By Meaghan Walsh Gerard
“You know, I’ve had a helluva life. Not just the acting part. I’ve flown in an international balloon race. I’ve piloted my own plane. I’ve ridden to the hounds. I’ve done a lot of exciting things.”
Born in Tokyo to British parents, Joan Fontaine moved with her mother and elder sister Olivia to California when she was very young. She returned to Japan for school as a teen, living with her Cambridge-educated English professor-turned-patent attorney father. Her cousin, Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, designed the Mosquito, a World War II combat aircraft. It was perhaps preordained that Joan Fontaine would become an adventurer and ethereal film star.
In 1935, she made both her stage and film debuts, but it was the audiences that saw her on the screen that would truly take to her unassuming looks. After bit parts and unnamed roles in films for RKO, Fontaine was directed by George Cukor in The Women (1939). Her part was again relatively small, but the comedy was a huge hit and put her on screen with some of the biggest names in Hollywood at the time. It also gained her entry into the most important parties.
On working with director George Cukor on The Women, she said: “I learned about acting from George more than anyone else and through just one sentence. He said, ‘Think and feel and the rest will take care of itself.’”
While at a dinner at Charlie Chaplin’s house, she mentioned to the man seated next to her that she was reading Daphne du Maurier’s latest novel. The man was David O. Selznick and the book was Rebecca; Selznick and Hitchcock later told tabloid magazines that the two of them spotted Fontaine across the room and picked her as the lead themselves).
Either way, Fontaine endured several screen tests over many months before finally being cast in the lead as the second Mrs. de Winter. Gossip has it that her big sister Olivia de Havilland wanted the part, even though she was already committed to another Selznick picture, Gone With the Wind. Fontaine’s co-star Laurence Olivier was holding out for his wife Vivien Leigh to be cast, but she too was on the set of the Civil War epic.
“I made about seven tests for Rebecca…. Supposedly, [Alfred Hitchcock] saw one of my tests and said, ‘This is the only one.’ I think the word he used to describe what set me apart was ‘vulnerability.’ Also, I was not very well-known and producer David O. Selznick saw the chance for star-budding. And may I say he also saw the chance to put me under contract for serf’s wages.”
When it was released in 1940, Rebecca was Hitchcock’s first American production and the only one that would earn him an Oscar nomination for Best Director (the movie did take home the Academy Award for Best Picture).
Fontaine was also nominated for her delicate portrayal of a shy, mousey woman terrorized by the overbearing spectre of her husband’s first wife. Dressed plainly for most of the film, Fontaine is made to look diminutive by oversized doorways, hovering house staff, and unwelcome guests. Fontaine embraced the pressure of working with Hitchcock in a leading role, and imbued it into her character. As the new Mrs. de Winter, beaten down but never defeated, she persistently chips away at the overconfidence of others and finds the truth.
Though the Hays Code prevented Hitchcock from including some of the book’s original character and plot details, Rebecca is highly successful both as an entertainment piece and a lasting classic film.
“I have preferred to shun what is known as feminine wiles, the subterfuge of subtlety, reliance on tears and coquetry to shape my way. I am forthright, often blunt.”
Fresh from their success with Rebecca, Fontaine and Hitchcock teamed up again on Suspicion. She portrays a wealthy but naïve young woman, swept off her feet by the charming Cary Grant. Not long after they marry, she discovers that he is a gambler and not a very good one. He is constantly pawning items and buying them back when he wins a horse race. The lies and the deceptions escalate until she becomes convinced that her husband is planning to murder her for her life insurance payout. The clues all seem to point toward her becoming a victim of his dastardly plan.
Yet, even as she convinces herself of it, she is hesitant to act on her suspicions. She wavers between certainty and trepidation—a character trait Fontaine played often in her early films. The combination was effective and Fontaine won the Oscar for Best Actress with this performance—it would remain the sole Oscar-winning performance for a Hitchcock film.
On working with Orson Welles on Jane Eyre (1943), she said: “You cannot battle an elephant. Orson was such a big man in every way that no one could stand up to him. Approaching us, he proclaimed, ‘All right, everybody turn to page eight.’ And we did it, though he was not the director.”
Having just completed his masterpieces Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, Orson Welles tackled the perennial classic novel of Jane Eyre. He played the brooding Edward Rochester in this atmospheric forties film.
The now-popular Fontaine again tapped into the meek but determined personality she was so adept at playing. Indeed, Rebecca was a modern day take on the Jane Eyre story (and, really, they’re both a version of Beauty and the Beast). Fontaine manages to deftly tread the line between helpless and heroine. She displays Jane’s qualities of patience and forbearance along with her independence and confidence in equal measure.
“I hope I'll die on stage at the age at 105, playing Peter Pan.”
Fontaine remained a respected star throughout her career. She became a regular on television shows from Alfred Hitchcock Presents to The General Electric Theatre, interspersed with well-received stage roles. Her final theatrical film was the Hammer horror production The Witches in 1966. Fontaine died at the age of 96 in 2013.
Meaghan Walsh Gerard has been writing about films (especially classic ones) and books (especially gothic ones) for more than ten years on her site. She is obsessed with the art of storytelling and holds a master’s degree in cinema studies. Meaghan has been a DVD Netflix member since 2003. Follow Meaghan at mwgerard.com, on Twitter @mwgerard, or Facebook and Instagram.