“I Was Talented…”: Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine, two legendary actresses and two sisters with a bitter rivalry.

Created by the trio of Ryan Murphy, Jaffe Cohen and Michael Zam, Feud is a very interesting anthology series that presents the famous epic confrontation with each new season.

The first season was devoted to the legendary rivalry between two huge stars: Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, who collided, literally and figuratively, on the set of Robert Aldrich’s extraordinary film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? And even for filming.

Of course, there are other famous Hollywood relationships under very high strain. One in particular is all the more unique because it involved two sisters. Two very big actresses from Hollywood’s Golden Age, but who had a fierce rivalry: Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland.

Jealousy since childhood

The two actors had a very conflicted relationship tinged with jealousy since childhood. In his autobiography, published in 1979, There is no bed of rosesJoan Fontaine portrays her older sister as aggressive and abusive, capable of deliberately trying to break her collarbone.

Olivia’s film career began much earlier than her younger sister, and the latter saw herself as “the usurper”As he confided in a 1992 interview with a journalist (Angela Fox Dunn).

“In our family, you see, Olivia was always the one taking the laurels at home, and I was the talentless little sister who didn’t do much.” He already stated bitterly in 1949 An interview with the hottest People and Hollywood columnist of the day, Hedda Hopper. His pen, especially feared and regularly dipped in acid, could make or break a career by vigorously feeding the scandal mill.

The tension is rising

Apparently, the relationship between the two sisters became strained in 1942 when they were both competing for the Best Actress Oscar. Olivia was praised for her performance in The Golden Gate, and Joanne was praised for her performance in the Hitchcock classic Suspicion.

It was she who won the Oscar, while her older sister had to wait until 1947 for the film to win the prized statuette for each of her own fortunes. A little betrayal: When she won an Oscar, a photographer immortalized the sequence where de Havilland shoved her sister, who tried to congratulate her…

When their mother died of cancer in 1975, They stopped talking to each other. They even found ways to argue at their mother’s funeral… Fontaine claimed that her older sister refused to be invited to the funeral, while de Havilland claimed that her sister was too busy. Atmosphere… From that date the two sisters did not speak again until Joan Fontaine’s death in 2013 at the age of 96.

Olivia would survive him for another seven years, only to die in July 2020 at the age of 104. Two years ago without filing a lawsuit against Ryan Murphy and FX for the series. Enmity, was dissatisfied with his image. Don’t give up until the end.