Los Angeles : Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine, one of the last of the leading ladies from Hollywood’s Golden Age whose career was marked by a storied and bitter rivalry with her older sister, Olivia de Havilland, died on December 15 at age 96.
Fontaine died in her sleep in the morning at her home in Carmel, California, after having been in failing health in recent days, said Noel Beutel, a longtime friend of the actress.
Among Fontaine’s most memorable films in a Hollywood career spanning four decades and some four dozen films was the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Suspicion, co-starring Cary Grant, for which she won an Academy Award in 1942, beating out her sister in the competition.
The honour gave Fontaine the distinction of being the only performer, actor or actress, ever to win an Academy Award for a starring role in one of Hitchcock’s many movies.
Fontaine also earned Oscar nominations for her star turns in Hitchcock’s 1940 American debut, Rebecca and the 1943 romantic drama The Constant Nymph.
Fontaine appeared mousy and innocent in her early movies but later carefully selected her roles and went on to play worldly, sophisticated women in such films as Born to be Bad and Tender is the Night. Reuters :
