Screen legend Olivia de Havilland, who turns 100 on Friday, is the last surviving star from &quot;Gone with the Wind&quot; and one of the last great stars of Hollywood&#39;s bygone golden era. 
 
The two-time Oscar winner and five-time Academy Award nominee came to embody the elegant glamour of the silver screen in the 1930s and 1940s. 
 
But she also made waves with a landmark legal battle against the Hollywood studios and a secret feud with her equally famous sister, Joan Fontaine. 
 
The 1939 box-office blockbuster &quot;Gone with the Wind&quot; brought de Havilland wide acclaim for her role as the noble, long-suffering Melanie, starring opposite Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in the US Civil War epic. 
 
Her performance as love rival to the fiery Scarlett O&#39;Hara, played by Leigh, led to de Havilland&#39;s first Oscar nod for best supporting actress. 
 
But she lost out to co-star Hattie McDaniel, who played the character of Mammy and became the first African-American to win an Academy Award. 
 
The film sealed De Havilland&#39;s reputation as one of Hollywood&#39;s top leading ladies, but with her doe-eyed looks she soon felt frustrated at the roles she was offered, fearful of being typecast as a sweet, innocent young thing. 
 
&quot;Playing a good girl was difficult in the 30s, when the fad was to play bad girls,&quot; she once said in an interview. 
 
&quot;Actually, I think playing bad girls is a bore. I have always had more luck with good girl roles because they require more from an actress.&quot; 
 
Her screen debut had come as Hermia in &quot;A Midsummer Night&#39;s Dream&quot; in 1935 after director Max Reinhardt spotted her in a local theatre production of the play. 
 
She won accolades for her role opposite swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn in &quot;Captain Blood&quot; later the same year, and their on-screen chemistry persuaded studio bosses to cast her alongside Flynn in seven other movies. 
 
Correcting &#39;a serious abuse&#39;&nbsp; 
De Havilland incurred the wrath of the bosses at Warner Bros., who at that time effectively owned their stars, by rejecting script after script. 
 
In what was a shocking move for the era, she sued the studios to be released from her seven-year contract and won, in a far-reaching 1945 ruling which gave actors the right to choose their own roles and career paths. 
 
It is still known as the De Havilland law, and the actress once said of it: &quot;I was very proud of that decision, for it corrected a serious abuse of the contract system. No one thought I would win, but I did.&quot; 
 
During her court case, she was blacklisted for three years and unable to work, but her legal victory kickstarted her career. 
 
The following year in 1946 she won her first Oscar for her portrayal of Jody Norris in &quot;To Each His Own&quot;, in an edgier role as an unmarried mother and her heartbreaking struggle to stay near to the child she could never acknowledge. 
 
She won her second Academy Award for playing the socially inept spinster Catherine Sloper in &quot;The Heiress&quot; in 1949. 
 
In a real-life Hollywood drama, De Havilland was estranged for many years from her sister Joan Fontaine, her junior by a year and a screen legend in her own right. 
 
Neither actress has ever spoken publicly about their feud, but in 1941 De Havilland lost out on an Oscar for her lead performance as Emmy Brown in &quot;Hold Back the Dawn&quot; to Fontaine, who picked up the statuette for Alfred Hitchcock&#39;s &quot;Suspicion&quot;. 
 
The sisters remain the only siblings in Oscar history to have both won lead acting honours. 
 
&#39;Soul-crushing&#39;&nbsp; 
The two girls were born to British parents living in Tokyo. In a twist of fate, De Havilland fell ill as a girl leading to an initially short stay in California that stretched into years. 
 
De Havilland became a naturalised US citizen in 1941, but in the 1950s her career began to wilt as she despaired at the growing promiscuousness in the movie world. 
 
She appeared in a few films in the 1970s and also did some television work in the 1980s. But she is said to have once pronounced: &quot;The TV business is soul-crushing, talent-destroying and human-being-destroying.&quot; 
 
Romantically, De Havilland was linked to John Huston, James Stewart and Howard Hughes in the 1940s, but she married novelist Marcus Goodrich in 1946, by whom she had a son, Benjamin. 
 
The couple divorced in 1953, and De Havilland later married French journalist Pierre Galante, with whom she had a daughter, Giselle, in 1956. 
 
They later divorced but when Galante fell ill, she nursed him during his final days in Paris and remained in the French capital.

"Gone with the Wind" brought her wide acclaim, but her career began to wilt in the 1950s as she despaired at the growing promiscuousness in movies

Screen legend Olivia de Havilland, who turns 100 on Friday, is the last surviving star from "Gone with the Wind" and one of the last great stars of Hollywood's bygone golden era. The two-time Oscar winner and five-time Academy Award nominee came to embody the elegant glamour of the silver screen in the 1930s and 1940s. But she also made waves with a landmark legal battle against the Hollywood studios and a secret feud with her equally famous sister, Joan Fontaine. The 1939 box-office blockbuster "Gone with the Wind" brought de Havilland wide acclaim for her role as the noble, long-suffering Melanie, starring opposite Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in the US Civil War epic. Her performance as love rival to the fiery Scarlett O'Hara, played by Leigh, led to de Havilland's first Oscar nod for best supporting actress. But she lost out to co-star Hattie McDaniel, who played the character of Mammy and became the first African-American to win an Academy Award. The film sealed De Havilland's reputation as one of Hollywood's top leading ladies, but with her doe-eyed looks she soon felt frustrated at the roles she was offered, fearful of being typecast as a sweet, innocent young thing. "Playing a good girl was difficult in the 30s, when the fad was to play bad girls," she once said in an interview. "Actually, I think playing bad girls is a bore. I have always had more luck with good girl roles because they require more from an actress." Her screen debut had come as Hermia in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1935 after director Max Reinhardt spotted her in a local theatre production of the play. She won accolades for her role opposite swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn in "Captain Blood" later the same year, and their on-screen chemistry persuaded studio bosses to cast her alongside Flynn in seven other movies. Correcting 'a serious abuse' De Havilland incurred the wrath of the bosses at Warner Bros., who at that time effectively owned their stars, by rejecting script after script. In what was a shocking move for the era, she sued the studios to be released from her seven-year contract and won, in a far-reaching 1945 ruling which gave actors the right to choose their own roles and career paths. It is still known as the De Havilland law, and the actress once said of it: "I was very proud of that decision, for it corrected a serious abuse of the contract system. No one thought I would win, but I did." During her court case, she was blacklisted for three years and unable to work, but her legal victory kickstarted her career. The following year in 1946 she won her first Oscar for her portrayal of Jody Norris in "To Each His Own", in an edgier role as an unmarried mother and her heartbreaking struggle to stay near to the child she could never acknowledge. She won her second Academy Award for playing the socially inept spinster Catherine Sloper in "The Heiress" in 1949. In a real-life Hollywood drama, De Havilland was estranged for many years from her sister Joan Fontaine, her junior by a year and a screen legend in her own right. Neither actress has ever spoken publicly about their feud, but in 1941 De Havilland lost out on an Oscar for her lead performance as Emmy Brown in "Hold Back the Dawn" to Fontaine, who picked up the statuette for Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion". The sisters remain the only siblings in Oscar history to have both won lead acting honours. 'Soul-crushing' The two girls were born to British parents living in Tokyo. In a twist of fate, De Havilland fell ill as a girl leading to an initially short stay in California that stretched into years. De Havilland became a naturalised US citizen in 1941, but in the 1950s her career began to wilt as she despaired at the growing promiscuousness in the movie world. She appeared in a few films in the 1970s and also did some television work in the 1980s. But she is said to have once pronounced: "The TV business is soul-crushing, talent-destroying and human-being-destroying." Romantically, De Havilland was linked to John Huston, James Stewart and Howard Hughes in the 1940s, but she married novelist Marcus Goodrich in 1946, by whom she had a son, Benjamin. The couple divorced in 1953, and De Havilland later married French journalist Pierre Galante, with whom she had a daughter, Giselle, in 1956. They later divorced but when Galante fell ill, she nursed him during his final days in Paris and remained in the French capital.

Golden age Hollywood starlet Olivia de Havilland turns 100

With her cut-glass cheekbones, porcelain skin and cascading flaxen locks, it is hard to imagine a better choice to play Tarzan`s love interest than Australian actress Margot Robbie. 
 
But the 25-year-old, who appears as Jane in &quot;The Legend of Tarzan,&quot; the latest take on one of Hollywood`s most enduring colonial era adventure stories, is anything but a shrinking violet. 
 
&quot;I`ve never wanted to play the damsel in distress, and Jane is anything but,&quot; said the actress, who rose to worldwide fame starring in Martin Scorsese`s &quot;The Wolf of Wall Street.&quot; 
 
Robbie agreed early on with director David Yates that her take on Jane Porter, and later Lady Greystoke, in the 51st live-action Tarzan movie would be a feisty character, capable of fighting back. 
 
In one memorable scene, Belgian ruler Leopold II`s dastardly henchman Leon Rom, played by Christoph Waltz, demands of a captured Jane that she scream to attract Tarzan`s attention, and instead she spits in his face. 
 
It is a gesture of the kind of fiery insouciance common in the roles Robbie has picked, from her portrayal of the feisty Naomi Lapaglia in &quot;The Wolf of Wall Street&quot; to the villainous Harley Quinn in the much anticipated &quot;Suicide Squad&quot; from DC Comics. 
 
The Queensland native, whose first regular acting job was in Aussie soap &quot;Neighbours,&quot; is enjoying an unusual trajectory in an industry where many female actresses complain of the shallow roles they are offered. Studies consistently show that men outnumber women by up to three to one among speaking parts in feature films, with the few starring female roles often largely just foils for the male star. 
 
&quot;I think it`s definitely improving. And I think people have finally recognized that half the ticket sales are coming from women,&quot; Robbie told AFP at a publicity event in Beverly Hills Sunday for &quot;Tarzan,&quot; which hits theaters on July 1. 
 
&quot;And if they don`t create the kind of roles that women are going to be able to relate to then they`re not going to enjoy watching them as much. 
 
&quot;And if they don`t enjoy watching them as much, they`re not going to be able to make their money. I think they needed to recognize that and I think the industry has really responded in a postive way and people are really making an effort.&quot; 
 
Robbie says she is still offered parts that strike her as problematic, but senses that producers and directors are keen to work with her to give the role more depth. 
 
One notable feature of David Yates`s take on Tarzan is that, for once, it is the male lead, Robbie`s co-star Alexander Skarsgard, who spends much of the duration half-naked while Robbie was able to keep her clothes on. 
 
Yates, who directed the final four &quot;Harry Potter&quot; films and is helming JK Rowling`s forthcoming Potter spin-off &quot;Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,&quot; revealed he had turned down the studio`s suggestion of &quot;Superman&quot; actor Henry Cavill for the role of &quot;Tarzan,&quot; preferring Skarsgard`s lower profile and physicality. &quot;He was so motivated. I did ask him -- and I did this with Eddie Redmayne on `Beasts` because they both had to work out -- `can you send me photographs of yourself?` which seemed kind of not right. 
 
&quot;So every week, there would be photographs of Alex naked -- not completely naked -- and after about three or four weeks I just thought &#39;ok, that`s fine, it`s great.&quot; 
 
&quot;The Legend of Tarzan&quot; picks up the King of the Jungle`s story several years after his adventures in Africa with Jane. 
 
Now a parliamentarian in London, Lord Greystoke is persuaded by Samuel L Jackson`s former US civil war soldier George Washington Williams to go back to the Congo Free State to investigate reports that Leopold II is engaged in mass enslavement of the locals. 
 
Jackson told AFP he visited Washington`s grave in Blackpool, northwestern England, last year while shooting Tim Burton`s &quot;Miss Peregrine`s Home for Peculiar Children,&quot; which is due out in September. 
 
&quot;George is a pretty fascinating guy,&quot; said the 67-year-old Hollywood veteran. 
 
&quot;He fought in the civil war, underage, and had this darkness about him that took him to the Mexican-American War where he joined the cavalry and ended up killing a whole bunch of Indians, which disturbed him greatly.&quot;&nbsp; 
 
Jackson describes Tarzan as &quot;an origin story more than anything else.&quot; 
 
&quot;You find out exactly why he is Tarzan of the Apes and what his relationship is to that ape community, how he was treated in it, who loved him, who bullied him,&quot; he said. 
 
(AFP)

'I`ve never wanted to play the damsel in distress, and Jane is anything but,' says Margot Robbie

With her cut-glass cheekbones, porcelain skin and cascading flaxen locks, it is hard to imagine a better choice to play Tarzan`s love interest than Australian actress Margot Robbie. But the 25-year-old, who appears as Jane in "The Legend of Tarzan," the latest take on one of Hollywood`s most enduring colonial era adventure stories, is anything but a shrinking violet. "I`ve never wanted to play the damsel in distress, and Jane is anything but," said the actress, who rose to worldwide fame starring in Martin Scorsese`s "The Wolf of Wall Street." Robbie agreed early on with director David Yates that her take on Jane Porter, and later Lady Greystoke, in the 51st live-action Tarzan movie would be a feisty character, capable of fighting back. In one memorable scene, Belgian ruler Leopold II`s dastardly henchman Leon Rom, played by Christoph Waltz, demands of a captured Jane that she scream to attract Tarzan`s attention, and instead she spits in his face. It is a gesture of the kind of fiery insouciance common in the roles Robbie has picked, from her portrayal of the feisty Naomi Lapaglia in "The Wolf of Wall Street" to the villainous Harley Quinn in the much anticipated "Suicide Squad" from DC Comics. The Queensland native, whose first regular acting job was in Aussie soap "Neighbours," is enjoying an unusual trajectory in an industry where many female actresses complain of the shallow roles they are offered. Studies consistently show that men outnumber women by up to three to one among speaking parts in feature films, with the few starring female roles often largely just foils for the male star. "I think it`s definitely improving. And I think people have finally recognized that half the ticket sales are coming from women," Robbie told AFP at a publicity event in Beverly Hills Sunday for "Tarzan," which hits theaters on July 1. "And if they don`t create the kind of roles that women are going to be able to relate to then they`re not going to enjoy watching them as much. "And if they don`t enjoy watching them as much, they`re not going to be able to make their money. I think they needed to recognize that and I think the industry has really responded in a postive way and people are really making an effort." Robbie says she is still offered parts that strike her as problematic, but senses that producers and directors are keen to work with her to give the role more depth. One notable feature of David Yates`s take on Tarzan is that, for once, it is the male lead, Robbie`s co-star Alexander Skarsgard, who spends much of the duration half-naked while Robbie was able to keep her clothes on. Yates, who directed the final four "Harry Potter" films and is helming JK Rowling`s forthcoming Potter spin-off "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," revealed he had turned down the studio`s suggestion of "Superman" actor Henry Cavill for the role of "Tarzan," preferring Skarsgard`s lower profile and physicality. "He was so motivated. I did ask him -- and I did this with Eddie Redmayne on `Beasts` because they both had to work out -- `can you send me photographs of yourself?` which seemed kind of not right. "So every week, there would be photographs of Alex naked -- not completely naked -- and after about three or four weeks I just thought 'ok, that`s fine, it`s great." "The Legend of Tarzan" picks up the King of the Jungle`s story several years after his adventures in Africa with Jane. Now a parliamentarian in London, Lord Greystoke is persuaded by Samuel L Jackson`s former US civil war soldier George Washington Williams to go back to the Congo Free State to investigate reports that Leopold II is engaged in mass enslavement of the locals. Jackson told AFP he visited Washington`s grave in Blackpool, northwestern England, last year while shooting Tim Burton`s "Miss Peregrine`s Home for Peculiar Children," which is due out in September. "George is a pretty fascinating guy," said the 67-year-old Hollywood veteran. "He fought in the civil war, underage, and had this darkness about him that took him to the Mexican-American War where he joined the cavalry and ended up killing a whole bunch of Indians, which disturbed him greatly." Jackson describes Tarzan as "an origin story more than anything else." "You find out exactly why he is Tarzan of the Apes and what his relationship is to that ape community, how he was treated in it, who loved him, who bullied him," he said. (AFP)

Robbie plays thoroughly modern `Jane` in new `Tarzan` film

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