a8 eZ su the washington post.monday, july 27 , 2020
with water levels reaching about
three feet above normal in ma-
tagorda Bay and 3.8 feet higher
than usual in Port Lavaca.
rainfall amounts have been
extreme, with radar estimatingin excess of 15 inches in a few
areas between Brownsville and
Port mansfield. (Amounts ex-
ceeding 20 inches aren’t out of
the question.) Numerous flash
flood warnings were in effectearly Sunday as torrential rain
bands pivoted through the re-
gion.
The city of mission, about
60 miles northwest of Browns-
ville in Hidalgo County, reportedBY MATTHEW CAPPUCCI,
JASON SAMENOW
AND ANDREW FREEDMANThe season’s first Atlantic hur-
ricane made landfall in South
Te xas on Saturday evening, un-
leashing strong winds, an inun-
dating storm surge and several
tornadoes after rapidly intensify-
ing early in the weekend. on
Sunday morning, Hanna contin-
ued its march southwest as a
tropical storm, slipping into mex-
ico while still lashing the rio
Grande Valley.
Hanna has unloaded more
than 15 inches of rain in parts of
South Texas, resulting in serious
flash flooding, and totals may
exceed 18 inches in some areas
before the rain ends.
The direct strike by Hanna
comes at a time when the Lone
Star State is grappling with a
spike in coronavirus cases. Coun-
ties in coastal South Te xas have
had some of the sharpest in -
creases in the state. The overlap-
ping pandemic and hurricane
complicated decisions about the
implementation and operation of
storm shelters and the response
of government agencies.
In Cameron County, which in-
cludes the city of Brownsville,
cumulative coronavirus cases in-
creased from 3,854 on July 12 to
7,846 on Saturday, according to
the Te xas Department of State
Health Services, rising by about
300 per day during that two-
week period. Hidalgo County,
which includes mcAllen, has the
third-highest total of covid- 19
fatalities in Te xas, with 456 as of
Saturday.
more than a quarter-million
people in the state were without
power Sunday morning, mostly
in the south, according to Power-
outage.us.
“Hurricane Hanna dealt a
heavy blow to our system,” tweet-
ed the magic Valley Electric Co-
operative, which serves far South
Te xas. “We are ready to rebuild
but cannot do so until it is safe for
many areas in the Valley. mem-
bers should be prepared for pro-
longed outages.”
The storm underwent a bout o f
rapid intensification into Satur-
day, strengthening into a high-
end Category 1 hurricane as it
drew near t he Te xas coast. Hanna
made landfall at 5 p.m. Saturday
on South Padre Island, with sus-
tained winds of 90 mph near its
eye.
At 2:06 p.m. Saturday, an off-
shore weather station at rincon
Del San Jose, Te x., reported a
wind gust to 103 mph, while
another east of Port mansfield
measured an 87 mph gust. The
strong winds helped propel a
storm surge toward the coast,“widespread flash flooding” and
was under a flash flood emergen-
cy early Sunday, the most severe
flood alert. Numerous water res-
cues were reported. A flash flood
emergency was also declared for
mcAllen, a city of about 145,000,
with the National Weather Ser-
vice in Brownsville instructing
residents of these areas to stay
home and off roadways.
“This is an extremely danger-
ous and life-threatening situa-
tion,” the National Weather Ser-
vice wrote. “Do not attempt to
travel unless you are fleeing an
area subject to flooding or under
an evacuation order.”
A local state of disaster was
declared in Hidalgo County
ahead of the storm, in anticipa-
tion of “catastrophic flooding.”
The National Weather Service
placed the region in a “high risk”
zone for excessive rainfall.
Conditions improved gradual-
ly over South Te xas late Sunday,
but meteorologists will again be
busy tracking a new threat gell-
ing over the tropical east Atlan-
tic. That tropical wave, located
about 1 ,000 miles west-south-
west of Cabo Verde, will probably
become Tropical Storm Isaias as
it churns west toward the Lesser
Antilles.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Hanna hammers South Texas, hit hard by coronavirus, with flooding rains
adRees LatiF/ReuteRs
an image from a drone shows residents surveying what’s left of their camper trailer in the aftermath of
Hurricane Hanna in Port Mansfield, Tex., where an 87 mph wind gust was reported.her mother married a prosper-
ous businessman and cruel dis-
ciplinarian named George fon-
taine. (Joan later took her step-
father’s surname for her movie
career.)
ms. de Havilland escaped
from family tensions through
acting. She won strong reviews
in community theater produc-
tions, which brought her to the
attention of reinhardt. She was
initially an understudy for the
role of Hermia at the Hollywood
Bowl but wound up playing the
part onstage.
Within a year, ms. de Havil-
land was starring opposite fly-
nn in the hit “Captain Blood.”
She developed a strong physical
attraction to flynn and said she
would repeatedly flub kissing
scenes so they would have to be
repeated. But she said they nev-
er consummated their relation-
ship. Among the reasons: His
ceaseless practical jokes, such as
hiding a rubber snake in her
pantaloon, turned her off.
Her marriages to novelist
marcus Goodrich and Paris
match magazine editor Pierre
Galante ended in divorce. A son
from the first marriage, Benja-
min Goodrich, died in 1991.
Survivors include a daughter
from the second marriage,
Gisèle Galante Chulack.
After settling in Paris in the
mid- 1950 s, ms. de Havilland
wrote a best-selling book of
essays about her adjustment to
french life, “Every frenchman
Has one” (1962), whose title
referred to a liver. She increas-
ingly withdrew from acting,
with two of her better late-
career roles in the Gothic thrill-
er genre.
In “ Lady in a Cage” ( 1964), she
played a wealthy invalid trapped
in her home elevator as strang-
ers violate her property. That
same year, she appeared in
“Hush... Hush, Sweet Char-
lotte” as an unexpectedly wicked
cousin to a suspected murderer,
played by Davis.
In 2017, ms. de Havilland
brought a defamation suit
against the fX Networks for
portraying her in the miniseries
“feud: Bette and Joan” — set in
the 1960 s — as a gossip who
stoked the rivalry between Davis
and actress Joan Crawford. ms.
de Havilland, who sought to
control her likeness, said the
filmmakers did not seek her
consent.
“A t this stage of my life and
career, I am in a unique position
to stand up and speak truth to
power — an action that would be
very difficult for a young actor to
undertake,” she told the New
York Times. A California appel-
late court ruled against her in
20 18, in what free-speech advo-
cates hailed as a victory. The
actress’s attorney said she would
appeal, but the U.S. Supreme
Court declined to review the
case.
Long into her retirement, ms.
de Havilland told an interviewer
that she was grateful for having
worked in the era she did. “If I
were a young actress today, I
wouldn’t go into the business,”
she said. “The only career that
would interest me is the kind
that meryl Streep is having. But
who else has that kind of career
anymore?”
[email protected]attributed to professional com-
petition that may have even
been stoked by their mother.
Both sisters were nominated
for the 1942 oscar — fontaine
for the Alfred Hitchcock film
“Suspicion” and ms. de Havil-
land for “Hold Back the Dawn,”
in which she played a shy Ameri-
can schoolteacher manipulated
by a Lothario. fontaine won,
and spats followed over movie
roles and the romantic attention
of powerful men such as billion-
aire Howard Hughes.
The sisters tenuously recon-
ciled over the years, but the
truces held for only so long.
Te llingly, fontaine later claimed
she was approached first to play
melanie Wilkes but was turned
down as too chic-looking for the
part. She said she then recom-
mended her older sister to pro-
ducer Selznick.
The break between sisters
became permanent after their
mother’s death in 1975, when
fontaine was initially not invit-
ed to the memorial service and
later gave a vinegary interview
to the Hollywood reporter.
“I married first, won the os-
car before olivia did, and if I die
first, she’ll undoubtedly be livid
because I beat her to it!” she
said. (fontaine died in 20 13, at
96.)escaping to the stage
olivia mary de Havilland was
born in To kyo on July 1, 1916, to
British parents. Her father head-
ed a patent law firm. Her mother
was a choral singer and actress
in amateur stage shows for the
Anglican community.
Her parents divorced, and her
mother moved to California, tak-
ing olivia and Joan. They s ettled
in Saratoga, near San Jose, andticularly fruitful phase of her
career as a freelancer. She won a
best actress oscar for playing a
self-sacrificing, unwed mother
in the soapy drama “To Each His
own” (1946) and won again
three years later for portraying a
social wallflower belittled by her
wealthy father (ralph richard-
son) and pursued by a hand-
some gold digger (montgomery
Clift) in “The Heiress” (1949).
ms. de Havilland was also
nominated for a best actress
oscar for “The Snake Pit”
(1948), playing an inmate of a
mental institution. The drama
was a landmark in its portrayal
of mental illness, and she won a
New York film Critics Award for
best actress.
Even in less groundbreaking
fare, ms. de Havilland was ad-
mired for the nimbleness of her
performances. She played iden-
tical twins, one of whom is a
killer, in the thriller “The Dark
mirror” (1946). reviewer James
Agee found her performance
“thoughtful, quiet, detailed and
well-sustained.”
In addition to her acting
career, ms. de Havilland became
known for her rift with fon-
taine, one of the longest sibling
rivalries and feuds in the film
colony. The roots of the es-
trangement were never made
public, but at times it wasthree years before filing her suit.
In what became a 1945 land-
mark contract ruling known as
“the de Havilland decision,” her
attorneys used California anti-
peonage statutes to support the
actress’s case that a seven-year
contract was limited to seven
calendar years rather than time
spent working. That was an
important distinction at a time
when studios routinely sus-
pended performers and did not
count that suspension period as
time under contract.
At the trial, ms. de Havilland
dressed in a simple black suit
and, on her attorney’s advice,
spoke demurely so as not to
come off like a spoiled movie
star; Davis had been clobbered
in the press for likening her
lucrative contract, amid the De-
pression, to slavery. When the
Warner Bros. lawyer asked ms.
de Havilland whether she “will-
fully refused” certain roles, she
calmly responded, “I declined.”
The Supreme C ourt of Califor-
nia chose not to review two
lower court rulings in ms. de
Havilland’s favor, and the result
was considered a key moment in
the eventual collapse of the
all-powerful studio system that
built up stars and controlled all
aspects of their lives.
Her court battles behind her,
ms. de Havilland entered a par-coveted the role of melanie be-
cause she felt that, as a driven
career woman who put herself
before others, she understood
Scarlett all too well. She saw
melanie as a greater challenge,
vastly more complex in her “deep
femininity” and endless well of
self-sacrifice.
Jack Warner initially refused
to lend her to Selznick. out of
what ms. de Havilland later
called an act of youthful despera-
tion, she lobbied the mogul’s wife
over tea at the Brown Derby
restaurant. Ann Warner, a for-
mer actress who understood
struggle and ambition, persuad-
ed her husband to allow her to
take the role.
for “Gone With the Wind,” ms.
de Havilland received an oscar
nomination for best supporting
actress but lost to Hattie mcDan-
iel, who played the slave mammy
in the film. Though Leigh won
the oscar for best actress, critic
and filmmaker Pare Lorentz,
writing in mcCall’s magazine,
described ms. de Havilland as
almost having stolen the movie
from its star with a performance
that was “mature, charming and
flawless.”Bucking the studio system
Like the outspoken and
strong-willed Warner Bros. ac-
tress Bette Davis, ms. de Havil-
land was suspended for refusing
roles she deemed unworthy of
her skills. In the late 1930 s,
Davis lost a lawsuit challenging
the studio strictures but
reached an agreement for better
roles. ms. de Havilland re-
mained determined to break the
studio’s strong-arm techniques.
“There’s too much of the fac-
tory attitude around a studio,”
she told an interviewer in 1940,odds with her diminutive stature
and soft-spoken screen image.
Her 1940 s lawsuit against
Warner Bros., her home studio,
changed the course of her career
and that of countless others long
at the mercy of film executives,
who held nearly all the power in
long-term contracts. It was a
remarkable legacy by any mea-
sure, all the more so when some
of the same Hollywood powers
she had bested allowed her to
shift more consistently from
painted-doll roles to acclaimed
dramatic fare.
After the lawsuit was resolved,
ms. de Havilland was praised by
the Screen Actors Guild for her
historic contribution to the pro-
fession. Decades later, she sur-
prised many by appearing at a
dinner honoring her old adver-
sary, studio chief Jack L. Warner.
“When I learned that I was
invited to attend this dinner at
which Jack Warner was to re-
ceive a humanitarian award, I
decided to accept,” she said,
adding a flash of pointed hu-
mor: “I’m all for encouraging
humanitarianism, especially in
Jack.”
ms. de Havilland’s ascent to
stardom came at whiplash-
inducing speed. She was 18 when
she was plucked from obscurity
to play Hermia in theater impre-
sario max reinhardt’s celebrated
1934 Hollywood Bowl produc-
tion of “A midsummer Night’s
Dream.” reinhardt also cast her
in the 1935 film version of the
Shakespeare fantasy, which
starred James Cagney and mick-
ey rooney.
She signed a long-term con-
tract with Warner Bros., the
studio making the film, and
began her rise as a dewy-eyed
ingénue in swashbuckling ac-
tion films co-starring Errol
f lynn.
ms. de Havilland was paired
nine times w ith flynn, n otably in
“Captain Blood” as a haughty
aristocrat attracted to a rebel-
lious pirate, “The Adventures of
robin Hood” as maid marian,
and “The Charge of the Light
Brigade” (1936) as the love inter-
est of two British lancers in
India.
She felt confined by the cast-
ing d ecisions a nd yearned to play
more complicated characters. “I
had no real opportunity to devel-
op and to explore difficult roles,”
she told the American Academy
of Achievement in 200 6, “and
that was tiresome.”
In 1938, she got a call from
independent producer David o.
Selznick, who was preparing to
make “Gone With the Wind,” a
Civil War epic based on margaret
mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning
novel that has drawn renewed
scrutiny recently because it
glosses over the horrors of slav-
ery and offers a racist depiction
of African Americans.
meeting with Selznick secret-
ly, ms. de Havilland tested for the
role of the modest and virtuous
melanie Hamilton. It was not the
starring role — that would be the
monumentally self-absorbed
Scarlett o’Hara, played by Eng-
lish actress Vivien Leigh. But
melanie was a pivotal character
who marries Scarlett’s first love,
Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard).
ms. de Havilland said she
de HaViLLand from a
Olivia de Havilland 1916 - 2020
Oscar winner helped change studios’ treatment of actors
associated PRess
“ Gone With the Wind” s tars Olivia de Havilland, left, a nd Vivien Leigh are joined by investor Jock Whitney and Laurence Olivier at the
film’s Hollywood premiere o n Jan. 5, 194 0. Ms. de Havilland received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Melanie Hamilton.“At this stage of my life and career, I am in a
unique position to stand up and speak truth to
power — an action that would be very difficult
f or a young actor to undertake.”
Olivia de Havilland, on her 2017 defamation suit against FX Networks