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Joan FontaineActress
Date of Birth: 22.10.1917
Country:  USA |
Content:
Biography of Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine, born Joan de Havilland, was born on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan. She came from a family of English immigrants, with her father working in a law firm and her mother being a theater actress known as Lillian Fontaine. Joan was the youngest child in the family, and her older sister Olivia also became a famous actress. Unlike Olivia, Joan grew up as a sickly child.
In 1919, after her divorce, Lillian planned to return to England but was advised by doctors to choose a warmer climate to improve her daughter's health. Thus, Joan found herself in Saratoga, a sunny town in California, along with her mother and sister.
Rivalry with Olivia de Havilland
The story of Joan Fontaine's life is a story of rivalry with her sister Olivia. This rivalry for the attention of their parents, love, and the admiration of those around them started in their childhood. While their mother loved both daughters equally, Joan always felt like she was in Olivia's shadow. She had to wear Olivia's hand-me-down clothes and attended a less prestigious boarding school, while all hopes of becoming a famous actress were placed on Olivia.
When Joan turned 15, she went to visit her father in Tokyo and spent two years there. When she returned to California, she found a poster of her sister, who was embracing the famous actor Errol Flynn. Seeing Olivia's success in the film industry infuriated Joan, and she swore to do everything to surpass her in popularity. She told her mother about her plans to become an actress, but her mother strictly forbade her from using the de Havilland surname. Left with no choice, she took her mother's stage name, Fontaine, which actually belonged to her stepfather.
In 1935, Joan made her acting debut in the play "Call It a Day." While her performance did not impress, she caught the attention of the "RKO" film company. Fontaine signed a contract with the company and made her film debut in the movie "No More Ladies" in the same year. However, her early roles brought disappointment, and Olivia's rising popularity only fueled Joan's anger.
In 1939, seeking solace, Joan married actor Brian Aherne, but the marriage also brought her disappointment. However, luck smiled upon her when Hollywood producer David O. Selznick changed her fate. While searching for an actress for the lead role in the film "Rebecca," he ordered auditions among all the women in Hollywood, famous and unknown. This is how Joan ended up auditioning and immediately caught the attention of director Alfred Hitchcock. He believed that she looked more uncertain and timid than the others, which suited her character perfectly. Thus, the decision was made. The shooting of the film "Rebecca" (1940) became legendary. Hitchcock ordered the whole crew to treat Joan with hostility after noticing that actor Laurence Olivier treated her with hostility. He hoped that this would make her more timid, as the character required. And he succeeded.
For her brilliant performance in "Rebecca," Fontaine received an Oscar nomination and became truly famous. But for Joan, the most important thing was that she had surpassed her sister. Inspired by Hitchcock, she was immediately offered a role in his next film, "Suspicion" (1941). Once again, she had to portray a quiet, defenseless woman fearing for her life.
When the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the Oscars in 1942, it turned out that both Joan and Olivia were competing for the same award - Best Actress. The Oscar ceremony became the talk of the town. It is said that when Joan Fontaine was announced as the winner, Olivia wanted to congratulate her sister, but Joan pushed her away and ran onto the stage to collect her trophy. However, in 1947, Olivia de Havilland paid Joan back by ignoring her presence in the audience and accepting the award herself.
The pursuit of fame eventually escalated into a total war between the two sisters, making them bitter enemies. Joan Fontaine's nomination for the Oscar in the film "The Constant Nymph" (1943), as well as her role in the melodrama "Jane Eyre" (1943), made her the most popular actress in Hollywood. Audiences flocked to theaters to see the brutal Orson Welles and the charming Fontaine. Undoubtedly, her role as Jane Eyre was her greatest success and one of her last significant film works.
Later Life and Legacy
After divorcing Brian Aherne, Joan married producer William Dozier in 1948 and gave birth to their daughter, Deborah. Later, she adopted a Puerto Rican girl named Miriam, but in the 1960s, Miriam ran away from home, and Fontaine lost her forever. In 1969, after her fourth divorce, Joan never remarried. She gave up on finding happiness in married life and even referred to marriage as a dead institution.
From the early 1950s, Joan Fontaine's popularity began to decline, but she still had several noteworthy roles. Realizing that she couldn't escape the image created by Hitchcock, she returned to playing loving and vulnerable heroines. Her roles in films such as "Ivanhoe" (1952), "The Bigamist" (1952), and "Decameron Nights" (1953) were her last significant film works. She began to appear more on television and returned to the stage.
She achieved success in theater as well. Her performance in the play "Tea and Sympathy" received rave reviews from critics. Equally notable were her roles in "Cactus Flower," "Private Lives," and "The Lion in Winter." In 1966, Fontaine made her last appearance in a film, playing a role in "The Witches." For many years, she lived a quiet and secluded life in Carmel, California. There she passed away on December 15, 2013, just before her 97th birthday.
In the end, the rivalry, envy, and competition disappeared. What remained were the outstanding films with the incomparable performances of Joan Fontaine. Thanks to them, she is still remembered as a Hollywood Golden Age actress.
