Olivia de Havilland, R.I.P.

Olivia de Havilland, a very beloved actress from the Golden Age
of Film, appearing in classics such as Captain Blood,
Gone With The Wind, To Each His Own, The Heiress,
The Adventures of Robin Hood, and They Died With Their
Boots On, and the last surviving film luminary of her era,
went to join her friends and colleagues shortly after her 104th
birthday in July. Best known for her role as Melanie Wilkes
in the second of these aforementioned films, in which she
played a physically unimposing yet indomitable woman
with a blend of graciousness and quiet strength, and a
dash of courage. In real life, de Havilland exhibited these
same qualities during some tense times in the film industry.

In the 1940s de Havilland played a key role in thwarting the
Communist subversion of Hollywood. After having met
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 as a 24-year-old
actress, she became an ardent supporter. Four years later
she joined the pro-FDR Independent Citizens' Committee
of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions, which had for its
members famous actors such as Humphrey Bogart, Gregory
Peck, and Bette Davis. British-born and having recently
become a U.S. citizen, she thought this a fine thing to do.
She would soon get more than she bargained for; the
ICCASP's membership had more than a few Communists
in its numbers. Its leader, Hannah Dorner, was a secret
member of the Communist Party. De Havilland soon
discovered that the Executive Committee of the group
always sided with the Soviet Union in foreign policy
matters and was always critical of the United States.
This was a dead giveaway to de Havilland; wondering
why this was so, some investigating on her part revealed
a small cadre of people controlling the organization made
these decisions without the knowledge of the majority
of the general membership.

De Havilland took immediate action by inviting a small
group of actors, writers, and producers to her home to
discuss what course of action to take to wrest control of
the ICCASP from the reds. One of the actors present was
a friend who would go on to have quite a career in politics,
future U.S. President Ronald Reagan. They drafted a
declaration to oppose the Communist control of the
group, with the latter using the FDR-supporting organiza-
tion as a front group. The declaration was roundly rejected,
and de Havilland soon after resigned her membership, followed
by Reagan and other Hollywood figures. But not much later on,
de Havilland and her allies would win out, as the
ICCASP consequentially folded and the communist threat to
the U.S. film industry would dissipate in the 1950s. She made
her Hollywood colleagues choose between being
advocates for liberal democracy and being stooges for the
Communism, spreading Soviet propaganda through the
industry and onto movie screens around the country;
for this Olivia de Havilland should be praised and
remembered for her courage and her patriotism even
more than for her wonderful acting and the films she
appeared in.

Oh, and she fought the Hollywood studios and their powerful
moguls for actors' rights; she won that battle, too.

Requiescat in pace, courageous lady. You have set both an example
and a standard on the silver screen, and more importantly,
in life. Thank you for your legacy.



MEM