海角大神

Olivia de Havilland, the doe-eyed actress beloved to millions as the sainted Melanie Wilkes of 鈥淕one With the Wind,鈥� but also a two-time Oscar winner and an off-screen fighter who challenged and unchained Hollywood鈥檚 contract system, died Sunday at her home in Paris. She was 104.

Ms. de Havilland was among the last of the top screen performers from the studio era, and the last surviving lead from 鈥淕one With the Wind,鈥� an irony, she once noted, since the fragile, self-sacrificing Wilkes was the only major character to die in the film. The 1939 epic, based on Margaret Mitchell鈥檚 best-selling Civil War novel and winner of 10 Academy Awards, is often ranked as Hollywood鈥檚 box office champion (adjusting for inflation), although it is now widely condemned for its glorified portrait of slavery and antebellum life.

The pinnacle of producer David O. Selznick鈥檚 career, the movie had a troubled off-screen story.

Three directors worked on the film, stars Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable were far more connected on screen than off, and the fourth featured performer, Leslie Howard, was openly indifferent to the role of Ashley Wilkes, Melanie鈥檚 husband. But Ms.聽de Havilland remembered the movie as 鈥渙ne of the happiest experiences I鈥檝e ever had in my life. It was doing something I wanted to do, playing a character I loved and liked.鈥�

During a career that spanned six decades, Ms.聽de Havilland also took on roles ranging from an unwed mother to a psychiatric inmate in 鈥淭he Snake Pit,鈥� a personal favorite. The dark-haired Ms. de Havilland projected both a gentle, glowing warmth and a sense of resilience and mischief that made her uncommonly appealing, leading critic James Agee to confess he was 鈥渧ulnerable to Olivia de Havilland in every part of my being except the ulnar nerve.鈥�

She was Errol Flynn鈥檚 co-star in a series of dramas, Westerns, and period pieces, most memorably as Maid Marian in 鈥淭he Adventures of Robin Hood.鈥� But Ms. de Havilland also was a prototype for an actress too beautiful for her own good, typecast in sweet and romantic roles while desiring greater challenges.

Her frustration finally led her to sue Warner Bros. in 1943 when the studio tried to keep her under contract after it had expired, claiming she owed six more months because she had been suspended for refusing roles. Her friend Bette Davis was among those who had failed to get out of her contract under similar conditions in the 1930s, but Ms.聽de Havilland prevailed, with the California Court of Appeals ruling that no studio could extend an agreement without the performer鈥檚 consent.

The decision is still unofficially called the 鈥淒e Havilland law.鈥�

Ms. de Havilland went on to earn her own Academy Award in 1946 for her performance in 鈥淭o Each His Own,鈥� a melodrama about out-of-wedlock birth. A second Oscar came three years later for 鈥淭he Heiress,鈥� in which she portrayed a plain young homebody (as plain as it was possible to make Ms.聽de Havilland) opposite Montgomery Clift and Sir Ralph Richardson in an adaptation of Henry James鈥� 鈥淲ashington Square.鈥�

In 2008, Ms.聽de Havilland received a National Medal of Arts and was awarded France鈥檚 Legion of Honor two years later.

She was also famous as the sister of Joan Fontaine, with whom she had a troubled relationship. In a聽rare 2016 interview with The Associated Press, Ms.聽de Havilland referred to her late sister as a 鈥渄ragon lady鈥� and said her memories of Ms.聽Fontaine, who died in 2013, were 鈥渕ulti-faceted, varying from endearing to alienating.鈥�

鈥淥n my part, it was always loving, but sometimes estranged and, in the later years, severed,鈥� she said. "Dragon Lady, as I eventually decided to call her, was a brilliant, multi-talented person, but with an astigmatism in her perception of people and events, which often caused her to react in an unfair and even injurious way.鈥�

Ms.de Havilland once observed that Melanie Wilkes鈥� happiness was sustained by a loving, secure family, a blessing that eluded the actress even in childhood.

She was born in Tokyo on July 1, 1916, the daughter of a British patent attorney. Her parents separated when she was 3, and her mother brought her and her younger sister Joan to Saratoga, California. Ms. de Havilland鈥檚 own two marriages, to Marcus Goodrich and Pierre Galante, ended in divorce.

She had lived in Paris since 1953. In her interview with the AP at her luxurious Paris residence in 2016, as she celebrated her 100th birthday, she said she moved to the City of Light 鈥渁t the insistence鈥� of Mr. Galante, her late French former husband, and found no reason to return to the U.S.

She attributed her longevity to three L鈥檚: 鈥渓ove, laughter, and learning,鈥� and displayed a keen sense of humor 鈥� even calling her interviewer a 鈥渞ascal鈥� for a probing question.

Ms. de Havilland鈥檚 acting ambitions dated back to stage performing at Mills College in Oakland, California. While preparing for a school production of 鈥淎 Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream,鈥� she went to Hollywood to see Max Reinhardt鈥檚 rehearsals of the same comedy. She was asked to read for Hermia鈥檚 understudy, stayed with the production through her summer vacation, and was given the role in the fall.

Warner Bros. wanted stage actors for their lavish 1935 production and chose Ms.聽de Havilland to co-star with Mickey Rooney, who played Puck.

鈥淚 wanted to be a stage actress,鈥� she recalled. 鈥淟ife sort of made the decision for me.鈥�

She signed a five-year contract with the studio and went on to make 鈥淐aptain Blood,鈥� 鈥淒odge City,鈥� and other films with Mr. Flynn, a hopeless womanizer even by Hollywood standards.

鈥淥h, Errol had such magnetism! There was nobody who did what he did better than he did,鈥� said Ms.聽de Havilland, whose bond with the dashing actor remained, she would insist, improbably platonic. As she once explained, 鈥淲e were lovers together so often on the screen that people could not accept that nothing had happened between us.鈥�

She did date Howard Hughes and James Stewart and had an intense affair in the early 鈥�40s with director John Huston. Their relationship led to conflict with Ms.聽Davis, her co-star for the Huston-directed 鈥淚n This Our Life鈥�; Ms.聽Davis would complain that Ms.聽de Havilland, a supporting actress in the film, was getting more flattering time on camera.

Ms. de Havilland allegedly never got along with Ms.聽Fontaine, a feud magnified by the 1941 Oscar race that placed her against her sister for best actress honors. Ms.聽Fontaine was nominated for the Hitchcock thriller 鈥淪uspicion鈥� while Ms.聽de Havilland was cited for 鈥淗old Back the Dawn," a drama co-written by Billy Wilder and starring Ms.聽de Havilland as a school teacher wooed by the unscrupulous Charles Boyer.

Asked by a gossip columnist if they ever fought, Ms.聽de Havilland responded, 鈥淥f course, we fight. What two sisters don鈥檛 battle?鈥�

Like a good Warner Bros. soap opera, their relationship was a juicy narrative of supposed slights and snubs, from Ms.聽de Havilland reportedly refusing to congratulate Ms.聽Fontaine for winning the Oscar to Ms.聽Fontaine making a cutting crack about Ms.聽de Havilland鈥檚 poor choice of agents and husbands.

Although she once filmed as many as three pictures a year, her career slowed in middle age. She made several movies for television, including 鈥淩oots鈥� and 鈥淐harles and Diana,鈥� in which she portrayed the Queen Mother. She also co-starred with Ms.聽Davis in the macabre camp classic 鈥淗ush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte鈥� and was menaced by a young James Caan in the 1964 chiller 鈥淟ady in a Cage,鈥� condemning her tormentor as 鈥渙ne of the many bits of offal produced by the welfare state.鈥�

In 2009, she narrated a documentary about Alzheimer鈥檚, 鈥淚 Remember Better When I Paint.鈥�

Catherine Zeta-Jones played Ms.聽de Havilland in the 2017 FX miniseries about Ms.聽Davis and Joan Crawford, but Ms.聽de Havilland objected to being portrayed as a gossip and sued FX. The case was dismissed.

Despite her chronic stage fright, she did summer stock in Westport, Connecticut, and Easthampton, New York. Moviemaking, she said, produced a different kind of anxiety: 鈥淭he first day of making a film I feel, `Why did I ever get mixed up in this profession? I have no talent; this time they鈥檒l find out.鈥欌��

She is survived by her daughter, Gisele Galante Chulack, her son-in-law Andrew Chulack, and her niece Deborah Dozier Potter.

Goldberg, the publicist, said funeral arrangements are private and that memorial contributions should go to Paris' American Cathedral.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP correspondent Thomas Adamson in Paris and former AP Writer Dolores Barclay in New York contributed to this report.

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