Why Olivia de Havilland Had the Most Notorious Sibling Rivalry in Hollywood?
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- Опубліковано 16 гру 2020
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📍 Putting aside more than 90 years of rivalry, one of Hollywood’s most infamous confrontations, actress Olivia de Havilland and her sister Joan Fontaine's rivalry. Joan Fontaine lived in the shadow of her sister in Hollywood for a long time: she starred in Category B movies while her sister played Marian.
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I’ve read Fontaine’s autobiography. She didn’t change her name to distance herself from Olivia. Her mother forbid her to use the de Havilland name bc there was only room for one de Havilland in Hollywood. Their mother it seems encouraged their feud.
Olivia was experiencing her first successes in Hollywood at the time Joan went into Hollywood, that's why their mom asked Joan to take the stage name. The family thought Joan would be a flop, which she initially was and they thought it would damage Olivia's brand. The mother was wise to do what she did in this instance. Fortunately for Fontaine, scoring the role in Rebecca catapulted her to international fame. While both were talented, skilled, intelligent actresses, I find Joan's life and career to be far more remarkable for the sheer number of obstacles she cleared in order to have an illustrious career.
In the last 20 minutes following Joan Fontaine's story on UA-cam, this guy's is the third story of why she changed her name.
@@travelseatsyellowlab Lilian Fontaine didn't "ask" Joan not to use the de Havilland name, she TOLD her not to...and neither Olivia nor Joan disobeyed their mother. Also, Joan never snubbed Olivia at the 41 Oscars. They were sitting across from one another!
Well that's sad if the mother fueled the issues!
I want to read that autobiography now. Thanks.
And parents wonder why they're the main topic at therapy sessions.
This is so sad. Parents putting siblings through rivalry and favoristism is so sad...🤦🏾♀️
It's kind of sick and evil ... isn't it ?
Olivia might have said, "The best revenge is living longer and giving the last interview." Both extremely talented and successful.
Dang 😬
They both sure lived to ripe old ages. Joan died in 2013 at 96 and Olivia died in 2020, age 104.
Their parents also lived very long lives, dying at the ages of 95 and 88.
Seems like Olivia made sure to outlive her sister & boy , by 8 years! I’m sure she was very happy in doing so. It’s also sad that it seems like their mother instilled in them a fierce sibling competition.
Get rid of the background music which is annoying!
I think if they’d come together as sisters and strong women in the industry, they could have been unstoppable.
Would have loved to see them both in a movie together
I so Agree! What a waste this feud was
It's awful the amount of damage mother's can do between siblings. It's extremely narcissistic and gives them a sense of importance as the kids vie for attention. But the damage can last a lifetime.
Spot on!!!👍🤔
Too bad I was the only daughter. A casting agent reached out to me at 12 and my narcissistic mother was not having it.
And some are just very controlling beyond decency.
@@cinnasharon980 Sad but so true!!!😥
@@miacoleman530 You never know ... it's actually possible that your mother could have saved you from the horrors of being a Hollywood child actor because look at how many of them were abused and ended up tragically .
It's possible she may have been trying to protect you .
Olivia de Havilland was one of the most stunningly beautiful Hollywood actresses. Even in old age, she kept her beauty.😊
Absolutely....she was so beautiful, and it showed. She was lovely inside and out.
From what I read about her, it was said that she was one of the most kind and humble actors.
I’m a straight dude and a big fan of Olivia de Havilland. She was one of the toughest and most gracious people in Hollywood. I find myself crushing on her when I watch her older films. And I agree with you about her lasting beauty. I still loved her smile up onto the end.
I think Joan was prettier
Boy, for people that hate each other they took a lot of photos together.
Notice that the photos were taken together when they were younger women, very few, if any exist from beyond their sixtieth birthdays.
They also said the rivalry was somewhat a publicity stunt as two pretty sisters who like each other isn’t much of a story
@@Skurwysyna some of it started as a publicity stunt until each sister kept bashing the other in the media. Once their mother died, long after their careers had peaked and faded, they reportedly seldom spoke afterwards as they did not agree on the type of medical care their mother should receive.
@@travelseatsyellowlab no doubt that many of their quarrels were real as between siblings will always be the case, I wasn’t refuting that.
What kept me watching this video was not the Hollywood-plotted-feud but the beauty of Olivia &-the absolutely GORGEOUS fashion & hair worn at the time!!!!! My dear lord... what have becomes of us???? 😰😰😰
I don’t think anything’s “become of us” the entire 20th century fashion, architecture, style and film is a major special interest of mine, with an emphasis on 30’s and 40’s styles. I am also someone who deals w fibromyalgia (and/or possibly EDS) among other things and if I had the energy I’d most certainly look like I stepped out of a film from 1944 but the truth is I don’t. If I tried I’d be laid out for a week just doing the hairstyles (which I know how to do) in short, I don’t think it’s bad that we don’t dress like this all the time anymore bc it applies way too much pressure (especially to women) and isn’t necessarily efficient or convenient and it would add more shame onto people dealing w disability. Do I wish I could snap my fingers and have my roller set done and garters on etc etc absolutely yes I do but unfortunately that’s not how it works and I must work w what I’ve got which means I’m dressed in jeans/leggings and a tee most times when I go out bc that’s what I can manage
@Mystic Heather Well, Whoopi, do for you! The comment you bashed meant that people are LAZY in today's society. It has nothing to do with your illness.
If you really take a good look at history, you'd understand people change, and over the years, the fashion does as well. I find it amazing, don't you that today's world is a mess, JUST LIKE THE CLOTHING!
Yes! I agree, and l for one believe that fashion and discipline rather went hand in hand. Think of it. You feel much better about yourself when dressed up, yes? Your self-esteem is there!
But today, everyone dresses like a slob! They have forgotten about self-esteem and being able to be happy!
The clothing is a mess, just like our world!
@@MysticHeather but I have seen some women sporting that look from the 40s and early 50s... a few of them have channels but I can't remember their names .
And I think it's a very attractive , feminine look but not everybody can do it all the time but I'm not talkin so much the clothing but the hair and the makeup which was so feminine and kind of wholesome looking yet also glamorous and international .
I was looking at a short vid some guy saw a young lady who had the late 1940s / early 1950s hair and makeup , with a really nice dress and it was wonderful to see that .
@@MysticHeather Anyway I can relate to your lack of energy due to health problems because I have Lupus and I know what you mean .
And if you don't have either cancer , heart disease , or diabetes , a lot of people just don't understand and don't care .
I understand how you feel believe me
Mom was a narcissist.
I had an older brother and my mom preferred him over me. He and I never got along and were estranged when he died. I think parents are in control and they ise it to their advantage. Good video
Sad
So true. I have a sibling whom I don't speak, unless we bump into each other when I'm home. That sibling is the favorite of my dad, which some things my dad has done, drove the wedge between us.
Só you were jealous about that. Your parents are not in control when you are an adult. You and your brother were strange not because your mother but because both of you.
In our childhood my mom always preferred my docile sister. I learned not to care about what my abusive and narcissistic mother thinks while my sister is extremely attached to her. When I met my husband my mother suddenly was a lot nicer to me because he has a more prestigious career than my sister's boyfriend, it is very hard on my sister. My mother made sure we're both so mentally broken we can't have careers ourselves, we barely survive and keep having suicidal thoughts, both of us.
It is truly tragic that the sisters were never able to reconcile their differences and bury the hatchet. Can you image the pair of them doing "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" or "Johnny Guitar." The tension on set and onscreen would have been thermonuclear!
Another famous rivalry... but this time with 2 siblings ! Interesting. Joan revealed in an interview that she believes that this feud started because she wasn’t properly introduced to her sister. Baby girl Olivia was probably already like ; " Who is that ?! She’s going to steal the show ! ". 😠😬 And the mother certainly projected mostly her hopes of an acting career for her older one : Olivia. Joan might felt a bit in the shadow of her older sister but little sister Fontaine was very ambitious too ! ( She allegedly had an iq of 160.) And she achieved everything Olivia wanted BEFORE her, even if she started a bit later than her famous older sister, and fontaine snubbed her at the academy awards ceremony when olivia congratulated her for her oscar , like to take revenge because she always felt in her chilhood that Olivia was the favourite... When Joan got the acclaim first, it probably created a bit of jealousy on Olivia's side but when De Havilland finally won the oscar 5 years after her sister. She snubbed her back, and was acting like Mariah carey before Mariah carey allegedly saying : " I don’t know her ! " . On a site note. Olivia de Havilland admitted being scare to death of Bette Davis while they worked together on a film. Davis, indeed could be intimidating, just like marlon brando. Mainly of french descent De Havilland found a second home in France back in the 60’s and lived mostly in Paris until her death in July 2020 at age 104. Rip to the feud sisters.
@Amanda M Yes that's one big legendary feud I know ! 😄
From Joan Fontaine's biography: When her first movie was released - the billboard had her name as "Joanna Fontana". Love that!
Haha both names wrong
I love Joan 🖤
Well that's really horrible and I wonder if that was done on purpose
@@gardensofthegods I really don't think it was done on purpose. Joan Fontaine was totally unknown when her first movie came out. Even Joan (according to her autobiography) had a chuckle about it. She and her mother had driven by the theater before the movie opened just to see her name on the billboard. I'm sure she had them correct it before the movie opened.
Two sisters two great actresses. Both sisters starred in great movies. My favorite was Olivia de Havilland. My favorite movie with her is To Each His Own. I teared up when I saw it the first time and each time it comes on I will watch it. I'm glad we had the two sisters for we benefited from it with their great movies that they left us. ♥️
Sadly I find this confusing. It would be better if all the incidents were reported in chronological order.
I’m a big fan of both. 😊
Both were great actresses.
But I always liked Joan better, she was much kinder and the more interesting human beeing.
Also loved Olivia in “Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte”! I think it was a good choice for Bette Davis too. It was something different than the usual Davis and Crawford team. 👍🎥
They were both amazingly beautiful and talented actresses
They both were Beautiful. Shame on the Mother for helping her girls feud.
I like this channel by extension the Hollywood golden era.🤩
The snakepit is one Olivia de havilland's great works.
Wow this is a pretty horrendous sibling rivalry.😑 Sad.
It's a sad tale, life is hard enough, to be feuding as a child is one thing, but to carry that baggage the rest of your life...what a shame and waste...ah the human condition!!!😬
I agree. It seems that Hollywood is such a competitive and possibly cut-throat place, it is a real shame that they weren't closer and able to support each other.
Love this. Just found your channel. Ecstatic.
Just found you and subscribed!! Awesome channel!!
Thank you for your channel 👧💟
Loved the colour photos.
Thank you.
I was born 14 months after my oldest brother and was terribly competitive with him all through childhood. Fortunately grew out of it. I blame my mother for having us too close together (come to think of it, I should blame my dad).
Well she could not have you at all that would have solved the problem
@@stephaniefox896 That would have been fine.
@@VintageVera you need therapy
That sure is a lot of talent, beauty and success for two sisters from the same family. In an imperfect way, it reminds me of Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty.
Olivia was beautiful.
She will always be Melanie Hamilton to me❤️❤️❤️
They both had a place in Hollywood but sad together they could have been even better , and they both lived such long lives , i hope somewhere they had love for each other
There’s that annoying music again. The biographies of Frances Farmer & Olivia DeHaviland are interesting are engrossing enough without being battered with the mediocre jazz.
Both were great actresses in their own right
My love for Olivia is great,The most beautiful woman that ever lived in my opinion.
I like what you're doing, but the storytelling needs a lot of editing. I've watched quite a few videos and in all of them you often repeat the same thing over and over, sometimes even in sentences that directly follow one another which just makes it appear that you've copied several different texts rather than writing your own. E.g
In the introduction only the fact that de Havilland and Fontaine were lifelong rivals has been repeated several times which just starts sounding redundand. Also there are always multiple different titles for each video that are just no needed. Some edited storytelling/rhethoric skills and pictures that match the current subject rather than just going at random and these videos would have a whole new quality 👍
You are NOT the only one that has noticed the repetition of information within the same video. Also, in the Clark Gable vs Vivian Leigh video, he states GWTW won 8 Oscars and than in this video he correctly claims 10 Oscars, so recycling information inaccurately. It’s puzzling, perhaps there is more than one person creating the content.
They shared the de Havilland surname. Fontaine was derived from their stepfather as Joan's stage name so Joan wouldn't infringe on her sister's initial successes. Joan, however, maintained her legal surname after her fourth and final divorce, until she died.
I recently subscribed to your channel and love ❤️ it! So entertaining and educational. 👍
Both beautiful and talented in their own right.. two successful siblings in the same career field is a wonderful thing..hope they reconciled with each other as sisters before they each died..
According to several documentaries I've seemed appears that they did not reconcile in the end
Olivia and Joan both beautiful in their own way, but Olivia had a little extra something. Sisters, all it takes is one to start crap, you get tired of it, then the other starts, but you can never forget the blood tie.
That little extra something was spite, served with a smile. If you look at Olivia's smile, it rarely looks sincere....
Joan was the more genuine, forthright, warm and open of the two de Havilland sisters. Olivia was affected and manufactured in nearly everything she did, it seems.
@@dabeage I always loved Olivia de Havilland but after couple documentaries did wonder if she was a bit of a phony .
Sounds exactly like me and my sister! 😂🤣
I thought Olivia gave a magnificent performance in The Heiress but I always preferred Joan's sweet fragility in Rebecca and Suspicion.
Joan Fontaine with Orson Wells in Jane Eyre is top 10 best movies of all time💖
Joan was a more versatile n better actress.
No mention of Joan Fountain in the title!
*Fontaine
Olivia de Havilland was a great actress. She pretended not to be the most beautiful woman in Gone With The Wind. I saw the beautiful actress in an interview that she did later in her career, She had a really long forehead, It didn't detract from her looks. I find it charming.
Two beautiful and talented women. Olivia, was every bit as beautiful, as as Vivien Leigh, to me. Blood, should have been thicker than water. I think, they missed out on a
Lot, not being in each other's lives. It's sad, really.
they have finally found peace in their life people need to know that there are things that can't be undone or fixed
Gone With the Wind wasn't an MGM picture. It was produced by Selznick International. MGM merely released it.
Well actually in everything except the Selznick production credit, it WAS an MGM picture. It was filmed completely at MGM studios, using all MGM employees, contract players, technicians, directors and stars ( except for Olivia who was on loan out from Warner's).
@@ladywisewolf3942 No, Selznick International had its own facilities down the street from MGM in Culver City where most of exteriors and all of the interiors were filmed. The main contribution from MGM (besides some of its talent) was money and that didn't even cover all of Selznick's expenses (he had to get a loan from Bank of America to finish the picture).
I love them both!!!!❤❤
How could they say it was blown out of proportion while at the same time owning up to all the terrible offenses? Also earlier it was said that Joan signed with her studio before Olivia. Later it was said that Joan came back to find that Olivia was already with her studio. Which is correct?
Great content, but do you have to repeatedly flash the subscribe button on the screen? Distracting and annoying.
Great actress sisters
Olivia wasn't sad when Joan died, she and Joan's daughter had spoken and planned what they would say in case the press called, so they prepared the statement to give the media.
Too bad that neither could swallow their pride and try to get along.
Mothers mothers mothers to have a great mother is surely a great thing
The sisters should have loved and supported one another.
They were pinned against eachother by parents first, then by Hollywood. Didn't had much chance to overcome it. My Sister and I were the same but as we grew up we became wiser. Of course, we weren't soiled either, and we had to stuggle on our own, so this made us become more mature. Besides, our parents were more encouraging to get along, my Mother and her Sister were very very close, but me and mine were different
What do you mean “...the sister didn’t speak to each other until Fontaine’s death”?
Two beautiful sisters. Olivia with her gorgeous eyes will always be Melanie Hamilton to me. No one really knows if it was a feud or a great publicity stunt which seemed to be the "thing" in the Hollywood hay days.
It certainly sounds like a lot of it was real especially as they got older
Gorgeous Family 💗
Makes no sense holding onto something like that boggles the mind. Sisters doesn’t apply here.
De havilland my favorite.
Hmm, I never found the character of "Melanie" in "Gone With the Wind", as particularly "brainless";as quoted in the video. Just avidly innocent.
Whatever Happened To Baby Joan?
Can you imagine Joan and Olivia as the Hudson sisters? I have adored both stars, their great talent, for many years.
MELANIE and the second MRS DEWINTER.
They were both lovely. It was probably publicity and studio driven.
Divas, both!
Olivia died only last year at a hundred and four
As much as I loved and adored one sister, I disliked the other.
I watched, The Heiress, a few weeks ago! Love that movie!!
I get it, sadly.😞
Part of me wants to hate the mother like everybody else, but the woman managed to have two daughters that we're extremely successful. Maybe she succeeded in her game plan, and gave them two amazing outcomes. I sort of feel like it's on them if they missed out on being close.
There must be more to it than this
Olivia de Havilland w as in the pilot episode of The big Valley, she had no lines. I've always been shocked by that
Too many requests to subscribe
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I loved her in The screaming woman
Something wrong with there mother !☹️
Visually, you could tell they were sisters. Looking at side-by-side images of them, they look almost the same.
I think that's why their mother had Joan to use a stage name. To have two de Havillands in Hollywood, similar in many ways, could've been a hindrance to both women's careers.
@@travelseatsyellowlab Probably. I just saw an interview from the 1980's where Joan said when their mother remarried Joan decided to take the last name of their step-father...which was Fontaine. DeHavilland was the the last name of their biological father.
@@TaDarling1 Joan was never legally a Fontaine. Aside from changing her legal name over the course of four marriages, Joan's legal surname was de Havilland until the end of her life.
@@TaDarling1 The family did not think that Joan wanted a serious career in pictures and would flop under the de Havilland brand, so this why Lilian Ruse de Havilland Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland wanted a stage name for Joan so she wouldn't take down Olivia in the event that Joan failed.
@@travelseatsyellowlab Duly noted but I was only referring to her use of Fontaine as a 'stage name' (not a legal name) based upon what I heard Joan herself say in her 1980 television interview about her career.
Xthey where related to jeffrey de Havilland the aircraft pioneer i believe. I live near where the old croydon airport was. Now a housing estate called roundshaw. There is de Havilland way. Both good actress.
The chronology here is all screwed up. They never spoke again after their mother died in 1975. But they did speak again in 1967. Joan died and the two did talk after that... (?!) And THEN, Olivia starred as Melanie in Gone With the Wind in 1939...
It's all part of Hollywood. I always loved Joan!
They despised each other for no particular reason, sad. Uk
wasn't it over Errol Flynn?
Both sisters were fine actresses but Joan was in more movies that are now recognized as classics (Gunga Din, The Women, Rebecca, Suspicion, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Jane Eyre, Ivanhoe,…) just to name a few
If you want to see a really interesting film of Joan's, check out "The Constant Nymph" with Charlie Boyer and Alexis Smith. Joan plays a young teen, tragically in love with Boyer's character.
There are many Judas unfortunately traveling among us. She said she studies people like you-who’s studying her😡?
She was my favorite after actress. RIP
Olivia lived to 104 wow
olivia was prettier
interesting Joan's best friend was Joan Crawford and Oliva's was Bette Davis. Crawford and Devis hated each other as the 2 sisters
Uh, regardless of the video, Joan's best friend was most definitely NOT Crawford. They barely knew each other, though did make The Women together of course
@@bkynbiker19 i ve seen a pic if them together i think of late 60 s. They looked friends. Do you know if fontane or olivia ever talked about crawford or mommie dearest
People our complicated they were jealous of each other
Family...😏😏
I remember her interview on TV in the UK where she mentioned the visit to the US by her cousin Geoffrey, designer of the 'Wooden Wonder' the Mosquito aircraft in WWII and that when she took him around the film lot where she was working she enthused that he was seen as the 'film star' of the moment by all around him.
Like your show, my generation. The background music is awfully annoying,
You left out the affairs and the main cause of the feud. Also, wasn't Olivia kicked out of the house at the age of 17.
No, Joan was the one kicked out of The house. Olivia remain ed the favorite child, always.
@@marishkaspirit In another documentary about the life of Olivia de Havilland ... that is over 52 minutes long ; it goes into detail about how the stepfather Fontaine tried to stop Olivia from her extracurricular activities and FORBID her from them and told her to choose .
She ended up moving in with friends .
It's to bad that these sisters d isn't get along because of their mother. My mom had 6 of us but my 2nd to the oldest sister died at birth. My mother always chose my oldest sister over us. But we did get along even though we knew it was favoritism for my sister. I was the black sheep in my family. I was the second to the last in my family
Read Fontayne's book. It shows her as petty, disagreeable, vindictive. Joan may have had difficulty with loving relationships and made every wrong she committed someone else's fault. Her sister was an easy target for her blaming and criticism.
Lilian de Havilland Fontaine was completely at fault for the poor relationships between her children. Over the years she would constantly switch her affection from one child to the other, she had also left the children's father before the girls were even in grade school. Olivia was not a lot better than her sister where relationships were concerned, a dynamic established by their parents and stepfather.
Joan was always putting down Olivia in public. That is narcissistic. She was in Japan when Olivia was invited to Hollywood movies,. But immediately copied Olivia as soon as she found out about her movie contract. I wouldn't have wanted that kind of hounding by a sibling. What a downer.
@@lindapierce5299 Olivia was not a lot better than Joan where public disses were concerned. Olivia's taunting her sister, embarrassing her in public, started when they were just schoolgirls. Once Joan started fighting back, Olivia could not handle it and resorted to passive aggressive means of retaliating against the younger sister. Their mother trained the girls for careers in show biz, and Joan did everything she could to distance herself from Olivia career wise, going so far as allowing Olivia use of the family name without interference.
@@lindapierce5299 what you have mentioned is how joan fought back but whatever it is a funny story of two unmature driven only by their ego sisters. i kinda have the same story which is why i can understand how stupid they are but at the same time it was their only choice i mean i can speak for joan it was either her sister or herself existence herself respect i mean could she let that precious monster continue his lovely lucky life while her life purpose kept on living under her while she's better , so she did fight back and she won but did that was actually her life purpose? did joan actually wanted to be an actress? i mean she was damn smart i heard she had a high IQ but the funny thing is wasting her intelligence on revenge and here the funny result goes an older sister who didn't find peace on her career and forced to face her action's consequences and another who didn't even find a life and continued as a shadow
@@ztrdyydjfufyfud4895 why are you saying that Joan didn't find a life and continued as a shadow ?
I'm just wondering if that was in Joan Fontaine's autobiography ?
Joan made some of my favorite movies.
I THINK OLIVA WAS A MUCH BETTER ACTRESS.
They were both great.
Can we please stop blaming the mother? These extraordinarily talented women made their own choices, and they chose not to get along with each other.
Joan was a superior actress and beauty and seemed to be more level-headed.
She's the de Havilland who actually fought and struggled to earn her career, so her experiences were much more humbling than those of her sister who had it really easy getting into Hollywood.
Their parents' marriage happened because of a flipping of a coin, the then Miss Ruse lost. She married Mr. De Havilland as a result.
With the marriage already on shaky ground, Mrs. De Havilland became pregnant with Olivia. This already upset her because it meant deferring an acting career for being a wife and mother.
Less than six months after delivering her first child, Mrs. De Havilland, disillusioned in her marriage, conceived for the second time. Giving birth to a second child she hadn't planned for in a foundering marriage, delivered a second girl, adding insult to injury in a society that valued sons over daughters.
Upon leaving Japan for a climate better suited for their children, Mr. & Mrs. De Havilland landed in California's Bay Area, in what was to be a stop en route to their native England, where the family planned to settle. Because of Joan's continued illness, the de Havilland family remained in California, with Mr. De Havilland abandoning his wife and children to return to Japan with his mistress. It took another six years before Mrs. De Havilland to obtain a divorce. She couldn't process her paperwork for the divorce without traveling back to Japan. For a woman who felt she sacrificed a lot to marry and start a family, unfortunately it's easy to see why she would be resentful of Joan.
thanks for explaining her POV
Yeah but still how could she blame an innocent ?
@gardensofthegods Psychologically, it's easy for Mrs. De Havilland to have been upset having started her marriage on shaky grounds, then becoming pregnant twice in rapid succession. She had been professionally trained in voice and acting and had wanted a career. Marrying Walter De Havilland changed all of that. Then having two children barely a year apart meant that her aspirations grew more unrealistic.
Lilian De Havilland pushed her daughters to succeed but her second husband didn't want them acting, though all of her training geared them for showbiz. This proved problematic once Joan decided to join Olivia in the business, with Lilian Fontaine forcing Joan to take a stage name. Lilian and Olivia wanted Joan tucked away quietly into marriage and domesticity. When Joan eclipsed Olivia in the earlier days of their career, Mrs. Fontaine, jealous and resentful, openly showed her disdain for Joan, who was aided by George Fontaine, Joan's business-savvy stepfather.
Joan was making financially sound investments at her stepfather's direction that were bringing her wealth quite early in her life and career. She was making one to two pictures a year after the Oscar win, living more leisurely, with Olivia making picture after picture, working continuously. Olivia was envious, as was Lilian. In Lilian and Olivia's minds, Olivia was supposed to see the first successes. Joan married first, won the Oscar first, had a child first, and died first, despite being Lilian's youngest child. The rules of primogeniture typically held forth in their world, which Joan consistently defied.
At the end of Lilian's life, ironically, it was Joan who financially supported her mother. It was a huge twist of fate considering how little faith Mrs. Fontaine had in her daughter, a child she probably had hoped would be born male, becoming a high-achieving man.