A Hollywood icon featured in a classic film steeped in Georgia roots is celebrating a milestone.
Actress Olivia de Havilland turned 103 years old July 1, as first reported by Forbes Magazine.
De Havilland - the daughter of actress Lillian Fontaine and sister Joan Fontaine - is known for several classic roles, including her portrayal of Melanie Hamilton Wilkes in the 1939 adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. The role earned her the first of five Academy Award nominations - this one for supporting actress, which she ultimately lost to co-star Hattie McDaniel.
A bio for de Havilland says the Tokyo-born actress "fell prey to the acting bug" after graduating high school and attending Mills College in Oakland. It wasn't soon after that she caught the attention of a director who saw her in the school rendition of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and cast her for both his stage version and film adaptation.
De Havilland quickly became a staple in several Hollywood films, but fought back against Warner Brothers to get more substantial roles. The studio placed her on suspension, then told her after he contract was up that she would have to make up that time. She ended up suing the studio, and in a landmark decision, the courts sided with her - a move that would become known as the "de Havilland decision" in the industry.
De Havilland's career spanned 53 years - from 1935 to 1988. The actress received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, though her last on-screen appearance was The Fifth Muskateer in 1979. In 2008, she received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush.
Today, she is retired in Paris, France.
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