and here in tribute.

I first met her fifty-one years ago as Melanie, when I was fifteen and watching the first movie I seen in a theater that included betrayal and didn't have a happily resolved ending.

According to Variety, her faithfulness to her own journey through life mattered with the far-reaching effect of changing the employment structure of Hollywood .

“I knew that I had an audience, that people really were interested in my work, and that they would go to see a film because I was in it, and that I had a responsibility toward them,” de Havilland remembered in an interview with the Academy of Achievement. “I couldn’t bear to disappoint them by doing indifferent work in an indifferent film.”

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/olivia-de-havilland-lawsuit-gone-with-the-wind-warner-bros-1234717146/

edutcher said...

Mama, that's the interview I linked in my first comment.

Thank you for a wonderful sentiment.

The Dude said...

I was watching Antiques Roadshow today (getting unstuck requires research) and there was a set of Havilland china on there. No "de", just Havilland.

So there you go.