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Fierce Women of the Week
Let’s take a moment to honor them
Olivia De Havilland
Our first Fierce Woman is the actor Olivia De Havilland who died at the age of 104 this week. Ms. De Havilland started her career with Warner Brothers film studio playing roles as a blushing ingenue alongside Errol Flynn in several movies, but she craved meatier, more complex roles. Ms. De Havilland’s most famous role as Melanie in “Gone With the Wind” was one that she had to fight her studio president, Jack Warner, to obtain since it was produced by a different studio. Upon her return, she began refusing roles, and Warner punished her by suspending her repeatedly. Upon reaching the end of her seven-year contract, Warner told her that she was still “studio property” because she owed him the time from when she was suspended. She sued and the case wound its way up to the Supreme Court. The Court found in her favor and she was freed from the contract. As a result, none of the Hollywood studios could use suspensions as punishments to extend actors’ contracts beyond seven years as had been custom. It became known as the “De Havilland Rule”, and it changed the power dynamic between studios and actors. Actors now had much more control over which parts they would take or refuse, thanks to Olivia!
