Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011

Olivia de Havilland vs. Joan Fontaine

Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine are both Academy Award winners, have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and are acclaimed for their film roles in the 1930s and '40s. They are also sisters, though you'd be hard-pressed to find much evidence of that fact. For more than three decades, the sisters have not spoken to each other, a result of a vicious sibling rivalry that has persisted throughout their entire lives. The fighting reportedly began when the two, as children, competed for the attention of their mother, actress Lillian Augusta Ruse (known professionally as Lillian Fontaine). The feud only increased from there as the actresses battled over men, film roles and accolades. They even went head-to-head for the Oscar for Best Actress in 1942 (Fontaine won for Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion over de Havilland's Hold Back the Dawn). But it was their mother's death in 1975 that was the final straw. As Fontaine attacked de Havilland for not notifying her of their mother's passing, de Havilland countered that Fontaine was too busy to attend the services. Reportedly, the two have stopped talking since then.