Feud Wiki
Register
Advertisement
This character is based on a real person. Click here to read about her.

Feuds are never about hate.
Feuds are about pain.
—Olivia de Havilland[src]

Olivia Mary de Havilland is a recurring character on the first season of Feud. She is an British-American actress who was one of the leading movie stars during the golden age of Classical Hollywood, and was close friends with fellow actress Bette Davis.

She is portrayed by Catherine Zeta-Jones.[1]

Biography[]

Pilot[]

Olivia is first shown at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California in 1978, doing an interview for a documentary about Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. She explains that there was never a rivalry as great as theirs, and that they hated each other for nearly half a century, but everyone loved them for it.

She talks about Joan Crawford first and reveals that Joan's real name is actually Lucille LeSueur. She says that although Joan was raised in utter squalor, and was forced to scrub toilets before coming to Hollywood, she grew up to be one of the greatest stars of all time. Olivia confesses that in the peak of the Great Depression, when she first started out as an actress, Joan was the woman that every man wanted and that every woman wanted to be.

Next, she talks about Bette Davis, one of her close friends, and admits that she was the single greatest actress Hollywood has ever known. She explains that during the war, Bette played all the best roles, and played them with a ballsy intensity that no other actor would dare to attempt.

Olivia goes on to say that the two women only ever made one film together, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, but what happened during and after that movie was a feud of biblical proportions. The interviewer, Adam, then asks what was behind the feud and why the women hated each other so much, to which Olivia responds that feuds are never about hate, but rather about pain.

The Other Woman[]

Olivia joins her friend, Joan Blondell, for a joint interview for the documentary. She explains to Adam that she had no idea that Bette and Joan, both good friends of hers, were being so cruelly manipulated and pitted against each other by men in Hollywood. She admits that she was totally unaware of the feud between the two actresses until several years later, and she was furious when she found out.

Blondell comments that women didn't have any power back then, and that she and Olivia couldn't have done anything to mend the feud, and Olivia agrees, adding that this all happened before the modern women's liberation movement, which she so greatly admires. She compares the situation to the current events in 1978, telling Adam to imagine if the industry tried to pit Jane Fonda against Dyan Cannon. She explains that the women would certainly revolt, but Blondell disagrees, claiming that nothing has changed and that no matter what, women will always pick at each other when they're cornered.

Appearances[]

Bette and Joan (6/8)

Multimedia[]

Images[]

Videos[]

References[]

Navigation[]

Advertisement