Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (October 22, 1917 – December 15, 2013), known professionally asJoan Fontaine, was a British-American actress best known for her roles inHollywood films during theGolden Age of Hollywood. Fontaine appeared in more than 45 films in a career that spanned five decades. She was the younger sister of actressOlivia de Havilland. Their rivalry was well documented in the media at the height of Fontaine's career.
Fontaine began her film career in 1935, signing a contract withRKO Pictures. Fontaine received her first major roles inThe Man Who Found Himself (1937) and inGunga Din (1939). Her career prospects improved greatly after her starring role inAlfred Hitchcock'sRebecca (1940), for which she received her first of three nominations for theAcademy Award for Best Actress. The following year, she won that award for her role in Hitchcock'sSuspicion (1941). A third nomination came withThe Constant Nymph (1943). She appeared mostly in drama films through the 1940s, includingLetter from an Unknown Woman and the comedyYou Gotta Stay Happy (both 1948), which she co-produced with her second husbandWilliam Dozier through their film production company Rampart Productions. In the next decade, after her role inIvanhoe (1952), her film career began to decline and she moved into stage, radio and television roles. She appeared in fewer films in the 1960s, which includedVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), and her final film role inThe Witches (1966), also known asThe Devil's Own.
She released an autobiography,No Bed of Roses, in 1978, and continued to act until 1994. HerAcademy Award forSuspicion makes Fontaine the only actress to have won an Oscar for acting in a Hitchcock film. She and her sister Olivia remain the onlysiblings to have won lead-acting Academy Awards.
De Havilland's parents married in 1914 and separated in 1919 when she was two; the divorce was not finalized, however, until February 1925.[7]
Taking a physician's advice, Lilian deHavilland moved Joan—reportedly a sickly child who had developedanaemia following a combined attack of themeasles and astreptococcal infection—and her sister to the United States.[8][7] The family settled inSaratoga, California, and Fontaine's health improved dramatically during her teen years. She was educated at nearbyLos Gatos High School and was soon takingdiction lessons alongside Olivia. When she was 16 years old, Joan returned to Japan to live with her father. There she attended theAmerican School in Japan, graduating in 1935.[9]
Fontaine made her stage debut in the West Coast production ofCall It a Day (1935) and made her film debut inMGM'sNo More Ladies (1935), in which she was credited as Joan Burfield.[10] She was leading lady toBruce Bennett (billed as Herman Brix) in a low-budget independent film,A Million to One (1937).[11]
The studio considered her a rising star, and toutedThe Man Who Found Himself (1937) withJohn Beal as her first starring role, placing a special screen introduction, billed as the "new RKO screen personality" after the end credit.[12] Fontaine later said it had "an A budget but a Z story".[13]
Fontaine's luck changed one night at a dinner party when she found herself seated next to producerDavid O. Selznick. Selznick and she began discussing theDaphne du Maurier novelRebecca, and Selznick asked her to audition for the part of the unnamed heroine. She endured a grueling six-month series of film tests along with hundreds of other actresses before securing the part sometime before her 22nd birthday.
Rebecca (1940), starringLaurence Olivier alongside Fontaine, marked the American debut of British directorAlfred Hitchcock. The film was released to glowing reviews, and Fontaine was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Actress.[11] Fontaine did not win that year (Ginger Rogers took home the award forKitty Foyle), but she did win the following year for Best Actress inSuspicion, which co-starredCary Grant and was also directed by Hitchcock.[11] This was the only Academy Award-winning acting performance to have been directed by Hitchcock.[15]
Fontaine was then one of the biggest female stars in Hollywood, although she was typecast in female melodrama. "They seemed to want to make me cry the whole Atlantic", she later said.However, historically, she had become the top female star of the 1940s.[clarify][16]
She starred in the filmFrenchman's Creek (1944). LikeRebecca, this was based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier. Fontaine personally consideredFrenchman's Creek one of her least favorites among the films she starred in.
Selznick wanted to cast her inI'll Be Seeing You (1944) but she refused, saying she was "sick of playing the sad sack". Selznick suspended her for eight months.[20] Eventually she went back to work inThe Affairs of Susan (1945) forHal Wallis at Paramount, her first comedy. She returned to RKO forFrom This Day Forward (1946).
In August 1946 Fontaine set up her own company,Rampart Productions, with her then-husbandWilliam Dozier. Her contract with Selznick ended in February 1947 and Fontaine would work exclusively for Rampart apart from one film a year for RKO.[21][22]
Their first film wasIvy (1947), a thriller where she played an unsympathetic part.
MGM hired Fontaine to play the love interest inIvanhoe (1952), a big success. She was reunited with Jourdan inDecameron Nights (1953) then went to Paramount for the low-budgetFlight to Tangier (1953) with Jack Palance.
She won good reviews for her role on Broadway in 1954 as Laura inTea and Sympathy, playing the role originated byDeborah Kerr. She appeared oppositeAnthony Perkins and toured the show for a few months.[24]
In October 1964 she returned to Broadway to appear inA Severed Head.[25]
She appeared in aHammer horror film,The Witches (1966) which she also co-produced. It would become the final theatrical film role for her, although she continued to act in television productions and on stage.
In the 1970s Fontaine appeared in stage shows and toured with a poetry reading.[27]
She returned to Hollywood for the first time in 15 years in 1975 to appear in an episode ofCannon especially written for her.[28] She was inThe Users (1978) and was nominated for anEmmy Award for the soap operaRyan's Hope in 1980.
Fontaine published her autobiography,No Bed of Roses, in 1978.[29] In 1982, she traveled to Berlin, Germany, and served as a jury president for theBerlin International Film Festival.[30]
In the early 1980s, after 25 years in New York, she moved toCarmel, California. "I have no family ties anymore, so I want to work", she said. "I still host an interview show for cable in New York. I lecture all over the country. But it wasn't enough. My theory is that if you stay busy, you haven't time to grow old. Or at least you don't notice it."[31]
Fontaine's last role for television was in the 1994 TV filmGood King Wenceslas, after which she retired to her estate, Villa Fontana, inCarmel Highlands, California, where she spent time in her gardens and with her dogs.[33]
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Fontaine has a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame at 1645 Vine Street. She left her hand and foot prints in front of theGrauman's Chinese Theatre on May 26, 1942.
She was a practicingEpiscopalian and a member of Episcopal Actors Guild.[34]
Fontaine and her elder sister,Olivia de Havilland, are the onlysiblings to have won lead acting Academy Awards. Olivia was the first to become an actress; when Fontaine tried to follow her lead, their mother, who favored Olivia, initially refused to let Joan use the family name. Subsequently, Fontaine first adopted Joan Burfield. She assumed her mother's married surname as a stage name when she appeared in the playCall It a Day, being credited as Joan Fontaine.
BiographerCharles Higham records that the sisters had an uneasy relationship from early childhood, when Olivia would rip up the clothes Joan had to wear as hand-me-downs, forcing Joan to sew them back together. A large part of the friction between the sisters stemmed from Fontaine's belief that Olivia was their mother's favorite child.[35]
De Havilland and Fontaine were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1942. Fontaine won for her role in Alfred Hitchcock'sSuspicion over deHavilland's performance inHold Back the Dawn. Higham states that Fontaine "felt guilty about winning given her lack of obsessive career drive ...". Higham has described the events of the awards ceremony, stating that as Fontaine stepped forward to collect her award, she pointedly rejected deHavilland's attempts to congratulate her and that deHavilland was both offended and embarrassed by her behavior. Fontaine, however, tells a different story in her autobiography, explaining that she was paralyzed with surprise when she won the Academy Award, and that deHavilland insisted that she get up to accept it. "Olivia took the situation very graciously", Fontaine wrote. "I was appalled that I'd won over my sister."[36] Several years later, however, deHavilland apparently remembered what she perceived as a slight and exacted her own revenge by brushing past Fontaine, who was waiting with her hand extended, because deHavilland took offense at a comment Fontaine had made about deHavilland's husband.[citation needed]
Contrary to press reports, the sisters continued their relationship after the 1940s. After Fontaine's separation from her husband in 1952, deHavilland went to her apartment in New York often, and at least once they spent Christmas together there, in 1961. They were photographed laughing together at a party forMarlene Dietrich in 1967.[37] Fontaine also visited deHavilland in Paris in 1969.[38]
The sisters reportedly did not completely stop speaking to each other until 1975, after their mother's funeral, to which Joan, who was out of the country, was not invited.[39]
Both sisters largely refused to comment publicly about their relationship. In a 1978 interview, however, Fontaine said of the sibling rivalry, "I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia did, and if I die first, she'll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it!"[39] The following year, in a 1979 interview, Fontaine claimed the reason her sister and she stopped speaking to each other was that deHavilland wanted their mother (who was suffering from cancer) to be treated surgically at the age of 88. Fontaine disagreed with the idea especially after having spent months talking to her mother preparing her for death (Lilian did not want to live). Fontaine also claimed in her 1979 interview that after their mother died, deHavilland did not bother to try to find where Fontaine could be reached (Fontaine was on tour in a play). Instead, deHavilland sent a telegram, which did not arrive until two weeks later at Fontaine's next stop.[40] According to Fontaine, deHavilland did not invite her to a memorial service for their mother. DeHavilland claims she informed Fontaine, but Fontaine brushed her off, claiming she was too busy to attend. Higham records that Fontaine had an estranged relationship with her own daughters, as well, possibly because she discovered that they were secretly maintaining a relationship with deHavilland.[35]
Fontaine held dual citizenship; she was British by birthright (both her parents were British) and became an American citizen in April 1943.[41][1] Outside of acting, Fontaine was also noted as being a licensed pilot, an accomplished interior decorator, and aCordon Bleu–level chef.[30]
In May 1946, she married actor/producerWilliam Dozier in Mexico City. They had a daughter, Deborah Leslie, in 1948, and separated in 1949. Deborah is Fontaine's only biological child.[44] The following year, Fontaine filed for divorce, charging Dozier with desertion. Their divorce was final in January 1951.[45] The two of them had a custody battle over their child which lingered through the 1950s.[46][47]
Fontaine's third marriage was to producer and writerCollier Young on November 12, 1952. They separated in May 1960, and Fontaine filed for divorce in November 1960.[48] Their divorce was final in January 1961.[49]
Fontaine's fourth and final marriage was toSports Illustrated golf editor Alfred Wright Jr, on January 23, 1964, inElkton, Maryland; they divorced in 1969.[50] Fontaine also had a personal relationship with politicianAdlai Stevenson II: "We had a tenderness for each other that grew into something rather serious. There was so much speculation about our marrying in the press that over lunch at his apartment in the Waldorf Towers he told me he could not marry an actress. He still had political ambitions and the 'little old ladies from Oshkosh' wouldn't approve. I told him it was just as well. My family would hardly approve of my marrying a politician".[51]
Fontaine had an affair with actor and producerJohn Houseman after her marriage to Aherne. "Ours was what was known in Hollywood as a 'romance,'—which meant that we slept together three or four nights a week, got invited to parties together, went away together for weekends and sometimes talked about getting married without really meaning it," Houseman wrote inFront and Center, his second autobiography.[52]
While in South America for a film festival in 1951, Fontaine met a four-year-old Peruvian girl named Martita, and informally adopted her.[53][54] Fontaine met Martita while visitingIncan ruins where Martita's father worked as a caretaker. Martita's parents allowed Fontaine to become Martita's legal guardian to give the child a better life.[53] Fontaine promised Martita's parents she would send the girl back to Peru to visit when she was 16 years old. When Martita turned 16, Fontaine bought her a round-trip ticket to Peru, but Martita refused to go and opted to run away. Fontaine and Martita became estranged following the incident. While promoting her autobiography in 1978, Fontaine addressed the issue, stating, "Until my adopted daughter goes back to see her parents, she's not welcome. I promised her parents. I do not forgive somebody who makes me break my word."[55]
On December 15, 2013, Fontaine died in her sleep of natural causes at the age of 96 in herCarmel Highlands home. Her longtime friend Noel Beutel said, "She had been fading in recent days and died peacefully."[56] After Fontaine's death, Olivia deHavilland released a statement saying she was "shocked and saddened" by the news.[57]
Fontaine's Academy Award for Best Actress inSuspicion was initially to be sold at an animal rights auction; however, the academy threatened to sue since it was not offered back to them for $1 and Fontaine's estate retained possession.[58]
Fontaine converted to the Episcopal Church in 1972 after a bleak period.[59]
^abNeville, Lucie (March 3, 1940). "Joan Fontaine Wins Stardom by Being Self: Has Fought Comparison With Sister, Olivia de Havilland, Since Age of 10".The Washington Post. p. L1.
^"Joan Fontaine New Lead for Astaire".The Washington Post. August 3, 1937. p. 14.
^Levine, Faiga (September 28, 1978). "Joan Fontaine's Roses: Book World 'No Bed of Roses: An Autobiography' Morrow. 319 pp".The Washington Post. p. B8.
^ab"Joan Fontaine, Academy Award-winning actress from the 1940s, dies at 96".The Washington Post. December 16, 2013. RetrievedDecember 9, 2020.A year earlier, she had told theHollywood Reporter, "I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia did, and if I die first, she'll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it!"
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