Joan Fontaine was class personified. So intelligent, bright and witty- she could talk to Kings or the fellow collecting the rubbish at the end of her driveway. She lead an absolutely perfect life in Carmel, in an elegant yet unpretentious house, filled with her beloved dogs. Leaving the lion’s share of her estate to animal rescue- doesn’t get better than that.

She was gracious to me and every single time I wrote a "fan" letter I received a personal signed photograph I received the last one for my Niece two weeks before she died right up till the end like Crawford she was signing away ...they don't make them like these wonderful women anymore!

As a young actress, Joan Fontaine always played such drippy characters, so I'm amazed to see what a strong, self assured, impressive woman she actually was. She was at the mercy of her times and the expectations of actresses back in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Off screen, she had a very colourful life, she started her own movie production company with her husband in the 40s which was very rare, held a pilots licence, married and divorced four times, and fought a bitter custody battle over her only biological child. She also adopted an impoverished child she met in Peru, though when she turned 16 and refused to fly back to Peru to visit her parents, as Joan had promised them she would when she adopted her, they became estranged. Born in 1917, she was 60 when she gave this interview. She died in her sleep on December 15, 2013 aged 96. Her sister Olivia de Havilland is still alive at time of writing, aged 104.

Good Lord, she is as tough as nails. But somehow I like her. She is about as honest as anyone ever interviewed. Her toughness makes me appreciate the tremendous vulernable characters she created on screen.

A good lady of wise intelligence,good sense and integrity. This is a real movie star,and a woman who has her priorities in the right place!.....It is such a pleasure to listen to her perspective!

Such a delightful interview. Joan Fontaine was a thoroughly intelligent and charming person. Her interviewer here, Jeanne Wolf, was a wonderfully warm person without being a sychophant in any way. I enjoyed it all immensely.

This was a FABULOUS interview. Thank you so much for posting this!

Joan was a very gorgeous, smart, talented and witty lady. She was very beautiful and famous in the 40s and maintained her elegance and grace for decades until she passed away in Dec13. She was famous for her roles in Rebecca, Suspicion, Jane Ayre, the Constant Nymph and Letter from an Unknown Woman. In my opinion she was also excellent in Ivy, From This Day Forward, This Above All and The Affairs of Susan. RIP Joan, thank you for your great performances in movies.

What a strength of Personality 👏👏👏

Fontaine is delightful. Smart, spirited, beautifully educated and wise. How she puts up with gushy, dopey little interviewers like this one is a tribute to her class.

Joan was Magnificent. RIP

Joan looks more like her sister Ollivia now and has alot of her mannerisms.its uncanny. When they were young, they didn't resemble eachother at all. Now I see Olivia in Joan , it's amazing. Joan has alot of insight, on her and her sisters relationship. Good things they never print, only the bad. I love when she said : You can't do just any old thing, because someone tells you to. You have to be your own person, and have a mind of your own ! Smart ,smart lady and about. Writers, and why there aren't many, good writers out there anymore. Children are put in front of a television, and aren't encouraged to use their creativity. To color, draw, or to use their imagination. Thus not many good writers anymore. She attributes her balance of her career and success to the wonderful parents she had. Parents are so important, in shaping their children lives. Something that most parents today, neglect to understand !: Wow, so very true. . A great interview with one of the best actresses of Hollywood.

Great, Alan, thank you.

Today would have been Joan's 105th Birthday ... October 22 1917 - December 15 2013 I always thought that Joan and Olivia didn't look alike until I saw them in a Picture together ... Then you see all the similarities ... Although Joan had a long Career in Film and TV ... She was Unbeatable as an Ingenue ... I wish that She had made 100 Movies between 1937 and 1947 ... She was Very good throughout her Entire Career ... but there was something Very Very Special about her during those Early years ... You were Drawn Right In ... I have Rebecca (1940) tied with two other movies for the Best Movie Ever ... And Suspicion (1941) is in my Top Five Movies ... In these two movies she costarred with two of Hollywood's biggest stars, Laurence Olivier (May 22 1907 - July 11 1989) and Cary Grant (January 18 1904 - November 29 1986) ... Yet both Movies were Hers ... Olivier and Grant were Subordinate Players ... How unusual (!) ... A few of her Biggest Movies are listed below: The Man Who Found Himself (1937) ** Damsel In Distress (1937) * Maid's Night Out (1938) ** The Women (1939) Gunga Din (1939) Rebecca (1940) ** Suspicion (1941) ** The Constant Nymph (1943) * Jane Eyre (1943) ** Ivy (1947) * Born To Be Bad (1950) * Ivanhoe (1952) * The Bigamist (1953) * Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (1956) * Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea (1961) The Witches (1966) * * Personal Favorite ** Personal Favorite + So Happy Birthday Joan Fontaine ... You Live Forever (!) ... Great Video (!) ... Thanks for posting (!) ... October 22 2022 (2255 hrs)

Interesting on different levels. Thank you.

OK now ... Everybody at once ... Happy Birthday To You Happy Birthday To You Happy Birthday Dear Joan Happy Birthday To You ... Joan Fontaine: October 22 1917 - December 15 2013 October 22 2021 (2151 hrs)

A CLASS act!

Fascinating. Miss Fontaine is very interesting to listen to and dispel myths without being bitter, Jeanne reminds me of Stephanie Powers looks wise.

The nec plus ultra ART of conversation.

Class act ,madonna take note ,where have women like that gone

Marvelous conversation ✨✨✨

Really like her.

Thanks for the great upload!!! I've always preferred Joan to Olivia.... Olivia always came across as pretentious and snobby.... While Joan was more down to earth and real....

She had what most women don’t have nowadays,CLASS.

Joan Fontaine and her older sister Olivia de Havilland are English by birth. Their mother Lilian was furious when Joan decided to follow in her Olivia's footsteps, and become an actress. She forbade her from using the family name, and that's why she instead took the name Fontaine, which was her mother's name from her second marriage to department store manager George Fontaine. It's said their mother always favoured Olivia, and this was the cause of the lifelong rift between the two sisters. Lilian had herself harboured acting ambitions from a young age. She trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and gave up a stage career to marry Joan and Olivia's father Walter de Havilland. The marriage ended when Joan was just 2 years old, after Lilian discovered Walter had been using the sexual services of geishas in Japan, where he was an English professor at the Imperial University. Lilian moved with the girls to America, and they assumed dual British and American citizenship. Joan and Olivia have the distinction of being the only siblings to win major acting Oscars. In the 1940s after her daughters had achieved movie stardom, Lilian returned to acting and won roles in several major pictures including Billy Wilder's 'The Lost Weekend' in 1945. Joan Fontaine died in 2013 aged 96, and at time of writing Olivia de Havilland is still alive aged 104. Those ladies were blessed with amazing genes!

Kaylon Centers, you are spot on. I definitely think Olivia was the "villain of the piece."

“Virgil Thompson once said to me… John Houston introduced us…” OMG

Joan Fontaine is a goddess

Tan linda Joan Fontaine.

She would be perfect for hollywood today

STAR! FANTASTIC!!!

this is a very good interview, she was a very strong woman 11:30 Norma Shearer-Thaulberg mention! 15:51 interesting

Gracious lady

I don't know whether male actors were almost ashamed of being actors, as I think Joan said, but women on the stage, in films are or were much more expressive. As a gay I normally have an eye for beautiful men but in those live arts my attention was fixed on the women. I look at Margot Fonteyn more even than at Nureyev. Robert Taylor was an accompaniment to Greta Garbo. Even in "Some Like it Hot", as well as Curtis and Lemmon did their character parts the central focus of the film was Marilyn Monroe: the comedy is good but she represents the essence of the film.. John Barrymore was an exceptionally good match for Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel: he was the pefectly courteous, in tune, bringer out of her cinematic symphony with her changing facial expressions and movements. In certain moments Gary Cooper and Montgomery Clift had something of the feminine expression without being effeminate.

Interviewer needs to stop constantly interrupting Joan.

I LOVED JOAN FONTANE IN REBECCA A PRECIOUS SHY LADY WHO WORKED FOR A WHATEVER. SHE MADE HERSELF A BIGGER STAR TO ME IN REBECCA.

I just created the first and only Facebook page that honors both Joan and Olivia. It is "Together At Last" ~ The Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine Fan Page. Come join us!

This is good.I am just 2 minutes into the beginning of this interview & its going to be interesting to see if by the conclusion, I will have the same sense/belief of what/whom I have believed Joan Fontaine to be. I'm already questioning my prior perceptions because she is sounding a bit phony. She is quite guarded & possibly I'm mistaking that cautiousness as being scripted & insincere ....idk.....I have previously thought Joan to be the more natural down to earth of the sisters while olivia came off more pretentious. I am about to see if that perception will still be what I hold as accurate .

Love Joan Fontine...not a fan of this interviewer. I think late '70's was when the American celebrity interviewer started inputting too much of their own opinions sense of self importance into an interview. That sadly hasn't changed. We just want to hear from the star...dammit.

Both she and her sister both So dramatic very similar. No wonder they didnt get along. Sad

I love this interview - I also love Joan - KZfaq my name Steven Mullard see my connection with Joan

Joan did horror, too. She even sank her own money into the movie and when it failed, she basically gave up. The Witches (aka The Devil's Own.) So she's putting down a trend into which she tried to take part, but no one came to see the movie...

I think Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave were also nominated for best actress in 1967, although they both lost.

Love both, but I have a special affection for Joan, I admire the strong woman she was all her life and how she must had suffered for it. I think Olivia should have gone to the psychologist. It was not Joan's fault. I believe Joan tried to get close to Olivia, but she did not allow it. they could have gotten over it together, a joint therapy should have been done as well. Their mother always showed that Olivia was her favorite daughter and I believe that Joan tried to prove to her mother and sister that she could be a good actress like her sister, since her mother was an unsuccessful actress for having abdicated her career to get married. Lilian (their mother) forbade Joan to use her sister's last name, so Joan had to use her stepfather's last name. This rivalry from when they were small was jostling when they grew up, as the disputes became more complex, including Joan the fact that Joan had married an ex-boyfriend of Olivia, and both were in love with Errol Flynn. I love Joan! Beautiful and elegant lady. I believe that, analyzing her life, her behavior, and that of her sister Olivia, Joan was extremely deprived of the love and attention she longed for from her mother and sister her whole life. She always tries to demonstrate a certainty and a bit of irony when asked about her rivalry with Olivia. Her mother's declared preference for Olivia has affected her deeply, though she has always tried to hide it, but by analyzing her expressions when she speaks about her sister and mother, we can clearly see that. She tries to show a security to protect herself from the psychologist violence she suffered since her childhood. In fact, she was a very lonely person, surrounded by many people, but she was deprived, both by herself and the other relatives, of a coexistence of confidence, trust and love. I read her autobiography, read dozens of articles about her, interviews, etc. I already had a very big sympathy for Joan and I have a special affection for her, but in these last weeks, made me fall in love with the person she was definitely. I found an article, where her private secretary and great friend Susan Pfeiffer, clarified several points of Joan's life that is wrongly spoken. She wanted to clarify these speculations for decades. Here’s the full article: EVERYONE WHO MET HER FELL IN LOVE WITH HER:” A Letter From Susan, the Secretary of Joan Fontaine Posted on February 22, 2014 | Upon checking my inbox earlier today, I found that I had received a letter from Susan Pfeiffer, secretary and beloved friend to Joan Fontaine. Susan and I have been in touch several times-last October when I conducted a written interview with Joan, it was Susan who helped with the correspondence and was an integral part of the interview coming to fruition. And when Joan passed away this past December, we were in touch again. Susan was a very important part of Joan’s life during her last decade. She knew her perhaps better than anyone over these past few years, and in her letter to me today, she asked to clarify some things she has heard over the years about Joan, her life, her legend, and her character. I have long been protective of Joan, as I feel that she was terribly misunderstood by many people. A progressive thinker and very sensitive to the plight of animals, she was ahead of her time in many ways, in ways inconceivable to most of her generation. In her letter, Susan opened up to me about some of the misconceptions that she often comes across regarding Joan and her life. I am deeply humbled that Susan chose Backlots for this honor. Joan spent her final years in quietude (she had no computer and no presence on the internet, as has been incorrectly reported), in a beautiful house in Carmel overlooking the Pacific Ocean. When she passed away on December 15, there was some talk that she was cremated and her ashes were scattered on the Pacific Ocean close to her home. Susan would like our readers to know that this is not true-though Susan did not disclose Joan’s true final resting place, she would like us to know that Joan’s ashes were not scattered in the Pacific. There were countless places very special to Joan-she was a woman who loved deeply and became attached to many people, places, and things. Susan describes her as “one of the kindest, loving women I have ever met.” Joan had two daughters, Deborah (born in 1948) and Martita (a daughter born in Peru in 1946 who came to live with Joan in 1951). In her teens, Martita went through some problems and there was a rift between them. Joan discussed this in her autobiography and as she was a private person who didn’t talk much about her private life, people assumed that the rift remained and Martita and Joan never made up. But, Susan tells us, that rift healed, and healed well. Martita and Joan were close as adults, and Martita came to Joan’s home in Carmel for a visit during Susan’s years with her. She was close to both of her daughters-Deborah and Martita both sent flowers and cards for birthdays and holidays, and they talked often on the phone. Susan tells us: “Joan saved all the cards and letters sent by both Martita and Deborah. They meant a lot to her. She loved both of her girls.” Playing with her daughters, circa 1955. Perhaps the most discussed part of Joan’s life was her relationship with her sister, Olivia de Havilland. As with many siblings, their relationship was one of very serious ups and downs. At the time of Joan’s death, she and Olivia had not spoken for a long time. Joan is often maligned for this, and Susan tells of countless letters from fans advising Joan to “mend fences” with Olivia, and chastising her for not attending the ceremony when Olivia was awarded the Legion d’Honneur (Joan never received an invitation and didn’t learn of the event until after the fact). However, Susan wants to make it very clear that Joan had no hard feelings toward her sister and that she “never saw any animosity toward Olivia.” Susan tells me that Joan was once approached about the possibility of an on-air interview with her and Olivia together, and Joan agreed to it. Unfortunately, the interview never came to pass and the sisters never had the opportunity to come face to face again. In addition, Susan recalls speaking with Joan about a rumor regarding her and Errol Flynn being lovers. Errol and Joan were friends/acquaintances, writes Susan, but never lovers. Susan also wishes to clear up a rumor about Joan and Howard Hughes. “Joan never had an affair with Howard Hughes,” she writes. “She was not attracted to him.” This is also corroborated in Joan’s autobiography, in which she relates that Howard Hughes made several passes at her, but she was never interested. Closing her letter, Susan gives us one final, beautiful insight into Joan Fontaine, the person: “She cared about everyone, and everyone who met her, fell in love with her. She was very special and will be greatly missed.” A true testament to a gentle, caring soul. Thank you to Susan Pfeiffer for these wonderful insights into a woman who truly is greatly missed.”

This interview couldn't have been in 77 as the Canon episode she appeared in was 1975

Jeanne wolf is fascinating to me. Is it me or is her camera presence mimicking an alien abduction? I’m curious if she was trained to have that kind of presence.

She should have played Aunt Beru in Star Wars.

As regards rivalry ha frivalry by all who focus on the natural condition wiv or wivout encouragement of the mother. It's not important. Ther work n who THEYr is.

another post material 'time to change thinking series what do we mean by being single' in fact whether you are with somebody in long short one night one week few nights few days intimate relationships everything boils down to one thing only that in all that so called togetherness every single human being crave to be alone with themselves for sometimes , it is a fact so either way if you are in relationships and if they are balanced warm give and take you will understand if you both are not glued to hip mentality and have 'alone me time' periodically and be reconnected at intervals rest even in most traditional feudal societies couple eventually distance themselves from each other under the same roof having nothing more to say to each other and eventually that relationships die with their deaths...

Jane Eyre

Is it just me or is this one came complimenting her sister or is she throwing shade.

زیر نویس فارسی بزارین

I like both sisters, but I prefer Joan I think her movies are better and I prefer her blonde to Olivia's dark

What a TREAT!!!

They fucked up that movie by not making Maxim kill Rebecca. It wasn't convincing.

They loathed each other of course they never said that but my god listen to this interview that’s what’s she’s saying 😂

bduhe219, l totally agree with you. Both ladies could sometimes across as affected, but Olivia is SO phony, and prone to overact. l do not think either of her Oscars was the best performance of its year by any stretch. l remain convinced that Olivia was the abusive one.

Joan does not value motherhood and parenting and then says she was made by her 3 parents. Which is it Joan?

It's curious how nearly all the comments r frm MEN haha

Well that interview for the most part was disappointing. I say that because i was hoping by the end to have a better handle on Joan, the person and WHO she IS. Instead though --- what I feel we were given was a very well thought out picture or image...,,I guess what I took away from it was what Joan WANTED TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM IT .....in other words she was merely playing a role. She is a good actress there is no doubt about that but not what youre hoping to get from an interview. I believe the questions to be discussed and approved of prior to the show. Joan Fontaine most certainly having prepared herself well to carry off AND leave viewers with the poised very well adjusted person......the ' good sister' that she carefully crafted for this interview......Im sorry but this wasnt an honest or very real representation ....And she left me cold. This was just junk ....very scripted and although i didnt see the real Joan .....it WAS insightful yet in a way because of the fact she manipulated this to be an interview to further her --- illuminating her as such a sophisticated APPEALING woman, is telling in itself. There are ALWAYS two sides to every story and i DO feel that she was giving a factual account of their early rivalry being initiated by parents but through the years Joan contributed her part in the sibling conflicts although she seems reluctant to ever speak candidly......in fact she always cut others off abruptly when being inquired of the rivalry ....Its only when she can be prepared that she will speak about it and it was very apparent to me in this show that she was playing from that prepared place. So .....whatever this was just a big fail in my book

Both sisters were great, though Joan Fontaine forgets she did her own share of hag horror, remember "The Witches" ? A terrible movie! lol And by the way Olivia was an established Hollywood star way before Miss Fontaine came trailing behind. It's so silly of her to try to make it seem as though she was responsible for her sister's Gone with the Wind casting. How ridiculously vain of her! Hah! David O. Seznick begged and pleaded to get Warner Bros to loan de Havilland to play "Melanie" . What self-absorbed audacity of her to claim it was her feat! Hah! I can see now why Olivia had intolerance to such a sister.

she almost has a british accent

The woman interviewing Joan is so irritating. She's so pretentious...but tacky. Joan seems uncomfortable. Classy lady but in this interview she seems embittered. Bad interview almost unwatchable

Joan starred in a horror movie called "The Devil's Own" about witches. She puts older women in horror movies down in this interview but she starred in one. The interviewer is so plastic and hairsprayed. Joan blends into that weird chair 😂 She was great in Rebecca but she's uncomfortable to watch in this interview. Very affected

Olivia de Havilland always came across as so phony, her speech overly-measured and pretentious. Joan radiated intelligence and always had a certain appealing roguishness.

do u think this woman is in love with herself. do u think she has ever done anything for a poor person.