Today is International Women's Day.  Who better to honor than Miss Olivia de Havilland.  Olivia has been in the public eye for nearly 80 touching five generations.  Her contributions to the arts involve the theater, radio, and of course, her extensive film career that includes five academy award nominations and two Academy Award wins.  

From very early in her career, Olivia sought roles that conveyed complex stories and delved into important experiences of her characters. However, the roles she was often assigned under her contract at Warner Brothers, were not the type of roles she wanted for her career.  When she declined a role, Warner Brothers would suspend her contract and add the time she was suspended on at the end, forcing Olivia into a situation where her contract could conceivably never end! 

Olivia never shied away from a challenge and risked her own career by filing suit against Warner Brothers on August  23, 1943 after the studio extended her contract six times after "suspending" her for rejecting the roles it suggested.  On December 8, 1944, Olivia de Havilland won her lawsuit against Warners Brothers when the California Court of Appeal of the second district unanimously ruled that seven years from the commencement of service meant seven calendar years.  Since Olivia had started work under her contract at Warners on May 5, 1936, and seven calendar years had elapsed from that date, the contract was no longer enforceable. This freed Olivia from an unending cycle of suspensions and extensions of her contract at Warner Brothers and enabled her to seek different projects with other studios. 

As a result of her efforts, California Labor Law 2855 became known as "the de Havilland Law."  Olivia's lawsuit didn't just free her from an unending contract, legions of other actors at the time and in the decades to follow were able to take advantage of the precedent and it has been cited as recently as 2009 involving a dispute over a music contract between EMI Records and Jared Leto and Shannon Leto  of the band Thirty Seconds to Mars.

In 2006, as part of her honor with the Academy of Achievement, Olivia was interviewed and her comments were archived online.  Below are three videos as part of that interview where Olivia briefly discusses the lawsuit, the win, and the price she paid in her career after winning her lawsuit.

 

"I longed to play a character who initiated things, who experienced important things, who interpreted the great agonies and joys of human experience", Olivia de Havilland said in 2006 regarding many of her roles at Warners and her desire to seek deeper work.  As a result of her efforts to play stronger roles, Olivia left some remarkable performances on film featuring complex women, many who struggled with their own inner turmoil of meeting society's expectations of them and their own expectations of themselves.

Olivia was never afraid to be portrayed as unglamourous, if the role called for it.  It was those deeper and "unglamourous" roles that lead to the many accolades she received in her career.  Olivia's first Oscar win was playing the role of Jody Norris in To Each His Own.  Jody finds herself pregnant after spending one night with a WWI Captain who is killed in action.  She tries to arrange it so that she can "adopt" the boy without scandal by having him left on the doorstep of a family with too many children already, but the scheme backfires.  Jody has to love her son from afar.  The film is filled with emotion as the audience sees a young woman faced with a terrible choices who spends her life trying to build her own career and to reunite with her son.  Although the film was set around WWI, the film brought to the forefront the challenges and consequences most women would face then, and even to some extent now, if faced with such a situation.

Olivia's second Oscar winning performance was for "The Heiress."  In her role as Catherine Sloper, Olivia portrays a sheltered and wealthy girl who has lost her mother and spends her life being raised by a father who starves her of love and affection while perpetually comparing her to an unattainable idealized image of his dead wife.  Olivia's transformation into the plain and socially awkward Catherine Sloper is breathtaking and heart wrenching.  Through her character, Olivia gives voice to many who know all too well the life of being in an unloving family.  

Olivia also tackled the issue of mental illness in The Snake Pit, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award.  In preparing for her role as Virginia Cunningham, Olivia explored mental hospitals of the time, observed electro-shock therapy, and visited with some patients.  In the film, Olivia carefully explored and portrayed the life of her character, Virginia Cunningham, while she is institutionalized.  We experience Virginia's confusion about her location and situation and fear throughout the film.  We go with Virginia through electro-shock treatments, hydrotherapy, the absence of loved ones, being confined, and the experience of being in "the snake pit,"  the floor that houses the lowest functioning and most disturbed patients.  This film and Olivia's performance is still considered a landmark production for it's exploration of mental illness in film.

Visit "Olivia de Havilland at the Oscars" to learn more about Olivia's 60 year history with the Academy Awards

Olivia de Havilland has been an inspiration to women of all ages. Even into her 90s, Olivia has not shied away.  She has attended awards ceremonies, accepted more accolades and honors including highest honors in both the United States and France since 2008, made public appearances, and even narrated an award winning documentary, I remember better when I paint, a film that explores the use of arts in helping Alzheimer's patients.   While younger fans may be discovering the world of Maid Marion or Melanie Wilkes for the first time, women who are looking for inspiration today, can find it in Olivia.  Well into her 90s, Olivia exudes a confidence about herself, generosity, and grace that is inspiring to all women.

In 2011, Tracey Jackson spoke with 50 inspirational women over the age of 50 about life, their joys, and secrets to happiness.  Here is the video that Tracey did with Olivia.

From classic film actress to actor's rights activist and beyond, Olivia is a great choice to honor on this 2014 International Women's Day.  Perhaps her most memorable work, Gone With the Wind, turns 75 this year!  Her life story is long and complex and her life has moved across three continents over her 97 years.  She has been a mother to two children, and has experienced the grief of losing one.  She has been a beacon of integrity to her work, grace in her life, and courage in overcoming challenges for generations.