Olivia de Havilland

She was sort of the Meryl Streep of the 40's with five Oscar nominations and two 
wins. She was the sister of actress Joan Fontaine (Rebecca) and they had the worst 
sibling rivalry since Cain and Abel. Olivia de Havilland lived to be 104 and if her starring 
days were way behind her, well, there were sure a bunch of them! I’m going to stick to 
to the films that got her nominated, but there are lots more.
Gone With The Wind (1939) is on everybody’s list in spite of having happy 
slaves. This movie won everything on Oscar night: Best Movie, 12 other nominations  
and 8 wins. Olivia was nominated for supporting actress and lost to Hattie McDaniel, 
who actually won from the same movie! This film was shown so much that it was 
referred to as “the Oz bowl game.” It still holds up pretty well and Olivia is very good as 
doomed cousin Melanie.
In Hold Back The Dawn (1941) Charles Boyer is a Romanian gigolo lurking in Mexico to catch a naive American woman to marry so he can immigrate. Olivia de Havilland fills the bill, a schoolteacher from America with a busload of young boys. But she marries Charles and then it gets complicated. She is badly hurt in a car wreck but he sticks with her until the, of course, happy ending. Olivia was nominated for this one but lost to her not-exactly-beloved sister, Joan Fontaine, for Suspicion.
The third time was the charm for Olivia, as she copped the Oscar for Best Actress for her part in To Each His Own (1946). After a one-night stand with a soldier, she has a child. She gives him up for adoption, then regrets it and after four years gets him back. But he wants his adoptive parents, not her, and back he goes. Then there is a very unlikely happy ending, but hooray for Hollywood!
The Snake Pit (1948) ripped the cover off the dreadful state of most mental hospitals. Olivia de Havilland plays Virginia Cunningham, who is crazy, but not that crazy. Undone by a hateful jealous nurse, she is consigned to the Snake Pit, where the worst patients are simply strait-jacketed and thrown together. But don’t worry, there is the obligatory happy ending!  Olivia was nominated for Best Actress, and she was very good but lost to Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda. A close call, but I agree.
Olivia de Havilland copped her second Best Actress award for The Heiress (1949). And she is quite wonderful as the rather plain but rather wealthy Catherine Sloper. She is wooed by handsome gold digger Montgomery Clift. They plan to elope and she packs her bags and waits for him by the door. And waits. But he never comes. This is a truly great scene and she does it splendidly. 
Olivia de Havilland can also be seen to good effect in My Cousin Rachel (1952), Libel (1959) and Light In The Piazza (1962).
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. Though tame by today’s standards, they are adults only films.