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Showing posts with the label Olivia de Havilland

Countdown to the Oscars: Top 10 Favourite Best Actress Gowns

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As part of my series of Oscar-related articles, today I bring you my top 10 favorite gowns worn by Best Actress winners from 1929 up until 2017. Be prepared to see a lot of white/nude dresses. 10. Sally Field (1980) | Dress by Bob Mackie Won the Oscar for playing Norma Rae Webster in Norma Rae (1979) This dress is kind of the «odd-one-out» of all the gowns on this list. It is definitely not as fancy or embellished as all the others, but I genuinely love it. The floral tulle blouse/bolero adds a beautiful finishing touch. And since it was the 1980s, she had glorious big hair to go with it. 9. Olivia de Havilland (1950) | Dress by Unknown Won the Oscar for playing Catherine Sloper in The Heiress (1949) This dress is so pretty! I love the floral black and white appliqués and the lace detailing on the sleeves. I'm not too keen on the gloves, but it was the 50s so of course there had to be gloves. 8. Julianne Moore (2015) | Dress by Chanel Won the Oscar for playing Alice Daly Howl...

Classic Hollywood Stars in Colour Photographs

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Since today is World Photography Day (yes, I bothered to check), I thought it would be fun to put together a collection of colour photos of Classic Hollywood stars. As far as I can tell, these pictures were captured in actual natural colour, rather than being digitally colourised. Enjoy! Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck at their ranch in San Fernando Valley (1939) Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet (1940) Errol Flynn skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho (December 1940) Eleanor Powell and Glenn Ford on their wedding day (1943) Myrna Loy and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. dancing (ca. 1944) Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney before reprising their roles in Laura (1944) for Lux Radio Theatre (February 1945) Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner on a break from filming The Killers (1946) Gregory Peck in a publicity for Duel in the Sun (1946) James Stewart and Donna Reed in a portrait for It's a Wonderful Life...

Countdown to the Oscars: Top 15 Favourite Best Actress-Winning Performances

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Throughout this month, I've decided to do a series of Oscar-related articles in anticipation to tonight's 89th Academy Awards ceremony, which I am going to see live on television. Yesterday, I presented you my top 15 favourite Best Actor-winning performances , so today I thought I would do the same, but for Best Actress winners instead. As I have said before, please bear in mind that this is my own personal opinion, which of course is limited to the films I have seen so far.     15. Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (1945)   Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford): I was always in the kitchen. I felt as though I'd been born in a kitchen and lived there all my life, except for the few hours it took to get married.     14. Joan Fontaine in Suspicion (1941) Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth (Joan Fontaine): I must go now or I'll be late to luncheon. Anyway, if my father saw me come in both late and beautiful, he might have a stroke.   13. Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of...

Hollywood Royals: The Royal Ancestry of Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine

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One of Olivia de Havilland 's last screen appearances as an actress was in the television film The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana (1982), in which she played Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. But did you know that Olivia and, consequently, her younger sister Joan Fontaine were actually distantly related to the Queen Mother, Prince Charles and even Princess Diana? More interestingly, did you know that Olivia and Joan — through their father's side of the family — were direct descendants of King Edward I and, therefore, of his 2nd great-grandfather, William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England? In fact, their ancestry can be traced back to even before William the Conqueror. For instance, Richard II, Duke of Normandy, William's grandfather, was Joan and Olivia's 28th great-grandfather. In turn, Richard was the great-grandson of Rollo, an early Viking settler who became the first ruler of Normandy in 911. History and genealogy are of two of the subjects tha...