"India Wilkes" from GWTW has died at 98

[Linda Anderson]

"Actress Alicia Rhett, who was the oldest surviving cast member of the classic 1939 film "Gone With The Wind", died in South Carolina on Friday, officials at her retirement community said. She was 98...

"Other surviving cast members from "Gone With The Wind" are 97-year-old Olivia de Havilland who played Melanie Hamilton, Ashley Wilkes' cousin and wife; 93-year-old Mary Anderson, who played Maybelle Merriweather; and 81-year-old Mickey Kuhn, who played Beau Wilkes, Bishop Gadsden said."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainm...0693.story

Also, Juanita Moore, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a African-American maid whose daughter passes for white in "Imitation of Life," has died at 99. "'If by accident we should pass in the street,' the daughter, played by Susan Kohner, tells her, 'please don’t recognize me.'”

I saw that movie when I was very young and I will never forget my mother weeping at the end of it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/arts/j...aries&_r=0

[MaddieM]

(01-04-2014 02:50 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  "Actress Alicia Rhett, who was the oldest surviving cast member of the classic 1939 film "Gone With The Wind", died in South Carolina on Friday, officials at her retirement community said. She was 98...

"Other surviving cast members from "Gone With The Wind" are 97-year-old Olivia de Havilland who played Melanie Hamilton, Ashley Wilkes' cousin and wife; 93-year-old Mary Anderson, who played Maybelle Merriweather; and 81-year-old Mickey Kuhn, who played Beau Wilkes, Bishop Gadsden said."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainm...0693.story

Also, Juanita Moore, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a African-American maid whose daughter passes for white in "Imitation of Life," has died at 99. "'If by accident we should pass in the street,' the daughter, played by Susan Kohner, tells her, 'please don’t recognize me.'”

I saw that movie when I was very young and I will never forget my mother weeping at the end of it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/arts/j...aries&_r=0

I love GWTW. Everyone in it was spectacular and so in character.

[BettyO]

I'm so sorry to see that another of that grand cast has gone.

Alicia Rhett was a phenomenal lady. Not only a really good actress but a great artist as well. It was said that she sketched her co-stars on the set of GWTW....

She was really too pretty to play India Wilkes - whom Margaret Mitchell portrayed in her book as being "exceedingly plain with the pale lash-less look of a rabbit."

I love that phrase - it reminds me to always wear mascara - red eyelashes - YUK!!

GWTW is also my favorite movie -

[Linda Anderson]

(01-04-2014 06:56 PM)BettyO Wrote:  She was really too pretty to play India Wilkes - whom Margaret Mitchell portrayed in her book as being "exceedingly plain with the pale lash-less look of a rabbit."

I agree, Betty. For that matter, Vivian Leigh was too beautiful to play Scarlett, although, of course, she was perfect for the part.

The first line of GWTW reads:

"Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were."

[L Verge]

That description of Scarlett caught my attention a few years ago and reminded me of historians' comments on Lucy Lambert Hale.

[Jim Garrett]

Back in the 1970's there was a great movie house in Georgetown. The Biograph ran classics and about 1975, it had GWTW. During the intermission, much to everyone surprise, they had Butterfly McQueen, (Prissy). She talked about making the film, her charactor and her co-stars. She was absolutely a delight and still had that high pitched never to be forgotten voice.

[L Verge]

I wish I had known that. I love Prissy! Her "I don't know nothing about birthing no babies..." line has almost become a standard part of my language when I want to get out of doing something I don't want to do.

[Thomas Thorne]

GWTW Producer David O. Selznick sent a talent scout through the South to discover would be Scarletts and Melanies. Alicia Rhett was the only actress he found who wound up in the film.

The movements of the talent scout received widespread coverage in the local press. Whenever he arrived at a new city,he received royal treatment. It is said that some of the young ladies were so eager to play Scarlett, they "engaged in more intimate forms of Southern hospitality."

We can only guess if the talent scout was the villain or victim of the affair.
Tom

[Linda Anderson]

(01-05-2014 01:45 AM)Thomas Thorne Wrote:  GWTW Producer David O. Selznick sent a talent scout through the South to discover would be Scarletts and Melanies. Alicia Rhett was the only actress he found who wound up in the film.

The movements of the talent scout received widespread coverage in the local press. Whenever he arrived at a new city,he received royal treatment. It is said that some of the young ladies were so eager to play Scarlett, they "engaged in more intimate forms of Southern hospitality."

We can only guess if the talent scout was the villain or victim of the affair.
Tom

I think it is the casting couch mentality that is the true villain here.

[BettyO]

Agreed, Linda!

[Eva Elisabeth]

(01-04-2014 10:50 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I wish I had known that. I love Prissy! Her "I don't know nothing about birthing no babies..." line has almost become a standard part of my language when I want to get out of doing something I don't want to do.

Mine is: "After all... tomorrow is another day ."

My mother often told me how much she could relate to Scarlett O'Hara saying: "As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again." When she and my grandmother fled from East Prussia at the end of the war, they had lived in a fenced refugee camp in Denmark for two years. In this time they had only little to eat, mainly bread the Danish gave them (once a week with one spoonful of jam, for which they had to queue for hours), fish they caught in a lake in that camp, some mushrooms, berries, and potatoes. Sometimes Danish civilians brought some food, too. After that time, and throughout her life, she said, she swore exactly the same to herself like Scarlett O'Hara did - I'll never be hungry again.