Happy 100th Birthday Olivia de Havilland: A Photo Celebration

For film lovers, the image of a fresh-faced Olivia de Havilland, then just 22, as the demure and intrinsically good Melanie Hamilton in 1939 film Gone with the Wind is one that will last a lifetime.

Gone With the Wind is, of course, still one of the most beloved movies of all-time and, adjusted for inflation, the top grossing Hollywood movie—beating the likes of Star Wars and Titanic .

The film's lasting legacy is equalled only by de Havilland's own legacy: she becomes one of the rare stars of a bygone studio era to make it to the age of 100. The actor joins an exclusive club of Hollywood centenarians that includes Norman Lloyd, a regular collaborator of Alfred Hitchcock who turned 100 in 2014.

In addition to Gone With the Wind, de Havilland's enduring film career saw her earn two Oscars for Best Actress. Her first came post-wartime in 1946 for To Each His Own, about an unwed mother who gives her child up for adoption. Her second Oscar came in 1949 for The Heiress, in which she played a naive young woman who falls in love with a charming man, despite the protestations of her wealthy father who fears he is out for her money.

The elder sister of actor Joan Fontaine, de Havilland also fought the strict movie studio system in old Hollywood—effecting change that is still felt today. After Warner Bros. tried to tack on six more months to the end of her exclusive seven-year contract with the studio, citing suspensions during periods where she rejected proposed roles, she sued under California labor law. The court ruled in her favor and to this day performers may not be contracted for more than seven years.

Happy 100th birthday, Olivia de Havilland.