Olivia de Havilland picture Olivia de Havilland made Hollywood history in the 1940s. That "history" has nothing to do with de Havilland’s films, her two Best Actress Oscars, or her much-publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: in the mid-’40s, Olivia de Havilland radically altered labor practices between Hollywood studios and their contract players after she won a lawsuit against Warner Bros. Born on July 1, 1916, to English parents living in Japan, Olivia de Havilland became a Warners leading lady in 1935. That year, in addition to run-of-the-mill fare such as Alibi Ike and The Irish in Us, de Havilland was cast in two Best Picture Oscar nominees: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Michael Curtiz’s Captain Blood, her first pairing with Errol Flynn. In the ensuing years, de Havilland and Flynn would...