The British actress known for her roles in Alfred Hitchcock's movies 'Rebecca' and 'Suspicion' passed away Sunday at her home in Carmel, Calif.
- Dec 16, 2013
AceShowbiz - Hollywood lost another of its best talent. While celebrities and filmmakers alike are still mourning the death of Peter O' Toole, sad news also comes from award-winning actress Joan Fontaine as she passed away Sunday, December 15.
Her assistant Susan Pfeiffer has confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter. The 96-year-old British star died at her home in Carmel, Calif. of natural causes, but details of her ilness are not available yet.
Throughout her career that spanned for almost six decades, Fontaine received three Academy Awards nominations and won one of them for her role in Alfred Hitchcock's movie "Suspicion". She also starred in Hitchcock's 1940 film "Rebecca" that earned her one of the Oscar nominations.
Fontaine defeated her own sister Olivia de Havilland, who now lives in Paris, to win the Oscar in 1942. The siblings never got along since childhood and eventually stopped speaking to each other in the mid-1970s.
She once shared how she wanted to die. "At age 108, flying around the stage in Peter Pan, as a result of my sister cutting the wires," she said. "Olivia has always said I was first at everything - I got married first, got an Academy Award first, had a child first. If I die, she'll be furious, because again I'll have got there first!"
Fontaine was married to actor Brian Aherne (1939-1945), TV producer William Dozier (1946-1951), producer Collier Young (1952-1961) and journalist Alfred Wright Jr. (1964-1969). She had two children from her four marriages, which all ended in divorce.
