Hollywood Rivals Havillard Vs Fontaine
Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland were sisters and rivals, born a year apart to British parents and taken to the USA as children.
Olivia had it easy to start with, selected by Max Reinhardt as a freshman in college to play Hermia in both the stage and latter screen version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) which won her a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. Joan, meanwhile was involved in stage performances on the West Coast, making her screen debut in 1935 supporting Joan Crawford. More stagework followed and by 1937 she was appearing regularly in RKO pictures.
