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In honour of Olivia de Havilland's 100th birthday, which is today, this week on «Film Friday» I bring you the picture for which she won her first Academy Award for Best Actress. Directed by Mitchell Leisen, To Each His Own (1946) opens in London during World War II, where a middle-aged American woman named Jody Norris (Olivia de Havilland) is spending New Year's Eve with lonely Englishman Lord Desham (Roland Culver), whom she has just casually met. After Jody saves Desham's life, he invites her to supper, but she turns him down to meet a train. Onboard is Lieutenant Gregory Pierson (John Lund), the son of Jody's friends from her small hometown of Pierson Falls. While she waits, Jody recalls the story of her life, beginning in the summer just before the end of World War I, when she rejected a marriage proposal from Lieutenant Alex Pierson (Phillip Terry), who then weds Corinne Sturgess (Mary Anderson).   Olivia de Havilland with John Lund, Ronald Culver and Bill Goodwin...

Olivia has always said I was first at everything — I got married first, got an Academy Award first, had a child first. If I die, she'll be furious, because again I'll have got there first! (Joan Fontaine, People magazine, 1978) In the summer of 1907, Lilian Augusta Ruse, a graduate of Reading Musical College, was offered a position in Tokyo, Japan as a teacher of choral singing. While attending a tea party at the British embassy, she met Walter Augustus de Havilland, a «suave Englishman» and patent attorney who ran a successful law firm in Tokyo. Following a whirlwind courtship, Walter proposed to Lilian, but she was not interested in marriage. Instead, she decided to return to England in December 1911 to study acting at Sir Beerbohm Tree's Academy, now known as the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. When World War I broke out in 1914, Walter went back to England to enlist with the British Army. Despite being an accomplished marksman, he was rejected for military service due ...

Directed by William Wyler, The Heiress (1949) tells the story of Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland), the plain and socially awkward daughter of a prominent physician, Dr. Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson), who makes no secret of his disappointment in her. Catherine is resigned to her ordinary existence until she meets a charming young man named Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift). She is immediately smitten, but her father suspects Morris is a fortune hunter and threatens to disinherit her if she marries him. Undeterred, she makes plans to elope with Morris, though not before telling him about her father's decision. On the night they are to elope, Catherine waits all night for Morris to come and take her away, but he never arrives. A few days later, a heartbroken Catherine has a bitter argument with her father, who reveals that he is dying. She tells Dr. Sloper that she still loves Morris and challenges him to change his testament if he is afraid of how she will spend his mone...

Olivia Mary de Havilland was born on July 1, 1916 in Tokyo, Japan. Her mother, Lilian Augusta Ruse, had been an accomplished student of music and voice who had won a scholarship to Reading Musical College in England at the age of thirteen. In the summer of 1907, Lilian was offered a position in Tokyo as a teacher of choral singing. While attending a tea party at the British embassy, she met Walter Augustus de Havilland, a «suave Englishman» who ran a successful firm of patent attorneys in Tokyo. Following a whirlwind courtship, Walter proposed to Lilian, but she was not interested in marriage. Instead, she decided to return to England in December 1911 to study acting at Sir Beerbohm Tree's Academy, now known as the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. When World War I broke out in 1914, Walter went back to England to enlist with the British Army. Despite being an accomplished marksman, Walter was rejected for military service due to his advanced age (he was 42 at the time). At the same...